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From The Editor In Chief
It
wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that in India there are as many godmen
as gods. And among the most famous in that pantheon is undoubtedly the
Sathya Sai Baba, who presides over an empire of faith of an estimated
25 million devotees spread across 165 countries. This is run from Puttaparthi,
a quiet township of 20,000 in Andhra Pradesh, the source of tales of Baba
curing the sick, materialising gold watches out of thin air, and his portraits
spewing "sacred" ash, or vibhuti.
But even
the most venerated people have critics, and Baba has been accused of being
a magician and worse. As devotees gathered in Puttaparthi last week to
celebrate his 75th birthday, it seemed appropriate to take a closer look
at this intriguing godman who has many parts to his life, some admirable
and others somewhat unsavoury. There is little doubt that he has done
a great deal of social work, building schools, universities, hospitals
and providing water to an entire district-more than most politicians have
done in a lifetime. Unfortunately, all this is being sullied by accusations
of sexual abuse of disciples, which gathered momentum after a major British
newspaper recently published some accounts. The silence of the Sai institution
has only added to the speculation.
We put together
a team to track the developments, the subject of our cover story this
time. For weeks preceding the anniversary, Associate Editor Amarnath K.
Menon, Senior Assistant Editor Ashok Malik and Special Correspondent Vijay
Jung Thapa, along with our contributors in Europe and North America, interviewed
scores of people about the phenomenon-and its darker side. Menon and Malik
travelled to Puttaparthi with Principal Photographer Bandeep Singh for
the sights and sounds from Baba's heartland during the celebrations. Says
Malik: "It was an impressive display of his drawing power, with 2.5
lakh devotees, including leading politicians, industrialists and bureaucrats
present." Obviously, power and religion make a heady mix.
(Aroon
Purie)
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Orthodoxy in economic thought is as odious as obscurantism in the socio-religious context. INDIA TODAY Associate Editor, V Shankar Aiyar, offers a contrarian take on the stock markets and the cause and the impact of policy and practice. 
