On Sunday mornings in Mumbai, on a narrow strip of grass bordering Bandra’s famous Bandstand promenade, a small group of people perform patient, rhythmic stretches of their arms and bodies, accompanied by droning music. Next to them, a banner flutters in the ocean breeze: ‘Falun Dafa, Exercise and Meditation Practice for the Mind and Body’.
Falun Dafa is better-known by the name used by most international media sources when it was banned by the Chinese government 15 years ago – Falun Gong.
There are about a hundred Falun Dafa adherents scattered across India, a far cry from the millions that are believed to follow the teachings of Li Hongzhi, who established the practice in China 1992. Li created a variation of qigong, a collection of ancient meditation and breathing techniques already prominent in China. While qigong is often used for alternative medical treatment and for martial-arts training, Falun Gong sought to add spiritual meaning to the practice by espousing the principles of truth, compassion and tolerance.
But in 1999, the Chinese government banned the group overnight after 10,000 Falun Dafa followers gathered outside the Communist Party headquarters to protest against what they perceived as unjust persecution. It was the largest protest gathering since the famous massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Chinese authorities dismiss the organisation as a cult, saying on the website of its embassy in the US that Li has been “seriously disrupting social order and sabotaging the hard-earned social stability of China”. But the testimony of practitioners in Mumbai reveals a more wholesome picture.
“I tried doing yoga and tai-chi for several years,” said Suren Rao, who said he is the city’s longest-practicing member. “But I realised that the pressures of my everyday life returned after doing asanas and so on. Falun Dafa helped me to dissolve those worries.”
There are rarely more than five or six people at each Mumbai session, but they’re a dedicated lot, gathering by 7 am every week. Rao brings the banner and a sheaf of pamphlets for passers-by to pick up. Rajeev Kumar drives down from Byculla, 45 minutes away in South Mumbai, for this session. He says that Falun Dafa has helped cure him of his high blood pressure.
The organisation also has followers in Bangalore, where Sanjiv Bhalla, a freelance IT professional in Bangalore, began Falun Dafa six years ago. He is among Falun Dafa's most enthusiastic evangelists. He and a group of 16 others regularly go to schools and corporate offices to introduce them to Li’s teachings. Some schools have even incorporated Falun Dafa into their daily schedules and students and teachers spend 30 minutes each day reading the texts and doing exercises together.
Falun Dafa arrived in India in 2000, later than in many other countries, taking a somewhat circuitous route. A group of international activists called on the Vajpayee government to take cognizance of the Communist Party atrocities against Falun Dafa. They also held a few Falun Dafa meetings while in the country. Rao was one of those present.
Rao is also among the more earnest. Apart from the weekly sessions, he prints pamphlets and arranges for newspaper vendors to deliver them with the morning's papers. He was also among the many Falun Dafa practitioners in India who wrote to the Communist Party of India, asking them what their opinion was on the Chinese government’s persecution of the group. The CPI did not reply.
India’s embrace of Falun Dafa has not been as warm as other countries. Falun Dafa requires that its followers practice no other religious ritual at all, saying this will counter the desired effects. India remains a deeply religious country, with an abundance of rituals, superstitions and cults, and this has perhaps precluded the spread of the practice.
“China was, like India, very spiritual for 5,000 years, but when the Communist Party came into power they swept out all that was spiritual in society,” said Bhalla on the phone from Bangalore. “So when something spiritual like Falun Dafa came, it filled a vacuum. At some level people were longing for it. This is not the case in India.”
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Falun Dafa is better-known by the name used by most international media sources when it was banned by the Chinese government 15 years ago – Falun Gong.
There are about a hundred Falun Dafa adherents scattered across India, a far cry from the millions that are believed to follow the teachings of Li Hongzhi, who established the practice in China 1992. Li created a variation of qigong, a collection of ancient meditation and breathing techniques already prominent in China. While qigong is often used for alternative medical treatment and for martial-arts training, Falun Gong sought to add spiritual meaning to the practice by espousing the principles of truth, compassion and tolerance.
But in 1999, the Chinese government banned the group overnight after 10,000 Falun Dafa followers gathered outside the Communist Party headquarters to protest against what they perceived as unjust persecution. It was the largest protest gathering since the famous massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Chinese authorities dismiss the organisation as a cult, saying on the website of its embassy in the US that Li has been “seriously disrupting social order and sabotaging the hard-earned social stability of China”. But the testimony of practitioners in Mumbai reveals a more wholesome picture.
“I tried doing yoga and tai-chi for several years,” said Suren Rao, who said he is the city’s longest-practicing member. “But I realised that the pressures of my everyday life returned after doing asanas and so on. Falun Dafa helped me to dissolve those worries.”
There are rarely more than five or six people at each Mumbai session, but they’re a dedicated lot, gathering by 7 am every week. Rao brings the banner and a sheaf of pamphlets for passers-by to pick up. Rajeev Kumar drives down from Byculla, 45 minutes away in South Mumbai, for this session. He says that Falun Dafa has helped cure him of his high blood pressure.
The organisation also has followers in Bangalore, where Sanjiv Bhalla, a freelance IT professional in Bangalore, began Falun Dafa six years ago. He is among Falun Dafa's most enthusiastic evangelists. He and a group of 16 others regularly go to schools and corporate offices to introduce them to Li’s teachings. Some schools have even incorporated Falun Dafa into their daily schedules and students and teachers spend 30 minutes each day reading the texts and doing exercises together.
Falun Dafa arrived in India in 2000, later than in many other countries, taking a somewhat circuitous route. A group of international activists called on the Vajpayee government to take cognizance of the Communist Party atrocities against Falun Dafa. They also held a few Falun Dafa meetings while in the country. Rao was one of those present.
Rao is also among the more earnest. Apart from the weekly sessions, he prints pamphlets and arranges for newspaper vendors to deliver them with the morning's papers. He was also among the many Falun Dafa practitioners in India who wrote to the Communist Party of India, asking them what their opinion was on the Chinese government’s persecution of the group. The CPI did not reply.
India’s embrace of Falun Dafa has not been as warm as other countries. Falun Dafa requires that its followers practice no other religious ritual at all, saying this will counter the desired effects. India remains a deeply religious country, with an abundance of rituals, superstitions and cults, and this has perhaps precluded the spread of the practice.
“China was, like India, very spiritual for 5,000 years, but when the Communist Party came into power they swept out all that was spiritual in society,” said Bhalla on the phone from Bangalore. “So when something spiritual like Falun Dafa came, it filled a vacuum. At some level people were longing for it. This is not the case in India.”