Word: mokhimpur
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...last week, two local Moslem farmers passing through Mokhimpur were seized by villagers and beaten with sticks until, weak and bleeding at the feet of the sadhu, they consented to cry, "All Hail to the Hindu God Ramachandra." Released at last, they staggered away and called the police. Next day, five policemen on bicycles and an officer on horseback rode into Mokhimpur to interrupt a scene of nightmare revelry. The men dressed only in loin cloths, the women with their saris tucked up high above their knees, the Baghbhans were doing a wild dance around their sadhu, who himself...
...villagers of Mokhimpur in Uttar Pradesh were nobodies. Spurned by their neighbors because their subcaste was regarded as backward and ignorant, the Baghbhans of Mokhimpur had little to sustain them but their faith in the Hindus' God of Preservation, Vishnu. Some day-the Baghbhans have told each other for generations-Vishnu himself, in his reincarnation as Lord Ramachandra. would turn up in their village in the guise of a sadhu, or holy man, and from then on. all would be well. This faith has long made their village a favorite target for the hordes of self-appointed holy...
...godly sadhu could be generous with his favors, he could also be terrible in vengeance. When one old villager dared doubt his authenticity. Raghubaranand simply ordered the man's own family to drive him out of the village. The ugly job done, the villagers of Mokhimpur returned to the pleasanter task of dancing and reveling in the company of their resident...
...news of the slaughter reached the district headquarters some 40 miles away. Police Chief Prakash Chander Mull rounded up his deputies, 250 well-armed cops, and a magistrate (the only official with authority to give the order to fire on a crowd), loaded them into trucks and headed for Mokhimpur. Taking cover in the cane fields, they fixed bayonets and prepared to charge the still-singing villagers. Suddenly the dancing stopped, a shot rang out from the village, the police answered with another, and Sadhu Raghubaranand fell to the ground, his shoulder grazed. Frightened and screaming, the villagers scattered. Some...
...peace," he said. "I am the reincarnation of the Lord Ramachandra, and I am here to create a new way of life." Police records bore no evidence of this one way or another, but they did show that up to three years ago, the self-appointed god of Mokhimpur had been a messenger boy in the Uttar Pradesh Department of Public Works who had been fired for misbehavior...
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