The Gujarat-based Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) ran into controversy in Paris after the Eiffel Tower was closed on Monday (September 7) following a staff protest over allegations that women employees were asked to step away from their posts during a visit by the sect’s delegation on Saturday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the opening of BAPS’ first major temple in Paris on September 6 as a “new milestone in the cultural relations between India and France”, in a virtual address during the inauguration.

A grand Nagar Yatra, a three-hour-long cultural procession in central Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the backdrop, preceded the temple’s opening on Saturday. According to a statement from the organisation, nearly 6,000 participants from 42 countries attended the event.

After the staff union at the Eiffel said the women felt “humiliated”, BAPS in Paris issued an apology.

Roots of the celibacy practice

According to the book Swaminarayan Hinduism, edited by academics Raymond Brady Williams and Yogi Trivedi, the “enforcement of strict separation of men and women, especially during temple worship”, is described as one of the “distinctive features of Swaminarayan Hinduism”.

“These practices are followed differently by various orders and they are a part of the monk’s personal spiritual journey. They are not meant to inconvenience or be imposed upon society, at least in practice”, Trivedi, a New York-based scholar of religion, told on Tuesday.

He adds that within the Swaminarayan sampraday (sect), only the swamis practice celibacy. The rest of the community is fully integrated with changing social norms and customs. “The community has also historically been known for practising the universal Hindu values of bhakti, seva and equality. In fact, Shri Swaminarayan and his community were known to advocate for women’s equality and rights in Gujarat and India,” he said.

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According to his research, “more than 50% of the fellowship is comprised of women devotees”.

“Now there may be situations in which certain individuals may inadvertently feel hurt or offended while trying to accommodate these practices. And this is the risk when sadhus move about in society. As far as I have seen, that is certainly not the intent of their personal vows,” Trivedi said.

Referring to the specific instance of the Eiffel Tower protest, Trivedi said, “I find it truly astonishing that these are the allegations against the community, for they have been known for actively promoting caste, gender and class equality through its humanitarian and social activities”.

Influence across countries

BAPS has built 1300 temples worldwide, including 14 major temples abroad. Of these the Akshardham temple complexes in Gandhinagar and Delhi are considered its major ones. Its latest major temple, the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi, was inaugurated on February 14, 2024, by Mahant Swami Maharaj along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UAE Minister Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahyan.

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Believed to have five million followers among Gujaratis alone, the sect has a huge following in East Africa, the United Kingdom and the US. Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel visited the Robbinsville Akshardham temple in New Jersey as part of his visit to the US and Canada last month.

In 2022, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the month-long centenary celebrations of Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the fifth spiritual successor. The celebrations were so grand that an entire “city” was built on 600 acres of land on Ahmedabad’s outskirts, and world leaders and diplomats visited throughout the month.

The sect’s influence is also evident in the Paris temple, which involved collaboration with French architecture and engineering firms, including stone specialists H Chevalier, who worked on the restoration of the Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Although Gujarat was the primary centre of early growth of the sect, “BAPS followers were part of the migration from Gujarat to East Africa and its transnational growth”, according to a chapter in Swaminarayan Hinduism, co-authored by Swami Vivekjivandas, a prominent monk in BAPS. Patidars, who were among the first migrants from Gujarat, thus constitute a large following of the sect.

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Built on the strength of volunteers, BAPS is known for its involvement in disaster relief, including the 2001 Kutch Earthquake. In September 2002, the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar saw a terror attack that claimed the lives of 33 people.

The various splits in the sect

Founder of the Swaminarayan Sampraday, Sahajanand Swami was born Ghanshyam Pande in Chhapaiya village near Ayodhya in 1781. He founded the Swaminarayan sect in Gujarat after being initiated as Sahajanand Swami in 1802 as a disciple of Swami Ramanand, and came to be known as Lord Swaminarayan.

Seen as one of Hinduism’s many bhakti traditions and as reestablishing “Sanatan dharma”, the sampraday then branched out into the Vadtal (Nadiad) and Ahmedabad sects (Gadi), founded by two of Sahajanand Swami’s nephews. Sahajanand Swami was a celibate and had no heirs, Williams wrote in Swaminarayan Hinduism.

However, the Acharyas of the Ahmedabad Gadi marry and follow a dynastic leadership tradition, while their sadhus practice celibacy.

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The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Sanstha (BAPS) was founded in 1907 by Shastri Maharaj, who broke away from the Vadtal diocese in 1905. It takes its name from Bochasan village in Anand district and is said to be the largest sect, known for the Akshardham series of temple complexes. The Vadtal diocese believes it is the parent body from which at least six splinter groups were formed, most of which believe in the supremacy of Sahajanand Swami, the founder of the sect.

The 92-year-old Mahant Swami Maharaj is the sixth spiritual successor of Bhagwan Swaminarayan and the present guru of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha. He was among those present during the consecration of the Paris temple.

In his book A New Face of Hinduism: The Swaminarayan Religion (1984), Williams calls Sahajanand Swami “a reformer” who “forged a new form of Hinduism well suited for the modern period.”

The major sub-sects are the

• Shree Swaminarayan Vadtal,
• BAPS,
• the Maninagar Shree Swaminarayan Gadi Sanstha, established by Muktajivandas, who broke away from the Ahmedabad temple in 1940, and known for its Scottish pipe bands
• the Swaminarayan Gurukul, founded by Dharmajivandas, who broke away from Vadtal in 1947.

However, in the late 1960s, the sect saw another split, when a group of disciples, led by Hariprasad Swami, wished to initiate female disciples into the fold, going against the Swaminarayan tradition. The then-BAPS guru, Yogiji Maharaj, refused the idea, and Hariprasad Swami went on to form the Sokdha sect after separating from BAPS in 1966.

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Writing in A New Face About Hinduism, Ahmedabad-based social and business historian, the late Makrand Mehta observed that Gujarat, being “comparatively prosperous and religion-oriented, attracted a large number of aspiring saints to establish their careers.”