Philosopher

Rajneesh movement

Overview

The Rajneesh movement is a new religious movement inspired by the Indian godman known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (1931–1990), among other names, such as Osho. They used to be known as Rajneeshees or "Orange People" because of the orange clothing they wore from 1970 until 1985. Members of the movement are sometimes called Oshoites in the Indian press.

The movement was controversial in the 1970s and 1980s, due to the founder's hostility, first to Hindu morality in India, and later to Christian morality in the United States. In the Soviet Union, the movement was banned as being contrary to "positive aspects of Indian culture and to the aims of the youth protest movement in Western countries".

In Oregon, the movement's large intentional community of the early 1980s, called Rajneeshpuram, caused immediate tensions in the local community for its attempts to take over the nearby town of Antelope and later the county seat of The Dalles.

At the peak of these tensions, a circle of leading members of the Rajneeshpuram Oregon commune was arrested for crimes including an attempted assassination plot to murder U.S. Attorney Charles H. Turner and the United States's first recorded bio-terror attack calculated to influence the outcome of a local election in their favour; these efforts ultimately failed. In the bioterror attack, Salmonella bacteria were deployed to infect salad products in a variety of local establishments, which poisoned several hundred people. The Bhagwan, as Rajneesh was then called, was deported from the United States in 1985 as part of his Alford plea deal following the convictions of his staff and right hand Ma Anand Sheela, who were found guilty of the attack. After his deportation, 21 countries denied him entry. The movement's headquarters eventually returned to Poona (now known as Pune), India. The Oregon commune was destroyed in September 1985.

The movement in India gradually received a more positive response from the surrounding society, especially after the founder's death in 1990. The Osho International Foundation (OIF) (previously Rajneesh International Foundation [RIF]), is managed by an "Inner Circle" set up by Rajneesh before his death. They jointly administer Rajneesh's estate and operate the Osho International Meditation Resort in Pune.

In the late 1990s, former followers and affiliated groups challenged OIF's copyright holdings over Rajneesh's works and the validity of its royalty claims on publishing or reprinting of materials. In the United States, following a 10-year legal battle with Osho Friends International (OFI), the OIF (Osho International Foundation) lost its exclusive rights over the trademark OSHO in January 2009.

In 2017, the General Court of the European Union ruled in favour of the Osho International Foundation in a dispute concerning the "OSHO" trademark and upheld its registration in the European Union.

There are numerous centres of the movement in India and elsewhere, including in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Philosophers who discussed Rajneesh movement

Osho

Ideas Rajneesh movement discusses

Place in the tradition

Part of Antireligion.

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