nityAnanda on strife

ISKCON politics is also an example of this. You would be aware of the fratricidal strife between different branches of ISKCON over initiation methods, control of temples, use of trademark, and even small things like a dilapidated old bus. A decades-long legal battle between ISKCON Mumbai and ISKCON Bangalore is now in the Supreme Court. This battle has seen its fair share of dirty politics, e.g., in 2023 the Supreme Court of India pulled up ISKCON Kolkata officials for filing a false and frivolous criminal case against ISKCON Bangalore officials and also imposed a fine of Rs. 1 lakh on the ISKCON Kolkata officials (see here). Writing about the internal strife in ISKCON in 2022, Outlook wrote in an article

“ISKCON’s image is in the dumps, the scrap over Bangalore centre’s assets is one more nail”

and ended the article with

“In this war of faith, the one left bemused is the ordinary ISKCON devotee” (see here).

While the views in the article may be biased, but the facts presented (image attached) are more sad than shocking. Though this controversy is not as scandalous as the ISKCON child abuse scandal (a lot can be discussed about this also, see herefor a journal article from an ex-ISKCON member, ISKCON eventually settled the USD 400 million child abuselawsuit for USD 9.5 million: see here, here, andhere), it is still quite serious.

Now I am not in the least implying that such unfortunate events are unique to ISKCON, they happen in many religious organisations, establishments and ashrams of all hues. All I am saying is that ISKCON is not immune to politics.