THE INDIA PROGRAM
Between 1982–1989, 3HO children attended Guru Nanak Fifth Centenary School (GNFCS) in Mussoorie, India. Sat Kirpal Kaur from Oregon was put in charge. Conditions were primitive and unhealthy, with epidemics of lice and infectious hepatitis, which originated from several sources – the river in Rishikesh, the lakes in Kashmir, and some unhealthy eateries in town. Abuse was common and often extreme: Nanak Dev Singh beat the crap out of children; the teachers regularly hit the children; and punishments were usually physical and included what are now referred to by Human Rights advocates as “Stress Positions.” And, of course, there was lots of yoga torture too. Those children unfortunate enough to be sent to India to be “educated” (abused) are referred to as “India Kids.”
In the late 1980s, there was a big messy outcry by 3HO parents about the abuse at GNFCS. In response to parents’ complaints, YB wrote a horrible letter about how he had made us suffer to be strong and how the parents should trust him to make our kids strong too. I think he actually said he had put us through hell and he would do the same for our children. It was NOT a popular letter. It led to many 3HO parents taking their children out of GNFCS School, which was as close to a revolution as 3HOers ever came to my knowledge.
In 1989, Guru Ram Das Academy (GRD) was created in Dehra Dun, India, and YB put MSS Krishna Kaur (who had no children of her own) in charge of the program. There were regular food shortages at the Academy: the children were eating maggots in their peanut butter, which was their main diet. A friend of mine actually got a look at the program’s financials–YB was skimming money and arguing about prices with suppliers and school administration, leading to the children being mistreated and deprived.
The daughter of one of my friends was sexually abused while at GRD. That friend (Amrit Kaur from the Berkeley Ashram, married at that time to Dr. Amrit Singh) was a nurse and she was of Jewish descent. In the early 1990s, she traveled to India to visit her children at GRD Academy. She found them living in what she called a “death camp”. She spent her time in India dealing with hepatitis, malnutrition, and all sorts of nasty infections. Amrit Kaur returned to the Bay Area with her kids. And she screamed bloody murder!
Amrit Kaur was well positioned in 3HO, both as a nurse and as one of those women who never missed Khalsa Women’s Training Camp. She wouldn’t let up raising the alarm about GRD, and those at the top of the YB Empire didn’t know how to silence her. (She and her family left the YB group soon thereafter.) Abuse of children in the 3HO India Programs was one of the main reasons so many left the YB group in the early 1990s (also known as The Great Exodus). Unfortunately, the children who remained in India never knew that anyone in the 1st Generation cared, partly because those who did care left 3HO with their children.