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  The violence in New Zealand in which five Margiis are caught changes his mind. He realises that the bulk of the membership has little idea about the inner workings of the elite. He believes that it can function in such a clandestine manner because it operates behind the respectable façade of a religious charity. Abhiik Kumar is the absolute leader in Australia and:

  … a violent man by nature. KUMARA [sic] is the guiding genius … He is an American who seems to have no difficulty when travelling to or from Australia or elsewhere … [Kumara is] the ‘king pin’ of the Ananda Marga in Australia and a very clever person. He has a black beard and always wears an orange turban …The hierarchy of the Ananda Marga exists in name only and is nothing but a front for the organisation which functions solely in accordance with the wishes and orders of KUMARA. However, there is a President of Ananda Marga for Australia and other nominal members of the leadership, but these are appointed and dismissed by Kumara at will. The president is known as ‘Govinda’ [Timothy Anderson] and is resident in Sydney.

  Subject [mentions] he has found KUMARA capable of incredible mind reading and possessed of a highly developed sense of intuition.

  According to information obtained from Kumara himself … Australia has been selected as a base from which Ananda Marga operations can be mounted … because of its lenient travel control procedures and tolerance of so called charitable organisations.6

  This tolerance is clearly running short by the end of 1977. As the task force collates its findings, it incorporates an increasing number of reports about the violence targeting Indian nationals coming in from other countries. In August a number of Indian officials are physically attacked in the UK. In October three Margiis are arrested for an attack on Indian nationals in London and attempting to blow up the embassy. The same month in New York there is an attempt to fire-bomb the Air India offices. November brings an explosion in the Indian Embassy in Katmandu and an explosive device thrown at the Indian ambassador’s residence in Copenhagen. The New York City Police Department Intelligence Division sends further reports of an attempt to stab an Air India employee in Los Angeles, and the stabbing of an embassy official (Silla Koteswar, 25) in Washington DC. The NYC police report states:

  In each of the above incidents, letters have been sent to Indian officials by a group calling themselves the Universal Proutist Revolutionary Federation (UPRF). Each letter demands the immediate release of their leader, PR Sarkar, and threatens violence if this is not accomplished.

  Although the Ananda Marga Yoga Society vehemently denies any association with the UPRF, the Indian officials feel the UPRF is in fact the Anand Marg [sic], as both desire the release of PR Sarkar. More terrorist incidents by this group are expected, both here and abroad.7

  While the attacks are familiar, it’s the astonishing consistency of the denials that begins to sow doubts about the Ananda Marga. It’s hard to imagine how a government agency, such as the Indian CBI or the KGB could be so effortlessly adept at coordinating these acts of violence across continents. It’s also hard to figure out how it would work logistically. According to the Margiis, an Indian government agent (or KGB agent?) would be operational in (travel to?) a foreign country (the USA, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Australia, etc.) and then stab, attack, fire-bomb an Indian national — then hurry home (go underground?) to (Russia? India?) at the same time writing up and carefully sending off a letter claiming the violence in the name of the Universal Proutist Revolutionary Federation — all to discredit the Ananda Marga. Whew! Remember this is the Indian Government undertaking an extraordinary clandestine global campaign of terror against its own citizens. It’s a lot of time, money and effort, not to mention the potentially catastrophic diplomatic consequences if caught, to devote to ensuring an ex–civil servant heading a minor religious sect stays in jail. Hard to explain, too, are the incidents such as those in London or Australia where identified Margii members are actually caught in the act.

  ASIO continues to collect information from former Margiis, who add to a picture of zealotry. One ex–sect member recounts that ‘Abhiik told him in conversation that the end justifies the means. If aims cannot be achieved by peaceful means, then there was no alternative but to use violence. In short, Abhiik considered violence as a means to an end and this apparently alarmed [redacted] and hastened his exit.’8

  The seriousness of the threat the Australian Government is feeling is summed up in the secret report compiled for federal Cabinet late in 1977, only a few months before CHOGRM. The report, declassified in 2009, is the findings of the task force, made up of representatives of the departments of Administrative Affairs, Prime Minister and Cabinet, Foreign Affairs, Education, Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and the Attorney-General, as well as ASIO and the Commonwealth Police — along with responses from state premiers. The report’s main purpose is to ‘seek Cabinet endorsement to certain measures to restrict and endeavour to halt the acts and threats of violence … against Indian nationals in Australia’.9

  The members of the task force are clearly disturbed by what has occurred over the last five months. Adding to their concern is that:

  … it has recently been reliably reported from ASIO that Ananda Marga intends to hold a conference from 23rd to 29th January, 1978, at the Seventh Day Adventist Youth Camp at Crosslands [New South Wales] to which New Zealand and other overseas visitors are expected.10

  The task force goes on to assert:

  … while ASIO and the Police are making every endeavour to ascertain details of the proposed conference, the interdepartmental task force has given urgent further consideration to action to restrict and endeavour to halt activities by Ananda Marga. This has been done in light of the knowledge that the Indian Prime Minister is expected to visit Australia in February next, 1978.11

  Their opinion is that ‘Proutist organisations are integrated with Ananda Marga, both in relation to their common hierarchy and the advocacy of violent means as evinced by some of their publications’.12 The suspicion is that those who are perpetuating the violence in the name of UPRF are in fact members of Prout operating as a splinter group within Ananda Marga. It is also possible that the bulk of the Ananda Marga membership is unaware of the existence of this splinter group.

  What the task force proposes to do seems perplexing at first and rather underwhelming. In order to be ‘consistent in achieving effective governmental action as action by the Immigration and Education authorities, there is a need to terminate formal governmental recognition of Ananda Marga as a recognised denomination for the purposes of the Marriage Act’.

  The immediate effect of this will be the automatic deregistration of the four existing Margii marriage celebrants as ‘ministers of religion’. It becomes clear that this a highly provocative act. Ananda Marga at that time is not registered as a charity and its only formal recognition as a religion is the licensing of its marriage celebrants. Of the four who are to be deregistered as ministers of religion, only one is named:

  Brahmacarii Abhiik Kumara (Jason Alexander, formerly known as John Hoffman) a former US citizen, naturalised Australian in March 1977, an Ananda Marga leader (Spiritual Director for Australasia).13

  The task force members acknowledge that they:

  … have taken into account the possibility that this governmental action may provoke the Ananda Marga or elements within it to attempt to mount a legal challenge … and possibly go so far as further acts of violence against Indian government representatives in Australia.14

  They also recommend that a suspension of all new requests for government support or recognition of Ananda Marga be continued until 31 March 1978 and that ‘in view of the current assessment of the nature of Ananda Marga and in view of the information that they are planning to hold a conference in Sydney from 23 to 29 January next, which will be shortly before a Commonwealth Heads of Government conference in Sydney, the Task Force was of the view’ to continue the ban authorising or permitting ‘entry to Australia of foreign members of Ananda Marga or forei
gn persons actively involved with it’.15

  While these recommendations may seem draco-nian, there’s a clear sense in the report that they are born out of frustration and a genuine fear of what some elements of this sect may be capable of. Despite vast increases in police protection for Indian officials in Australia, including the visiting Indian cricket team, the report admits that while this is ‘an essential protective action by the government [that] needs to be continued’, it ‘does not in itself halt the continuing threat of the violent element within Ananda Marga to attack Indian establishments in Australia’.16

  There is recognition, too, of the significant legal and human rights problems for the government should they decide to introduce legislation to ban the organisation outright, particularly when that organisation claims to be religious and carries out social welfare work. It is, however, something they are inclined to consider should the pattern of violence continue. In the meantime:

  ASIO and the police forces (Commonwealth, State and Territorial) are continuing, as vigorously as possible, their enquiries into Ananda Marga and, in particular, the violent element and the existence and nature of a possible Proutist organisation within Ananda Marga.17

  Another recommendation is that officers from the Administrative Services Department and officers from the Department of Education have talks with the leaders of the Ananda Marga (they note that the public relations officer Tim Anderson has sought this) ‘to discuss with them the problem of the consistent pattern of violence or threats of violence associated with members of the Ananda Marga and the apparent link between a possible UPRF and Ananda Marga’.18

  They want to put to them:

  (i) The fact that their members have been involved in a consistent world pattern of violence and threats of violence and inviting them to explain how their organisation proposes to control this and to halt further acts and threats of violence; and

  (ii) In light of this fact, how would [they] sustain continuance of applications for education grants and concessions.19

  It’s a neat tactic — predicated on the idea that most of the Margii membership do not condone, and indeed are not aware of, the violent acts of the inner cell of Proutists, and they will have more clout in reining them in than outside forces — particularly if they are concerned that financial assistance, for example supporting the schools their kids go to, is taken away.

  As Christmas of 1977 approaches, and with CHOGRM seven weeks away, the summation of the task force is this:

  Either the talks will achieve the cooperation of the leaders to curtail the violence of their members or, if violence continues, the government will be in a position to act more strongly against the organisation.20

  Of course this is all absolutely hush-hush, but the one decision that does become public knowledge is the banning of foreign members of the sect from entering Australia until after CHOGRM. The task force had been correct to consider the human rights implications of adopting a hard line with the Margiis. The reaction to this compromise decision, falling far short of banning the sect outright, is condemned in an editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald:

  It is hard to imagine a worse case of guilt by association. Where will it end? What other members of a religious sect, or a political party — or those who may be ‘involved’ with them, whatever that means — are going to fall foul of our immigration authorities? Are hundreds of transcendental meditators, avowedly non-violent, going to have their movements circumscribed just because a handful of meditators are alleged to have resorted to violence? Indian diplomats and businesses in Australia deserve sympathy, of course, for the violence they have suffered; but Australia should be careful not to give the appearance of swatting a fly with a sledge hammer. It should also make absolutely certain that it is aiming at the right target.21

  So, what Norm wants to know is what happened next. Were talks held? Was there more violence? The answer to both is no.

  It all goes quiet

  Weirdly, almost by magic, the moment the top secret task force report is being compiled in late November 1977, all the violence stops. Stops not just in Australia, but everywhere else in the world. Up to that point, since late July 1977, when Sarkar’s first appeal was unsuccessful, to late November, there have been acts of violence or threats of violence either by Margiis or in their name in a dozen countries every two or three days — sometimes every day.

  Then abruptly, between 28 November 19771 and 7 February 1978, when an even greater wave of violence is unleashed, there is no recorded act of violence or threat of violence towards an Indian national anywhere in the world. The only thing to change in this 10-week window is that Sarkar’s second appeal is denied on 2 February 1978.

  So what were the authorities doing during those two months? Doing what spies and secret police do best: spying.

  December 1977 and January 1978 see the two agencies charged with leading the surveillance on the sect — ASIO and New South Wales Special Branch — in covert operations heaven. There are wire-taps on Ananda Marga headquarters in every state. There are listening devices planted in their meeting places as well as in meditation and yoga centres. Cars are stationed outside gatherings, camps and training grounds and careful notes taken of each member’s comings and goings. While there is information collected from Ananda Marga in Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth, Sydney is the epicentre. ASIO regards it as ‘the focal point of Ananda Marga activity in Australia and also the location of most Margiis suspected of being capable of being involved in politically motivated violence’.2

  Norm Sheather and the Hilton task force pore over the surveillance material ASIO and Special Branch gathered in the months leading up to the bombing. It’s hyper-detailed, consisting of members’ names, bank accounts, property holdings, photographs and transcripts of wire-taps. There are elaborate lists of dates and times, of members’ movements at a variety of Margii activities throughout January. All this material seems to indicate that something is going on. Just what that something may be is more difficult to ascertain. While they are carefully monitoring the imminent camp to be held at the Seventh Day Adventists’ Crosslands Youth and Convention Centre at Galston from 23 to 29 January, Special Branch gets a tip-off about another camp to be held earlier in January.

  Ananda Marga Inquiry — information received from reliable source concerning Paul Maurice O’Callaghan and an unknown female attending a VSS training camp at Anandapalli.

  This camp, to be held on the sect’s property in Queensland, is to run from 9 to 16 January. The report goes on to confidently assert that:

  … the initials VSS represent Volunteer Social Service, however information received from another reliable source on an earlier date (running sheets submitted) reveal that this is in fact a Para-Military Wing.3

  While this seems deeply intriguing — and possibly unsubstantiated — nothing comes of the tip-off.

  The material relating to the surveillance of the late January conference is much more thorough and far less speculative. It is also difficult to analyse. As Norm and the team wade through the reams of surveillance notes, it’s hard to decipher whether the evidence indicates signs of a terrorist training camp or the dull machinations of a group of rigid if somewhat paranoid religious devotees. Among the many items is a meticulously typed series of rosters for the weekly kitchen duties (breakfast, lunch and dinner) for the duration of the camp.4 Next is a ‘Prout Publications Price List’. While this list includes potentially suspicious titles, such as ‘Prout’s Revolutionary Strategy $1’ and ‘Universalism — A Revolutionary Force 75c’, they sit next to the benign ‘The Way of Peace $2’.5

  Of more interest are the notes relating to the security procedures the Ananda Marga deploy during the Crosslands camp. Crosslands is the perfect site for the security conscious. It sits in a corner of the Berowra Valley at Galston, just north of Sydney. Two of its three sides are bordered by water. The third side — the hypotenuse — is covered in dense bush with one main entrance. There is a bush tr
ack that allows access to the bush chapel (Bottom Gate). It is also protected by God. Owned by the Seventh Day Adventists, it is exclusively offered for rent to groups who wish to use it as a spiritual retreat.

  The first document, No. 9 in the dossier, is a list of those Ananda Marga members allocated to guard duty at the two gates to the camp. There is a guard for each of the gates, rotated each hour on a 24-hour cycle. For example:

  A.M Bottom Gate

  12-1 MARILEV

  1-2 VIVEK

  2-3 BHARAT

  3-4 JAMAD

  4-5 MOHAN

  And so on.6 Thus on any day, guard duty involves 24 different sect members. The accompanying document, ‘a copy of a typed article issued by VSS Chief secretary, concerning POINTS FOR SENTRY’, runs over three pages and lays out detailed instructions for ensuring the security of the camp.

  When a car comes, walk out 9 in[ches] in front of it and see who they are. If Margiis allow them to enter. If state police doing their regular run (looking for stolen cars), let them through but the sentry at the top notify the one at the bottom gate … if they are commonwealth police, don’t let them in unless they have a warrant. If they are tourists etc, politely tell them it is a closed retreat and tell them to turn back. — If any police — state or Commonwealth — come with a warrant, ask to see it and don’t let them enter until you have a) taken the names and addresses of the policemen and b) what the warrant is for. You then let them in and if you are at the top gate, notify the bottom sentry … if you have been told that they have a warrant also get Narada or Dada … if the top sentry calls down to say that unwanted persons forced their way through and are on the way down then the bottom sentry must lock the gate and taking the key out, notify Narada or Dada … always speak politely to howeveer [sic] you come in contact with on sentry, but be strong and firm in your stand if demanding a warrant or not letting them through. Don’t be bluffed! + Remember vigilance is the price of liberty, always remain alert and serious about your work, don’t take it lightly and space out.7