Sathya Sai Baba family tree – and female infanticide?

The Westerner with the absolutely most privileged access to the family of Sathya Sai Baba, who lived for years in Prashanthi Nilayam with his sister Venkamma and tended her on her deathbed, ‘Divya’ (Eileen Weed) has told what she knew about Sai Baba’s mother, Easwaramma. Her information shows how the glorified presentation of the fate of this poor woman was falsified. Known as “the Chosen Mother”, Eashwaramma had died in 1972 – long before Divya came to India. Divya has written:

“I only know stories the family told me. Such as, how much she suffered disgrace when her husband Pedda Venkappa Raju left her to live with his concubine!  Easwaramma had to deal with sb joking about her “sister” (the concubine) and sending her the same silk saris he sent Easwaramma!
Easwaramma had to suffer a lot of tragedy when her children underwent troubles, too. Like when her daughter Venkamma’s baby daughter died only 10 days after being born, and how her other daughter Parvatamma accidentally dropped her newborn son and he died several days later, from head injuries.”

In the most comprehensive biography of Sathya Sai Baba and family (‘Love is My Form’) we read:-
“Kondama Raju’s younger sister, Venkata Subbamma, married Meesaraganda Subba Raju of Kolimigundla, a village in the Koilkuntla Taluk of Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh, then ruled by the Nizam of Hyderabad. They had six children – three sons and three daughters. Their eldest daughter was Easwaramma.”

SATHYA SAI BABA’S FAMILY TREE . He was son after his mother’s seven previous pregnancies

This indicates:- Kondama Raju’s younger sister married Subba Raju, which makes the two of them brothers-in-law. The birth of Easwaramma as the offspring of Subba makes her Kondama Raju’s niece. Her subsequent marriage to Pedda Venkama (Kondama’s son) means that the two of them were cousins.

Many Indians from the Andra Pradesh region, has written expressing the fact that it IS ACCEPTABLE to marry one’s cousin, and that very common place and even encouraged. Though maybe widespread even today,this is widely considered abhorrent.
As a supposed ‘omnipotent creator/avatar of God’, Sathya Sai Baba should surely have chosen a better family in which to take birth?

Abortive pregnancies or Sathya Sai Baba’s missing sisters?

Åsa Samsioe, a Swedish psychologist and ex-follower, wrote about Eashwaramma’s abortive pregnancies and his “missing sisters”

In ‘Love is My Form’  we read “After Pedda Venkama Raju and Eashwaramma were blessed with a son and two daughters – Seshama Raju, Venkamma and Parvathamma – Eashwaramma suffered four miscarriages. The family attributed these to evil planetary influences and consequently performed the Graha Santhi ritual (designed to pacify the planets). When Easwaramma entered her eight pregnancy her mother in law vowed a series of Sathyanarayana pujas in order to be blessed with a grandson”, N Kasturi wrote in his book about Sathya Sai Baba´s mother “Easwaramma the chosen mother”. (p 20) One can read in the article: Easwaramma, Mother Most Blessed “God for a son!………. Like Krishna for Devaki, Sathya was Easwaramma’s eighth child.”

Where are then the other four children? We know that Sathya Sai Baba had only three older siblings, when he was born. Easwaramma´s oldest child was Sathya Sai Baba´s brother Seshama Raju, who was succeeded by two sisters Venkamma and Parvathamma.

According to the ‘official biographer’ named by Sai Baba, N. Kasturi, “Easwaramma had four abortive pregnancies in a series”, after the birth of her second daughter and before she gave birth to Sathya Sai Baba. (p 19) In “Sathyam Sivam Sundaram”, part I, p 5, by the same author, you can read: “Some years passed and Easwaramma longed for another son. She prayed to the village gods and observed Sathyanarayana Puja and kept a number of vows, which were rigorous and needed vigil and abstention from food.”

Easwaramma even exposed herself to different hardships to get her wish for a son come true. Why not just pray for a healthy child, who was alive, after all those abortive pregnancies? And what was wrong with Easwaramma before she gave birth to Sathya Sai Baba?

Why did four daughters fail to live? Female infanticide?

In the last few years there have been some writing about the son preference in India and its effect on the sex ratios. In the French journal L’Express from August 2003, there is for example a reportage named “Inde Le pays qui ne veut pas de filles”. (India The country which doesn’t want daughters).

The roots of son preference in India lie in deeply entrenched social, cultural and economic discrimination against women and girls. A daughter is considered to be an economic liability to her parents because of the heavy dowry payment demanded by the groom’s family. There is also the high cost of the wedding, which is generally the responsibility of the bride’s family to bear. And after the marriage the daughters may have little continuing contact with their natal family.

There is an old Indian locution which compares the bringing up of daughters with the tending of a sapling planted in the neighbour’s garden.

The birth of a son is perceived as an opportunity for upward mobility, while the birth of a daughter is believed to result in downward economic mobility. Sons are expected to support their parents in old age and are therefore viewed as a source of social security. Also in strict Hindu tradition salvation in the afterlife can only be achieved if a son lights his parents funeral pyre.

As the infant mortality rates tend to be high for both Indian boys and girls, parents tend to produce numerous offspring in the hope that at least two sons will survive to adulthood.

According to UNICEF India is “the kingdom of the invisible daughters” and there are approximately about 40 millions missing females. These females ought to have been present in India if the sex ratios were on par with the world. Natural populations tend to have more females than males. According to L´Express there are 1050 females per 1000 males in Europe, but according to Census of India 2001, there are only 933 females per 1000 males in India. But what happens to all those missing females, then? They are murdered at birth, mistreated or never allowed to be born.

There are no good data on the number of cases of female infanticide in India, but recent research has shown that female infanticide has been practised in rural Tamil Nadu (the neighbor province of Andhra Pradesh) unnoticed by outsiders for many decades. Besides Andhra Pradesh is among those nine provinces in a study, which are known for high rates of sex-selective abortions.

“The villages in which female infanticide occur tend to be remote with less educated population than villages with no cases of female infanticide. They are located in a hilly and more isolated part of the block and cut off from outside influences….”, Sabu M George writes. Seems to be a good description of Puttaparthi!

If I am right in those suspicions of mine, it isn’t hard to imagine the enormous psychological impact that those potential tragic events then would have had on Sathya Sai Baba! What will happen to a little boy who has to compensate his poor mother for the death of perhaps as many as four girl children? Would it be compensation enough if he became God the Father Himself? That’s a cut above the family members original high hopes of his joining the prestigious government service. Who has never heard or read that Sathya Sai Baba, who always boasts about his human values (which he doesn’t practice himself), is concerned with the treatment of girls and women in his own Bharath? On the contrary he is stuck to the male chauvinistic view of women, which is responsible for those 40 millions missing females.

Get some idea of the nature of Sai Baba’s close family through a look at the mentality and values of his elder sister Venkamma here
 Note also that the so-called “Holy Mother of the Divine Avatar”. Eashwaramma was deserted by her husband and left with nothing but a tiny shack to live in (and even Sai baba did not do anything to relieve that). Her husband lived in Puttaparthi with his mistress all the while!) See  Easwaramma – the chosen mother in poverty, scorned by her husband!

See Harish P. Subramaniam’s comment and my reply:-

Harish P Subramanian https://www.facebook.com/harish.p.subramanian harishpsubramanian@gmail.com 122.248.163.1 Submitted on 2014/01/31 at 1:55 am I am not Sai Baba follower but these are overboard comments without understanding the Indian context and the period in question. Yes planned abortion is wrong, but it fairly common in those days in India, to have so many miscarriages. Also marriage of cousins as shown in above genealogical chart, is extremely common in south India and there is nothing unholy about it. Not any more incest than Bible stories. To crave for a son, and performing sathyanarayana pooja is an individual preference. Most people in those times in India preferred a male progeny. However infanticide and planned abortions was not common among traditional classes in south India. I get a feeling that inspite of being an ex devotee , you seem unusually obsessed with Sai Baba. Needless to say, you need to get on with other positive things in life. Your negative comments are already there in plenty and available on net for posterity. Spend your later days of life in more fruitful things and get out of your obsession with Baba, if you are truly an ex devotee. Reply:- Infanticide has been and still is rife in India, basta. Evidently, not ‘needless to say’ as many Indians are clearly in denial about the issue! See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_infanticide_in_India. “Craving for a son” is not just an “individual preference”, it is the result of the intense pressures of an unjust system whereby women are treated mostly as second or third class citizens (or worse) and absurdly large marriage dowries burden the parents of girls. As to the marriage of cousins – I know it is not illegal in many communities, especially communities which are endogamous. Indian castes intermarry and their castes and isolation are perpetuated through failing to intermix with other social groups. Where such close genetic relatives as first cousins are concerned, there is much evidence that this is the cause of many inherited illnesses, and has been widely regarded as unhealthy, if not consequently against the natural order and, for some religionists, immoral. See for examplehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7957808/700-children-born-with-genetic-disabilities-due-to-cousin-marriages-every-year.html which records that where more than half of marriages are between first cousins, and children are 10 times more likely than the general population to suffer genetic disorders. The problem is worst among children born in Britain’s Pakistani community. The medical risks of first cousin marriages include higher rates of infant mortality, birth defects, learning difficulties, blindness, hearing problems and metabolic disorders. As adults, the children born from first cousin marriages are at increased risk of miscarriage or infertility. A third of children affected die before their fifth birthday. So take all that into account! Also from the Telegraph article: “An investigation by Channel 4′s Dispatches programme found that although more than 70 British studies have proved the risks, and 700 British Pakistani children are born with associated genetic diseases every year, many people deny the dangers. Ann Cryer, the former Labour MP for Keighley, suffered abuse for trying to highlight the problems. ” My work to expose Sathya Sai Baba is a public duty, and not one that I especially wanted. I learned secrets I did not wish to know, so I had to bring them out – as I had written a most positive book about SB – and because of tragedies in the Norwegian organisation I led which I came fully to understand as due to his deceptions and their influence. The work has brought me into contact with a host of people who have been abused by him in many ways. They seek information and understanding, help and support, so I do not give up on them and there is still a need and a danger to the vulnerable. I would help unwitting people falling into the guru trap and give away their energy, independence, ability to think properly and masses of hard-earned money! I am constantly being told what a valuable service this is, am asked by many to keep on, otherwise there would only be the lies and propaganda of the Sai mafia to find. You get your feelings out – and prejudices against me… but you do not know me at all, yet you presume to tell me what I should do. Very Indian male trait that! You know nothing of the other positive things in my life which I am fully engaged in. I note you are keen to see me stop exposing the on-going wickedness and are enamoured of temples and such useless rubbish and also seem infected with the Sai doctrine, despite yourself – wondering whether I am really an ex-devotee and trying to write off the very suspicious facts about Eashwaramma (the ‘mother of the divine’ but whose husband left her with nothing but a one-room shack while he lived with a courtesan!) and also Venkamma (I know a great deal more about her life, too, from one who lived in her apartment for years. She was common villager type and not a very nice cup of tea, hardly what one would expect from a family of a holy man). eileenweed@gmail.com Submitted on 2014/02/02 at 3:29 pm Harish: By your comments, I suspect you have been either living in the West since childhood, or grew up in a big city in India. I lived mostly in small villages and what Robert says is correct: most Indians still only want sons, though they don’t mind ONE daughter also. In the old days, when there were no tests to determine the sex of babies before they were born, it was more common to just murder them. Women are not much part of the decision, so if there are one or more testosterone-driven males in the family who didn’t want more daughters, they would get rid of them. Even now in villages, dowries are expected and are even more outrageously high than in the past – another reason why people want more males. Articles are published now & then about abortions being more widespread thanks to the testing available and interestingly enough, more often done amongst the educated like your good self. See:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/24/india-abortions-of-girls-_n_866067.html