Rajneesh movement: History and Key Facts

The Rajneesh movement is a new religious movement inspired by the Indian godman known as Rajneesh or Osho (1931–1990). They were formerly known as Rajneeshees, "neo-sanyassins" (or simply "sanyassins") 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 Osho'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".

Rajneeshpuram, an intentional community founded by the group in Wasco County, Oregon, 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 a plot to assassinate 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 members of his staff and his former assistant 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 Pune, India. The Oregon commune was destroyed in September 1985.

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