Rajneesh movement

The Rajneesh movement comprises persons inspired by the Indian mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh 1931–1990, also known as Osho, particularly initiated disciples who are referred to as "neo-sannyasins" or simply "sannyasins". They used to be known as Rajneeshees or "Orange People", because of the orange and later red, maroon and pink clothes they used 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 the founder's hostility to traditional values, first in India and later in the United States of America. In the USSR 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". These "positive aspects" were seen as being subverted by Osho, who was portrayed as a reactionary religious ideologist of the monopolistic bourgeoisie of India, promoting the ideas of the consumer society in a traditional Hindu guise.

In Oregon the movement's large intentional community of the early 1980s, called Rajneeshpuram, 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, Oregon. At the peak of these tensions a circle of leading members of the Rajneeshpuram Oregon commune was arrested for crimes including a deliberate food poisoning attack calculated to influence the outcome of a local election in their favour, which ultimately failed. Salmonella was deployed to infect salad products in local restaurants and shops, 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 his staff and right hand Ma Ananda who where found guilty of the attack. The movement's headquarters eventually returned to Poona (present-day Pune), India.

The movement in India gradually received a more positive response from the surrounding society, especially after the founder's death in 1990. The Osho International Foundation (OIF) is managed by an "Inner Circle" set up by Osho before his death. They jointly administer Osho's estate and operate the Osho International Meditation Resort in Pune.

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