The movie ‘Maharaj’ is yet to be released, but before its release, some members of the Vaishnavite Pustimargi sect demanded to stay until the release of this movie. This sect identifies themselves as devotees of Bhagwan Shree Krishna. The petitioners claimed that the film, based on the historic Maharaj libel case, is likely to incite feelings of ‘hatred and violence’ against the Pustimargi sect, amounting to a breach of the Code of Ethics under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, and the Self-Regulation Code of Over-the-Top Technology (OTT). The Gujarat High Court temporarily stayed the release of the Netflix film Maharaj on Thursday. The movie, starring Aamir Khan’s son Junaid in his debut role, was set to stream on Netflix on June 14. It is based on the colonial-era Maharaj libel case of 1862. Some say this is a publicity stunt to get some publicity before its release.

Actually, there is nothing objectionable in the movie that should bother this Vaishnavite Pushtimarg sect. Pushtimarg community, also known as Vallabha Sampradya, is a sect of Vaishnavism. It was founded in the early 16th century by Vallabha (1479–1531) and was later expanded by his descendants, particularly Viṭṭhalanātha. Pushtimarg adherents’ worship of youthful Krishna is mentioned in the Bhagavata Purana, as are those related to the pastimes of Govardhana Hill. The Puṣṭimārga sampradāya follows the Śuddhadvaita philosophy of Vallabha. According to this philosophy, Krishna is considered to be the supreme being, the source of everything that exists and the human soul is imbued with Krishna’s divine light. and spiritual liberation results from Krishna’s grace.

In 1862, there was a trial in the Bombay Court in British India; it was the Maharaj Libel Case. The case was against Nanabhai Rustomji Ranina and Karsandas Mulji; their accusation is that the religious leaders of Pushtimarg had sexual relationships with women devotees, and it was slanderous for the petitioner. The case arose when the accuser, Jadunathji Brijratanji Maharaj, a religious leader, filed a case of defamation against a reformer and journalist, Karsandas Mulji for writing an article in the newspaper Satyaprakash titled (Hinduo No Asli Dharam) Ane Atyar Na Pakhandi Mato (lit. ‘The True/Original Religion of the Hindus and the Present Hypocritical/Phoney Opinions’). In this article, he questioned the values of a Hindu sect called the Pushtimarg or Vallabhacharya Sampradaya. The article was claimed to be vilifying by the plaintiff. In particular, there were accusations that Jadunathji had sexual liaisons with female followers and that men were expected to show their devotion by offering their wives sex with the religious leaders.

The Pushtimarg’s followers in Gujarat, Kathiyawad, Cutch, and central India came from rich merchants, bankers, and farmers, including the Bhatiya, Lohana, and Baniya castes. Many of these business groups migrated to Bombay under British rule, as the city was the political and financial capital of western India. The trade groups were headed by merchant-princes or seths, who were heavily involved in the political and cultural milieu of Bombay. The seths, despite their general lack of education, ignorance of the English language, and British political traditions, were influential in Bombay society as leaders of business communities and maintainers of cultural honour.

By the mid-nineteenth century, the British had established political control over the Indian subcontinent and sought to create an administrative-legal framework to manage their colonial interests. British officials sought to compile Indian legal doctrines and apply them to British common law, effectively stripping native groups of civil and criminal self-governance in favour of a unified legal system. This desire to yield legal codes produced the Orientalist school of Indology, whose grand narrative of Indian history was that of a decline from an ancient golden age into a decadent, superstitious modern society.

The Pushtimarg religious heads, the maharajas, began settling Bombay in the 19th century and by 1860, there were five maharajas in the city. The maharajas sought to exercise control over their devotees and castes through seth mediators, and they were generally successful against anonymous reformers and caste solidarity. One such reformer was Karsandas Mulji, an English-educated reformer who was the editor of the Satyaprakash newspaper. Mulji came from an orthodox Pushtimarg merchant family who were highly respected in Bombay society; however, Karsandas was disowned for his crusader views and had to drop out of Elphinstone College. Mulji became well known amongst Bombay reformists, and he launched attacks against the Pushtimarg and the Bombay maharajas for alleged sexual depravity. Sexual allegations against the maharajas had first become public in 1855, and the senior-most maharaja in Bombay, Jivanlal, launched rebuttals against the reformers. Jivanlal attempted to silence criticism from Pushtimarg devotees by making his supporters sign a document that would censor their criticism of him under the threat of excommunication.

Mulji criticised Jivanlal’s document as a “slavery bond” and, in 1860, published a work claiming the Pushtimarg was a heterodox sect that advocated sexual mistreatment of women. The Bombay maharajas then decided to bring in Jadunath Brijratan, a well-known maharaja from Surat, to defend their stances. Jadunath had several public and press debates with Mulji and other reformers. Eventually, Jadunathji Maharaj filed a libel case in the Bombay Supreme Court on May 14, 1861, against Karsandas Mulji, editor of Satyaprakash, a Gujarati weekly newspaper, and its publisher, Nanabhai Rustomji Ranina, for defaming the plaintiff in an article published on October 21, 1860. The movie is based on this entire episode. The community wants to save their souls because the atrocities committed against women by a godman may bring a bad name to this community and they might receive hate. To prevent social damage, a temporary stay is brought on by the movie.