This is the story of India—and the 'ideas' and 'imagination' that shape it. Some years ago, someone announced the creation of the 'United States of Kailasa,' a fictional nation 'founded' by Swami Nithyananda, who remains wanted in multiple criminal cases in India, including rape and murder. Remarkably, representatives of this fabricated country even managed to 'participate' in various United Nations events, including sessions of CEDAW in Geneva.
The Nithyananda saga surfaced in 2019. Nearly six years later, we now hear of another bizarre episode—this time from Uttar Pradesh. The STF has arrested one Harshvardhan Jain from his so-called 'embassy' campus in Ghaziabad. Jain claimed to be the official ambassador of several countries—names you wouldn’t even find on Google or Grok. He created these imaginary nations and lured people into believing in them. For the last seven years, he operated this embassy with Audis and Mercedes parked in a luxurious compound, right under the nose of the authorities in a state bordering the national capital. One wonders how such an elaborate fraud could go unnoticed for so long. Why do we consistently fail to detect such schemes early? Perhaps the reasons are deeply psychological and historical.
For centuries, the poor, the marginalized, the disabled, and the oppressed have been viewed as the default culprits in any crime. Even today, if a person is caught allegedly stealing a loaf of bread, they are likely to face public lynching or violence. But when a fraudster wears a suit, steals public funds, cripples our banking system, or bankrupts public institutions, they are treated with deference. They remain untouched, living in luxury, often beyond the reach of the law. One nationalized bank recently declared a powerful industrialist a defaulter and fraud, yet the person in question continues to remain at large, shielded by influence and connections.
Harshvardhan Jain—who proudly called himself the ambassador of West Arctica, Seborga, Poulvia, and Lodonia—clearly understood what sells in India. No one bothered to ask where these nations existed. But how could they? In a society where hearsay is peddled as knowledge, where casteist religious dogma serves capitalist interests, and where academia has surrendered its independence, critical thinking becomes a liability. In such a climate, rationalists and humanists face isolation, while figures like Nithyananda and Jain become role models.
It’s unclear what Jain gained by claiming ambassadorial status for these fictional nations, but media reports suggest he was operating a hawala network and had links with another notorious figure—Chandraswami, known for his political connections across party lines. Jain reportedly hailed from a family in the marble trade in Rajasthan, which ran into financial trouble before he came into contact with Chandraswami and left for London. Upon his return, he began creating fictitious countries—perhaps not the only one to do so. His was a classic case of monetizing imagination. According to the Hindustan Times, Jain earned an MBA from the “London College of Applied Science.” If that institution is indeed reputable, one can only wonder what the faculty must think of their alumnus’s ‘creative entrepreneurship.’
Jain is now under arrest—but this isn’t his first time. He likely believed that as long as you have the right connections, nothing can touch you. In India, people like him are only caught when their backers abandon them. Otherwise, such operations continue with impunity.
At the same time, there is growing public demand for a caste census. Alongside this, we should also demand a public account of the biggest tax defaulters and scamsters in the post-liberalization era. A caste census must reveal who controls our resources—and who commits the largest frauds against the nation.
Years ago, I saw a hilarious scene in a Bollywood film where a travel agency dupes people by promising them a trip to Dubai—only to abandon them on Mud Island near Mumbai. Watch here. That farce is now our reality. Such deceit is normalized in a system wrecked by joblessness and a hollowed-out education system, where liberal, secular, and scientific values have been replaced by superstition and blind faith. This environment has spawned an army of unquestioning followers who only challenge those who dare to think differently.
A forward-looking 21st-century India must cultivate scientific temper and humanism—so we are not fooled by charlatans selling fantasy as fact. Unlike Columbus or Vasco da Gama, who at least discovered real places, our 'explorers' invent entire nations from imagination. Perhaps that is our unique contribution to world history.
Enjoy the absurdity—but reflect on what this says about the deeper ailments in our system.
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*Human rights defender
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