Aravindan Balakrishnan and his Maoist cult in London: Read how a lady was held captive for 30 years

A girl who was held captive by her cult chief father for over three a long time has just lately opened about travails she endured throughout her interval of captivity on the Communist Collective, a cult in south London based by her father, Aravindan Balakrishnan, and the way she escaped it.
For the primary three a long time of her life, Katy Morgan-Davies, now 38, was held as a slave beneath the full management of her father, Aravindan Balakrishnan, a self-styled chief known as by his followers as ‘Comrade Bala’ or ‘Comrade B’. Balakrishnan dominated over his daughter and 6 different girls ‘comrades’ with using violence and by inducing psychological terror in his captives.
In 2013, on the age of 30, Davies managed to flee her father’s Maoist cult, identified by its followers because the Communist Collective, in Brixton, south London. Eight years later, she has shared her expertise of her life beneath a cult chief for over three a long time in a telltale interview with The Sunday Times.
More than two years after she fled the cult, in 2016, Balakrishnan, a former scholar on the London School of Economics(LSE), was discovered responsible of a number of offences, together with rape, precise bodily hurt and cruelty to a minor youngster. For over 30 years, he raped two of his followers, the court docket mentioned. At the time of Balakrishnan’s trial, Davies had spoken towards her, stating that it was “horrible, dehumanising and degrading” and that she felt like a “caged bird with clipped wings” beneath Comrade Bala. Balakrishnan was locked up for 23 years for offences together with false imprisonment, youngster cruelty and assault.
Who is Aravindan Balakrishnan?
Born in Kerala, Aravindan Balakrishnan had migrated to Singapore the place his father was stationed as a soldier. Later he shifted to London, the place he accomplished his commencement from the hallowed London School of Economics. Soon after coming to the United Kingdom, Balakrishnan was interested in the communist ideology. In 1974, he was ousted from the Communist Party of England (Marxist–Leninist) on account of “their pursuance of conspiratorial and splittist activities … spreading social fascist slanders against the Party and the proletarian movement” and making an attempt “to put themselves above the discipline of the Party”.
He later created a cult known as the Communist Collective, based mostly on the teachings of the then CCP Chairman Mao Zedong within the late Nineteen Seventies. He styled himself as Comrade Bala and his Tanzanian spouse as Comrade Chanda and enlisted a bunch of feminine followers, who had been initially smitten along with his charismatic patter, however who had been later subjugated by him with using psychological and bodily terror, supernatural threats and sexual violence.
An undated picture of Balakrishnan with members of his cult, together with his daughter(Image Source: Metropolitan Police)Balakrishnan thought of himself as ‘God’
Balakrishnan created a halo of magnificence surrounding him, elevating himself to the place of God. He managed to persuade his followers that he’s the supreme being who may management their minds and possessed the facility of placing them lifeless with a single contact. The cult members had been anticipated to hew to a strict algorithm, which had been punishable by violence. They weren’t allowed to make noise, seem drowsy within the morning or laud each other and plenty of different such restrictions. Though, the foundations would change continuously based mostly on the whims and the fancies of Comrade Bala.
Often, he intimidated his followers with apocalyptic prophecies and by purveying wild conspiracy theories. He had predicted {that a} Maoist revolution would rise and transcend nationwide boundaries, overthrowing the “British Fascist State”, which he claimed had deployed spies and brokers all over the place, even in the home subsequent door. He efficiently satisfied his followers that he was a God, who possessed seamless energy to regulate the solar, the moon, wind and fires. He warned them that they might die in case they abandon or betray him. He mentioned they might be incinerated by spontaneous combustion; mortally injured by a lightning assault; or be struck down by a “Jackie”, a Chinese-built satellite tv for pc weapon over which Comrade Bala instructions management.
Balakrishnan conjured up “Jackie” to threaten his followers; compelled them to swallow his semen saying it was “the elixir of life”
JACKIE was nothing however a figment of Bala’s creativeness, a mystical machine that allegedly monitored all thought and had the facility to regulate minds. According to the cult chief, JACKIE was an acronym for Jehovah, Allah, Christ, Krishna and ‘Immortal Easwaran’. So, on the incidence of any main occasion on the earth, for instance, the explosion of the American Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986 or an earthquake, Bala would hyperlink the reason for the occasion to the imaginary weapon created by him, JACKIE, to bolster its power and intimidate his followers. Years later, a few of his victims are nonetheless scared of listening to the title JACKIE.
Explaining how they had been mentally conditioned to consider JACKIE was actual, Davies had mentioned in 2016, “If I did something wrong, others and me, we would be killed by JACKIE, he would warn us” she informed Sky News. “If he intervened by slapping us and beating us … then JACKIE would think that enough has been done and not kill us. So we should be thankful that he is hurting us … because we would be saved from JACKIE.”
The BBC in January 2017 hosted a documentary, offering particulars in regards to the cult of “JACKIE”

Furthermore, to be able to tighten his management over his followers, Bala asserted to his followers that he’s immortal and they need to obey him unquestioningly, ought to they wish to escape dying. This obedience additionally prolonged to sexual acts and Bala would typically sexually abuse his followers on the pretext of granting them immortality and safeguarding them towards evils.
As per proof introduced within the court docket that finally led to his conviction, Balakrishnan started sexually abusing two of his girls followers in 1979 and sometimes derived sadistic pleasure beating them and making others watch it as he did so. All the ladies held captive by Balakrishnan had been subjected to assault and 4(not together with his spouse) had been reportedly sexually assaulted by him. Balakrishnan compelled the ladies to swallow his ejaculation, touting it to be “the elixir of life“. In his arraignment, Bala defended himself, saying that the women he sexually abused had been attempting to seduce him out of “jealousy” for his lover.
Aravindan Balakrishnan arriving along with his spouse on the Southwark Crown Court in London on Nov 11, 2015(Image Source: The Sun)Katy was born contained in the cult, to one of many followers
A baby was conceived in 1983 after a follower, Sian Davies had fallen pregnant by Balakrishnan. A report by The Guardian had revealed that the collective then undertook a brand new experiment named Project Prem. The youngster was initially named Prem Maopinduzi, which implies Love Revolution. As part of the undertaking, the kid would by no means be informed about her dad and mom. Bala informed her she was a foundling found by him. The final plan was to “hand over the world to her,” a transition that will start with Brazil, through which she would assume management when the time was proper. Prem, after all, was Katy, unbeknownst of the horror that awaited her.
Bala forbade everybody from cuddling her or being affectionate in the direction of the kid. Nor was Prem or Katy allowed to go to a physician and even seek the advice of a dentist. She didn’t attend faculty, though she does have a obscure reminiscence of somebody instructing her to learn and write. However, what Katy remembers vividly is that she was crushed by Bala and his followers on a regular basis. The meanest of the followers, in response to Katy, was Sian, her organic mom.
Katy Morgan Davies(Image Credit: The Guardian)Cooped up in a small room with the home windows coated by two units of curtains, Katy was banned from going exterior, mingling with different kids and socialising with anybody exterior the confines of the cult. Katy first noticed tv when she turned 19.
However, initially, Katy didn’t know who her mom was. Sian was a colonialist, had an imperialist background, which led different cult members to bully her whereas she was unable to say something crucial about Bala.
Sian, who was as soon as a superb scholar at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, fell into the grips of the cult and will by no means escape. After becoming a member of the cult, Sian quickly grew to become one of the loyal devotees of Balakrishnan and ended up getting pregnant by him.
Sian Davies(Image Source: The Independent)In 1996, Katy, who shared the identical surname as her mom, got here to learn about her mom. But by then, her mom was hallucinating from the psychosis induced by Balakrishnan’s psychological video games and years of neglect. She reportedly grew to become in poor health, began speaking to herself, cried hours on size, however was denied in search of exterior medical assist. Later, Sian jumped or fell, from an upstairs window and was paralysed from the neck down. She was admitted to the intensive care unit. Fours months after that, she died.
After realising that she has been held captive, Katy determined to flee from the cult. However, it took years for her to hatch a plan that will end in her liberation. Although Katy had no expertise of the outer world, she hunkered all the way down to deradicalise herself and discover a strategy to exit the cult. She says as she obtained older, her father grew much less involved a couple of neighbour seeing a baby within the window and sounding an alarm. She used this chance to discover what the exterior world was by eyeballing others and attempting to adapt their methods and behavior. This cognition finally helped her in devising a scheme that introduced an finish to the interminable nightmare she was experiencing.
Katy’s devises an escape plan to flee from the brutal cult led by her father
Katy discerned that it will be extraordinarily tough and extremely dangerous to depart the cult on her personal. So, she persuaded one other follower, Josephine Herivel, to affix her within the pursuit to flee from the place. She informed Herivel that Bala’s spouse was a dangerous affect on him, realizing that any denunciation of Balakrishnan can be reported proper again to him. Eventually, utilizing a cell she smuggled in, Josephine known as a helpline of a charity she had seen on tv.
Charity employees Gerard Stocks and Yvonne Hall helped within the rescue of the 2 girls. After Katy and Josie left, a 3rd girl, Aisha, additionally adopted quickly. But, months later, Josie sought Balakrishnan’s forgiveness and returned to reside along with his spouse, Chanda. Josie had even denounced the punishment the court docket had ordered after holding Balakrishnan responsible. Aisha, nonetheless, continues to steer an impartial life in Leeds, England.
When Katy escaped, she had the social abilities of a six-year-old. She couldn’t cross the highway on her personal or use even fundamental home equipment. Her mobility abilities had been severely impaired resulting from years of confinement in a closed area. For a long time, she was denied visits to medical doctors, dentists. Instead, she was condemned to reside throughout the confines of the cult and systematically brainwashed to consider her personal behaviour was chargeable for pure disasters reminiscent of earthquakes, floods and cyclones.
In the BBC documentary, neighbours of the home the place the group existed had revealed that that they had no concept so many individuals had been held captive there. As per experiences, Katie, as a baby, used to carry up indicators on the window, with “help me” written on them. But the letters had been too small to learn. Casual passers-by and neighbours by no means suspected what was occurring inside the home.