What’s ‘Kailasa’, the Controversial Godman Nithyananda’s Fictional Country

Representatives of the controversial godman Nithyananda’s so-called country ‘United States of Kailasa’ (USK) attended a UN meeting last month. Nithyananda is a rape and kidnapping accused, who escaped from India in 2019. A year later he claimed to have established his own country, ‘Kailasa’.

According to the BBC, Nithyananda bought an island off the coast of Ecuador, where he claims to have established ‘Kailasa’. But pictures of his so-called country are hard to find. ‘Kailasa’ of Nithyananda has a social media presence where its representatives regularly post videos and photos of their interaction reportedly with diplomats from around the world.

‘Kailasa’ is named after Mount Kailash in Tibet. According to the website of the fictional country, ‘Kailasa’ is a movement ”founded and spearheaded by members of the Hindu Adi Shaivite minority community from Canada, the United States, and other countries.

On Thursday, the Twitter handle for USK called for applications for e-visa for e-citizenship. ‘Kailasa’ calls itself the “home and refuge for the international Hindu diaspora”.

Apply Now for E-Citizenship of United States of KAILASAhttps://t.co/zPWSIaOVxl#Kailasa #USK #Citizen pic.twitter.com/F9YNxZZgYd

— KAILASA's SPH Nithyananda (@SriNithyananda) March 1, 2023

USK claims to have a flag, a constitution, an economic system, a passport, and an emblem too. It has various departments like treasury, commerce, sovereign, housing, human services and more as mentioned on its website.

Neither United Nations nor any other country has recognized ‘Kailasa’.

According to the Montevideo Convention of 1933, accepted as part of customary international law, for a territory to be called a country, it must have a permanent population, a government, and a capacity to have relationships with other countries.

Nithyananda sent the representatives of ‘Kailasa’ to the UN in a bid to gain acceptance at an international forum. But the UN called the submissions made by Vijayapriya Nithyananda “irrelevant” and that those will not be considered in the final outcome drafts.

‘Kailasa’ is at best a micronation or a self-proclaimed entity claiming to be an independent sovereign state but is not recognised by the international community or the UN. According to the Independent, there were about 80 micronations in the world in 2019.