After about three years of meetings it became clear that Om Mandali was giving very special importance to the role of women, and was not adhering to the caste system. The group had named a 22-year-old woman, Radhe Pokardas Rajwani (then known as "Om Radhe") as its president, and her management committee was made up of eight other women.[8] People from any caste were allowed to attend meetings.[9] The group also advocated that young women had the right to elect not to marry and that married women had the right to choose a celibate life. In tradition-bound patriarchal India, these personal life decisions were the exclusive right of men.[7] A committee headed by a number of important male members of the Bhaibund community began to form in opposition and became known as the 'Anti-Om Mandali Committee'. On 21 June 1938 this group picketed Om Mandali's premises preventing members from entering. This caused considerable upheaval in the community. Women attending were verbally abused, there was an attempt to burn the premises down and the police made several arrests. Many women and girls were later victims of domestic violence in their homes.[10] The picketing resulted in criminal proceedings being taken against both groups, and on 16 August 1938 the local District Magistrate ordered that Om Mandali be prevented from meeting. This ban was reversed on 21 November 1938 after an appeal to the Court of the Judicial Commissioner of Sind.[11] In an unusual move the judges directly criticised the District Magistrate for trying to punish the victims for the disturbance caused by the perpetrators and for trying to apply the law according to his own personal bias.[12] Nevertheless, in an increasingly sour atmosphere, Om Mandali had decided to leave Hyderabad and gradually relocated its activities to Karachi in the latter half of 1938. Approximately 300 members moved.[13]
