Not all deras are dens of debauchery

Harish Khare

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has given a bad name to all the deras and all the gurus. That would be unfair to the entire breed.

Deras and ashrams have been integral to the Indian social scene. I prefer to think of the deras and ashrams as natural manifestations of a changing social order; these are to be seen as outlets attending to the needs in society, beyond what the conventional religion is able to provide or not provide. Every organised religion develops a clergy and a hierarchy that over decades becomes rigidly demanding, choking up individualism and insisting on a conformist orthodoxy. In good time, there is dissent, a rebellion and a new sect, a new dera, a new math.

In modern parlance, the deras and ashrams are expressions of civil society at work, filling in the void created by the State’s failure to provide social protection and comfort to various social segments. Like a Lions Club or a Rotary Club, Dera Sacha Sauda also claims to be engaged in doing socially useful work. 

People at all times and in every age have felt the need for spiritual fellowship. A successful guru is able to manufacture a unique relationship with his followers; a mutually convenient myth is created that the follower is blessed by proximity with the guru; each devotee is encouraged to feel that he/she shares a very special bond of nobility with the “baba”. 

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OUTSIDERS  may scoff at the deras, but for the devotees there is a very definite comfort, involving rites of inclusion and exclusion. Each dera creates its own special solidarity, which most devotees find very empowering, helping them cope with the vicissitudes of life. Deras obviously create a different world of alternate values where the followers feel respected and wanted. They offer approval and acceptance to the devotee. 

In real life, most people have a need to follow — a leader, a guru, a role model, anyone who they think can help them make sense of a bewildering cruel world. This weakness is not just limited to the poor; even the very wealthy and well-to-do sections in society tend to gravitate towards the babas and gurus. Look at, for example, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Maharaj and his upper class followers who feel pricey because they are his followers. 

Many do laugh at Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s pretensions to be Messenger of God. But he certainly seems to have a remarkable organisational talent and a marketing touch that would be the envy of any public relations executive. Many find his sales pitch to be crude and uncouth, but there is nothing insincere about it. He does not hide behind the ochre robe; unlike that other Baba, Ramdev, he does not invoke our “nationalism” to sell his merchandise of biscuits, facewash, and toothpaste. 

I think where all these babas and deras go wrong is in getting enticed by the corrupting politician’s allurements; or, in thinking that they can exploit the politician for their own use. No one — and, that means, no one — ever gets the better of the politician. 

What I fail to understand is the dera’s choice of the politician. I would like to presume that these deras are run by some very intelligent and shrewd men. And, these prescient men should know that deras are the natural enemies in the Hindutva project. The ultimate goal of the Hindutva project is to impose a monolithic order on all strands of Hindu society, whereas the deras and the ashrams are islands of customised separateness.

No one should be surprised if last Friday’s violence is used to see to it that the Dera Sacha Sauda stands dismantled.

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SINCE its formation in 1966, this is first time that Haryana has had a BJP government. Till a few weeks ago, an advertisement campaign was serenading 1,000 days of “manohar raj” in Haryana. Pleasant and benign rule of Manohar Lal Khattar. The Chief Minister was even feted by the newly proclaimed “Chanakya” of Indian politics, Amit Shah of the BJP. And, now Haryana burns. So much for Chanakyan foresight. 

Perhaps, the most disappointed lot would be those impresarios in Nagpur. Yet another RSS poster boy has turned out to be such a disappointment. The RSS assiduously instigates a view that anyone who gets baptised as a swayamsevak gets automatically endowed with qualities befitting a public office. 

That may be the Nagpur mantra but the RSS experiment in Haryana has cost the state heavily. For the second time in sixteen months, the state has been subjected to massive convulsions and disorder, only because the Chief Minster has failed to graduate from a swayamsevak to an administrator. Anyone can be appointed a chief minister (a la Yogi Adityanath) and he can also be given any number of advisers and officers but when the push comes to a shove, it is the top man and his reflexes that overshadow the decision-making. Novices will be novices.

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A few weeks ago, a former chief secretary of Haryana, Ram Sahai Varma, came over to have a cup of coffee. He very graciously brought for me a copy of his latest book, My encounters with the THREE LALS OF HARYANA. It had since been sitting in the pile of books to be read in due course. On Friday night, after a long day that saw the collapse of the state order in Haryana, I impulsively picked up Ram Varma Sahib’s book. I wanted to understand why suddenly in these last three years the governing structure in Haryana has become so precarious. 

The Foreword, by SK Misra, an outstanding officer of the Haryana cadre, itself was rather rewarding. In his own way, Misra Sahib laid out the qualities that make a chief minister an outstanding leader of men. 

Bansi Lal is a much maligned man, but no chief minister, before and after him, has managed to come anywhere near his record and reputation as an able administrator. Misra delineates perhaps the elementary qualities a chief minister should have: “Bansi Lal...was totally raw so far as administrative experience was concerned. It was thus all the more remarkable that he was able to harness the bureaucracy for the benefit of the state, giving us his trust and support and shielding us from other unscrupulous politicians.”

About Devi Lal, Misra counts the qualities of “a large heart, a lack of malice and, unlike the stereotyped Jat, a general lack of vindictiveness.” And, a gift for realising his mistake and making amends for it. That’s it. 

I do hope that Ram Varma has thought of giving a copy of the book to Mr Khattar also. The Chief Minister will certainly benefit from it.

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THE CBI office in Chandigarh is just half a block away from my residence. I had always felt doubly safe to have the premier investigation agency just a stone’s throw away. But these last three days, the CBI presence is a nuisance. The entire area has been cordoned off with concertina wires. Dislocations are disruptions. And, disruptions are irritating. 

Well, the violence and deaths in the region have soured the mood. But, still I raise my cup of coffee to the honourable judges of the Punjab and Haryana who insisted on a rule of law. Join me. 

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