Opinion: Train to Begumpura — culture of Dera Ballan

THE conferment of the prestigious Padma Shri award on Sant Niranjan Dass of Dera Sachkhand, popularly called Dera Ballan, of Jalandhar by the Central government has understandably brought the dera into national limelight. Punjab has deras, big and small, in thousands, but this dera in particular has wielded great prominence and influence in the region for many decades.The last time it hogged the headlines was when one of its sants, who was visiting Vienna in Austria in 2009, was shot dead, leading to massive protests and uproar back home. One of the sants who escaped the murderous attack was Sant Niranjan Dass, the current gaddi-nashin or chief of the dera.The dera of Ballan, also known as Dera Sachkhand, was founded by Baba Pipal Das around the early 20th century. In its more than a century of existence, the dera first emerged as a centre of the propagation of the teachings and Bani of the 15th century Bhakti saint-poet Ravidas, and later and more recently as the Ravidassia movement.The credit, however, for converting this nondescript village-based place of worship to the epicentre of identity assertion around the figure of Guru Ravidas goes to Sant Sarwan Das, who became the chief of the dera after Baba Pipal Das. Sant Sarwan Das was revolutionary in his zeal and commitment to spread education among his people, who largely belonged to the community of chamar caste, which worked on leather and was considered untouchable in the traditional caste hierarchy. Ravidas too belonged to that community and, hence, this association.Incidentally, the word ‘chamar’ has been owned with pride by the Ravidassia community of Doaba and the Dera Ballan in its slogans, songs and other publicity materials.Much of the philanthropic initiative in the area of education and health, in particular, for which the dera is known today is because of Sant Sarwan Das and his visionary spiritual and political philosophy that "aligned itself with and drew inspiration from BR Ambedkar's politics and Babu Mangoo Ram's Ad-Dharmi movement.Since its inception, the dera largely worked within the Sikh rahit maryada and, at the same time, propagated the Banis of Guru Ravidas. Given the egalitarian and inclusive epistemic cosmos of Sikhism and the holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, that included verses from many bhakti sants coming from lower castes, the syncretic and co-existential religious landscape of Punjab looked in harmony with its diversity and pluralist ethos.But things changed with time. Practices defied theory. Despite the unambiguous anti-caste and egalitarian temperament, caste-like formations emerged within Sikhism. Separate gurdwaras emerged in villages. The rise and mushrooming of deras followed. For, they experimented and nurtured counter-perspectives to the mainstream. The dera of Ballan too progressively took that route, leading to strained relationships. More importantly, it also drifted from the Ad-Dharmi template that emphasised larger Dalit formation rather than the exclusive Ravidassia framework.The Vienna incident of 2009 was the culmination of these strains that had been building for many years. Post Vienna, in the aftermath of the killing of Sant Ramanand, the dera took some hard decisions. In 2010, it declared a separate religion called Ravidassia Dharma. It compiled a book of the Banis of Ravidas in the following year.The book was announced to the world not from Jalandhar but from Varanasi, where the dera has built a huge Guru Ravidas Janam Asthan Mandir at a place called Seergovardhanpur, close to the BHU campus.It is believed that the place is the birthplace of Guru Ravidas. This project was initiated by Sant Sarwan Das in the 1970s and it has gained momentum since, with the assistance of the generous support from the Ravidassia diaspora in the decades that followed.Each year, on the birth anniversary celebrations or Ravidas Jayanti, dera Ballan organises a special train journey by what it calls the Begumpura Express which takes the pilgrims from Jalandhar to Varanasi amidst the thunderous sloganeering of "Jo bole so nirbahi, guru Ravidas Maharaj ki jai" (those followers are the fearless who hail Guru Ravidas).The aggressive political positioning and posturing of the post-Vienna days gradually settled and the dera has become quieter and much mellowed now insofar as the movement for a separate Ravidassia religion is concerned.But the influence and political capital that it commands from its followers, both locally and globally, have only grown. Understandably, political parties of all stripes have been making attempts to warm up to these deras.The status of Punjab as a state with the highest SC population — roughly 33 per cent — makes the electoral worth of these deras all the more in demand. This number, though, hides a reality — the fragmented status of Dalit politics in Punjab. Dera Ballan may be a prominent Ravidassia Dera, but there are many other Ravidassia groups that disagree with the politics of Dera Ballan, with many sticking to the Ad-Dharmi template of Dalit mobilisation (which proposes an inclusive umbrella organisation for the Dalits) rather than a separate Ravidassia identity.Moreover, other Dalit groups, such as that of Valmikis, too have been alienated. The Congress's Channi experiment had backfired precisely because of over-dependence on Dera Ballan. The Congress clearly underestimated the fragmented reality of the Dalits in the state and misread the situation on the ground.This year, Ravidas Jayanti falls on February 1. Dera Ballan and Sant Niranjan Dass will undertake the Begumpura Express again. The train will reach Varanasi. But when it will reach Be-gum-pura — the utopia that Guru Ravidas imagined of a city without sorrow and discrimination — only time will tell.Santosh K Singh is the author of The Deras: Culture, Diversity and Politics

Opinion: Train to Begumpura — culture of Dera Ballan

At 33%, Punjab has the highest SC population. But this number hides a reality — the fragmented status of Dalit politics in the state.

Santosh K Singh

Unlock Premium Insights in This Article