Introduction
The phenomenon of social mobility in India has often been seen through the prism of two major DalitFootnote 1 agendas: conversionFootnote 2 and sanskritisation.Footnote 3 It is generally believed that Dalits make use of one or other of these two agendasFootnote 4 to escape caste-based discriminations and social exclusion which has been forced upon them by the oppressive Hindu social order for centuries.Footnote 5 The question that still remains largely unexplored is how far these agendas are really capable of explaining the entire gamut of ongoing Dalit social mobility in India. Or, do we need some alternative agenda to map the complex and mercurial nature of social mobility among Dalits across the country marked by wide ranging regional diversities and varied social hierarchies? This paper is a modest attempt in this regard, focusing on Punjab as its critical case study.
Let me clarify at the outset the context of the universe of this study. First, though conversion and sanskritisation have been taken up as the two main modes of Dalit social mobility in India, it does not imply at all that these are the only ways to explain such mobility. No doubt there exist a number of ways to approach and elucidate the issue of Dalit social mobility in the country including East Punjab. However, one of the main reasons behind focusing on conversion and sanskritisation in this study relates to the fact that they are widely discussed in social science research on this subject in India and abroad. The central focus of the study remains on examining the emerging patterns of an alternative agenda of Dalit social mobility in Punjab. This emerging agenda is popularly known by several names such as Ad/Adi/Sant Dharm, Ravidassism, Ravidass Dharm, Guru Ravidass movement or Ravidass Deras movement. It is argued that what distinguishes the alternative Dalit agenda from conversion and sanskritisation is that it gives expression to the native religion and heritage of the Punjabi Dalits as indigenous inhabitants of the land, without inducing them to get assimilated into the dominant regional cultural patterns or to convert to another religious faith. The adherence to Ad Dharm or the cult of Ravidass is neither a case of conversion nor of sanskritisation. On the contrary, it can be characterized as a case of Dalit homecoming as well as a radical mode of Dalit social protest.
Second, despite the oppressive practice of untouchability being declared a criminal offence under the constitution of Independent India and under various other acts passed subsequently, it has been able to survive in various subtle forms given the complex social stratification in the country. It continues to dehumanize and humiliate Dalits even 60 years after India's independence. And the Dalits continue to struggle hard against their social exclusion while fighting for long denied human rights, dignity and identity. Punjab is no exception, even though it has long boasted a caste-free society.
Third, social status in Punjab, primarily an agrarian state, is basically measured in terms of possession of land; a currency of power and prestige. Almost all the land in Punjab is under the control of the dominant/upper castes. Dalits, to a large extent, are absolutely landless. Moreover, there is a general prejudice prevalent among the dominant/upper castes against Dalits in Punjab, that prevents the former from selling land to the latter, thus rendering them ‘hopelessly’ landless forever. Members of the dominant castes often consider it below their prestige to sell land to Dalits. During a fracas among members of a dominant caste it is common to hear one party threatening the other by saying that it will sell land/house to a low caste so as to fix the opponent by compelling him/her to ‘live with’ a low-caste neighbour. During my field work it came to my notice that although some of the Dalits can afford to buy land, due to such prejudices they find it hard to locate a potential seller among dominant castes. In Punjab it is social taboo among dominant castes to sell land to Dalits, which is indeed a unique form of social exclusion.
The paper is divided into five sections. The first section provides a brief account of the conversion and sanskritisation agendas and how they have been received and responded to in Punjab. The second section offers a synoptic view of the emerging alternative Dalit agenda and outlines the rationale behind choosing Punjab for the case study. In the third section, a detailed discussion about the Ravidass phenomenon and the crucial role it continues to play in facilitating the emergence of an alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab is presented. The role that the Ad Dharm movement of Punjab has played in chiseling the distinct markers of this alternative agenda is the key concern of the fourth section. The last section outlines the contemporary state-of-affairs of the alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab. Who benefits from and who is disadvantaged by this agenda, and what conflicts of interest it gives rise to are also discussed in this section.
This paper is the outcome of my ethnographic research based on participant observation and open-ended conversations with a large number of Dalit leaders, activists, intellectuals, followers of Guru Ravidass, and priests of various Ravidass shrines, conducted during the eight years 2001–2009, both in Punjab (particularly in the Doaba region)Footnote 6 and abroad (especially among the Punjabi Dalit diaspora in the United States and Canada). The paper has also drawn on hitherto relatively ignored but quite significant popular Dalit literature, scattered in the form of speeches, booklets, leaflets, handouts, pamphlets, posters, calendars, bhajans (devotional songs), idioms, aphorisms, poems and songs about the phenomenon of Ravidass and the Ad Dharm movement, the two main factors behind the emergence of the alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab.
Conversion and sanskritisation problematique
Rooted in the radical philosophy of the Satyashodhak movementFootnote 7, the Buddhist conversion agenda has aimed at Dalit emancipation through ‘unequivocal rejection of Hinduism’.Footnote 8 It is based on the premise that Hinduism contained the seeds of social exclusion, which prompted the upper castes to perpetrate atrocities on Dalits by enlisting support from the oppressive declarations of Hindu sacred texts known as Vedas, Upanishads, Dharamsastras, Smritis, Puranas, and the Epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata. This agenda, argues Jayashree B. Gokhale, ‘. . .was intended to be a counter-ideology that would combat the penetration of varna,Footnote 9 offer an alternative interpretation of the situation of the Untouchables, and provide a basis on which they could unite politically’.Footnote 10 It severs ties with all the social and political organization of the upper castes, and accords no place whatsoever even to the popular bhakti (devotional mode of veneration) movement, which is often eulogised as a unique movement for the emancipation of Dalits.Footnote 11 The objective of the Buddhist conversion was to restore a sense of self-respect, dignity, and autonomy of Dalits who had been reduced to the status of mere ‘objects of ideological condemnation and material servitude’, and were deprived of bare minimum human existence for centuries.Footnote 12
Aimed at empowering Dalits to confront and contest the superstitious and oppressive Brahminical social order, this agenda was designed by none other than Dr B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) who along with thousands of his followers, mainly from his own Mahar casteFootnote 13 in Maharashtra, converted to Buddhism at the historic public ceremony in Nagpur on 14 October 1956.Footnote 14 The decision of Ambedkar to embrace Buddhism was not at all a precipitous occurrence.Footnote 15
In fact, it was a unique and meticulously calculated move.Footnote 16 It took him more than two decadesFootnote 17 to translate his vow for conversion into a viable system of neo-Buddhism/Navayana Buddhism, or what is also appropriately called the ‘Fourth Way’ (in contrast to the three traditional ways of Hinyana, Mahayana and VajrayanaFootnote 18) which, he believed, would usher in an egalitarian social order free from the hierarchies of savarnas (upper castes) and avarnas (lower castes). The historic conversion ceremony at Nagpur assumed further importance with the posthumous publication of Ambedkar's magnum opus, ‘The Buddha and his Dhamma’,Footnote 19 which transformed Dalit Buddhists/neo-Buddhists into what Brian Stock has perceptively described as a ‘textual community’.Footnote 20 This classic text by Ambedkar eventually acquired the status of the Bible or the Koran for the neo-Buddhists,Footnote 21 who perceived it as an icon of their distinct social identity.
Ambedkar discovered in his conversion to Buddhism the most desired and reliable way of overcoming the centuries-old system of untouchability. The central thesis of the Buddhist philosophy, according to Ambedkar, revolves around two major problems: ‘the first problem was that there was suffering in the world and the second was how to remove this suffering and make mankind happy’.Footnote 22 Since untouchability, dehumanizes the Dalits, resulting in extreme suffering, Ambedkar underlined the urgency of its total annihilation. It is in this context that the adoption of ‘action-oriented Buddhism’Footnote 23 by Ambedkar needs to be understood. It aimed at the realization of following two interrelated objectives: (i) annihilation of caste and (ii) reconstruction of a new society based on the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity.Footnote 24 Since annihilation of caste and reconstruction of an egalitarian social order go hand-in-hand, the agenda of Buddhist conversion did not imply desertion of Indian society at all.Footnote 25 On the contrary, as pointed out by Janet A. Contursi, Ambedkar rather ‘wanted Untouchables to reject the Hindu Social order without forfeiting their Indian cultural heritage, and he saw in Buddhism a rational and moral ethic that would challenge the obscurantist elements of Hinduism and provide a philosophy of action for Untouchables’.Footnote 26 Thus Ambedkar's call for the withdrawal of Dalits from Hinduism did not imply dissociation from ‘the wider Indian civil society’.Footnote 27 In fact, it underlined their entry into the ‘political’ in the country by redefining and reconstituting their relationship with the non-Brahminical segments of the Indian society. Critically exploring the logic behind the historic Dalit conversion at Nagpur, Gauri Vishwanathan argues that, ‘If Ambedkar exhorted [U]ntouchables to leave Hinduism for cultural self-renewal, he conceived of that departure not as a withdrawal into an autonomous space but as a prerequisite to reclaiming India as the nation from which Untouchables had been severed by political disenfranchisement’.Footnote 28 It is against this backdrop that neo-Buddhism placed Dalit Buddhists in a strategic opposition to the oppressive Hindu culture, and aimed at providing them with a distinct social and cultural identity precisely within a reclaimed, reformed Indian society.Footnote 29
Conversion to Buddhism encourages strategic alliance between the non-Brahminical/Shudras/Bahujan Samaj/artisans and the Dalit/Atishudras sections of Indian society and calls for their united front against the oppressive and hegemonic structures of Brahminical social order. As argued by Jayashree B. Gokhale, Buddhist conversion ‘was a means for the unification of those who had been exploited and oppressed by the varna order.. . . Its acceptance by all those who stood in a similar class position regardless of caste could result in a powerful coalition capable of challenging the established structure’.Footnote 30 Forging unity among the victims of the ‘varna order’ in turn aimed at reclaiming India on the basis of the neo-Buddhist identity. The very fact that Dr Ambedkar founded three political parties (the Independent Labour Party, All India Scheduled Castes Federation and the Republican Party of India), and the leading role that he played in drafting the Constitution of independent India, vindicated his active involvement in the polity and society of the country even after denouncing Hinduism publicly in1935 and later on embracing Buddhism in 1956.Footnote 31
However, in the post-Ambedkar Dalit movement in India, the Buddhist conversion agenda achieved only partial success.Footnote 32 It could not succeed in germinating an all-India inclusive counter-ideology contesting the well-entrenched birth/caste-based system of social exclusion. Although at the individual level, and in specific terms of the Mahar-Buddhist community, this agenda has been presented ‘as a major success’, but its collective impact turned out to be ‘the opposite of what was intended’.Footnote 33 It has not only added a new Dalit community to the already existing long list of Dalit castes in India, but has also sharpened the phenomenon of caste hierarchy within Dalits. Moreover, it further failed to salvage the newly created distinct Mahar-Buddhist community from the typical discriminatory and oppressive regimes of social stratification epitomized by Brahmins.Footnote 34
Sanskritisation is another equally popular Dalit agenda that promises social mobility among the downtrodden by making them emulate the cultural patterns of the caste Hindus. This agenda expects Dalits to indulge in self-purification by introducing Sanskritic reforms such as ‘adopting vegetarianism and teetotalism, and by Sanskritizing its ritual and pantheon’.Footnote 35 Drawing sustenance from the bhakti and various other reform movements, the sanskritisation agenda requires Dalits to forget their distinct social identity and recast it in the image of savarnas. Despite its promise to mitigate the adverse impact of caste on Dalits, sanskritisation tends to ‘provide an upgrading and ‘modernization’ of high-caste domination’.Footnote 36 Thus sanskritisation reinforces the structural logic of Hinduism by asking Dalits to internalize the very same social system that they would like to contest in the first place. In fact, it forces them to imbibe outmoded cultural patterns of the upper castes without seeking any radical change in the centuries-old hierarchical and most oppressive structures of Brahminical social order.
It is in the context discussed above that the agenda of sanskritisation too has failed to liberate Dalits from the clutches of the oppressive Brahminical social order. Instead of ensuring emancipation and autonomy, it pleaded more for the ‘assimilation or integration’ of the socially excluded sections of Indian society. It did not intend to bring about what Srinivas describes as a ‘structural change’ in the hegemonic caste order in the country. On the contrary, it forced Dalits to live with just ‘positional changes’ in the Brahminical social order under the paternalistic leadership of caste Hindus.Footnote 37 The agenda of sanskritisation, originally introduced among the Nadars or Shanars of Travancore and Tamil country in the first third of the nineteenth century, and still in operation in the form of a ‘behavioural self-improvement movement’ among the socially excluded, perhaps accounts for the most significant manifestation of Dalit social mobility during the first two decades of the twentieth century.Footnote 38 But since sanskritisation has its inbuilt limitations in overcoming the structures of the oppressive Brahminical social order, it failed to expand as an effective agency of social change among the Dalits in India.
Conversion and sanskritisation in Punjab
Whatever little success the agendas of Buddhist conversion and sanskritisation might have had in certain parts of the country, they have failed to replicate in Punjab. Nevertheless, Punjab has its own story of conversion, primarily to SikhismFootnote 39 and Christianity.Footnote 40 Contrary to their high expectations, conversion to Sikhism and Christianity in Punjab has failed to liberate Dalits from the abyss of untouchability.Footnote 41 As far as Dalit conversion to Christianity is concerned, it remains confined primarily to Chuhra caste, one of the most numerical castes among the Dalits of Punjab. Even among the members of the Chuhra caste, the conversion to Christianity remained confined to a few districts of Gujranwala, Sailkot, and Gurdaspur in pre-partition Punjab. After the partition in 1947, it has been confined largely to the Gurdaspur district of the East Punjab.Footnote 42 The Chuhras of Punjab ‘were rural menials whose traditional occupation was listed as sweeper although most actually worked as agricultural labourers’ on the lands of dominant castes in a patron-client relationship. Usually referred to in English as ‘sweepers’ and mostly landless, they were historically relegated to the very bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy.Footnote 43 Their conversion to Christianity did not make much difference as far as their status in the ‘hierarchical social relationships within the villages’ of Punjab is concerned. As argued by Webster, ‘[t]his was a gospel of social mobility through inner transformation rather than of structural change through united political action’.Footnote 44 What Christian evangelists were aiming at, in fact, was to raise the lowly converts socially, intellectually, morally and spiritually, and to bring them at par with ‘the best Christians from the upper classes’,Footnote 45 rather than to change the graded social system of caste hierarchy.
The story of conversion to Sikhism is not different either. Dalits embraced Sikhism in the hope of attaining social equality, but the curse of untouchability continued to afflict them even in their new avatar.Footnote 46 Conversion made no difference whatsoever to the geographies of the marginalized location of Dalit Sikhs. Among the Dalit Sikhs, Mazhabis and Ramdasias have been the most deprivedFootnote 47. They continued to struggle within their segregated Dalit locations, contemptuously called ‘Vehras’, ‘Thhattis’ or ‘Chamarlees’, relegated to the periphery on the western side of the mainstream village settlements.Footnote 48 They have not been granted any space in the Panthic (Sikh religious, organizational and political bodies) structures of power. All the Sikh organizations such as the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, Shiromani Akali Dal, and managing committees of various local gurdwaras, have remained beyond their reach. In an empirical study of the caste background of the members of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, conducted by Narinderpal Singh in 2007, it is found that 80 per cent of its administrative posts are under the control of the Jat Sikhs, 15 per cent under other castes and only 5 per cent are with the Dalit Sikhs (Mazhabis and Ramdasias).Footnote 49 All three current secretaries of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee are Jat Sikhs. Out of its six current additional secretaries, three happen to be Jat Sikhs, one is Lobana Sikh and the remaining two belong to other backward castes. Out of the total of 60 committees of local gurdwaras, heads of 48 are Jat Sikhs.Footnote 50 Reflecting on the distinction between the ‘caste’ and the ‘outcaste’ members of the Panth, Joyce Pettigrew has observed: ‘[t]he only custom in which any solidarity was expressed among the Jats on a caste basis was that in the village they did not visit the houses of Mazhabis, take food from them, eat with them or intermarry with them’.Footnote 51 People belonging to the dominant castes continued to identify the Ramdasia and Mazhabi Sikhs by their earlier titles—Chamars and ChuhrasFootnote 52. The latter still sit separately along with their Hindu Dalit counterparts in a corner at the entrance of the gurdwaras.Footnote 53 In an empirical field study entitled, ‘Problem of Untouchability among Sikhs in Punjab’, Rashpal Walia found that though the Mazhabi Sikhs have abandoned their traditional occupation of removing human excreta, their status in Sikh society still remains the same: the lowest.Footnote 54
The phenomenon of social boycott of Dalits in rural Punjab is another serious aspect of ongoing caste-based discriminations in the state. Rarely a day passes when Dalits are spared of such humiliating boycotts by dominant castes in the villages.Footnote 55 After the much-publicized Talhan conflict,Footnote 56 Punjab has witnessed a large number of similar cases in its rural settings. Villages such as Pandori Khajoor in the district of Hoshiarpur, Bhattian Bet of Ludhiana, Talhan, Meham and Athaula of Jalandhar, Patteraiwal of Abhor, Jethumajra and Chahal of Nawan Shahr, Aligarh of Ludhiana, Domaeli and Chak Saboo of Kapurthala, Dhamiana of Ropar, Abuul Khurana of Mukitsar, and Dallel Singh wala, Kamalpur and Hasanpur of Sangrur, and Jhabbar of Mansa are among the most prominent cases of social boycotts and atrocities on Dalits in Punjab. Social boycott is often slapped on Dalits by the upper/dominant castes, probably because the former have been demanding a legitimate share in the local structures of power.Footnote 57 It seems as if the strategy of social boycott and the Dalit assertion for legitimate rights are organically linked. Consequently, the systematic denial of their fundamental human rights has forced Dalits to establish their own separate religious centres interchangeably known as deras, temples, gurughars, and gurdwaras.Footnote 58 They have also formed their separate janjghars (marriage centres) and cremation groundsFootnote 59 in Punjab. The phenomenon of Ravidass deras/temples/gurdwaras is not only confined to the state of Punjab, it has also gained equal importance among the rich Dalit diasporas.Footnote 60 The recent attack on the Ravidassia sants (spiritual persons) of the Dera Sachkhand Ballan of Punjab during their visit to Guru Ravidass Temple in Vienna on 24 May 2009Footnote 61 has brought the phenomenon of the Ravidass derasFootnote 62 to the centre of the world map. The Ravidass Deras in fact have become a critical agency that graphically manifest and articulate the otherwise dormant dimensions of alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab and overseas. The dimensions and dynamics of the agency of the Ravidass Deras are discussed in detail in the last section of this paper.
Buddhist conversion
Conversion to Buddhism in Punjab, like many other parts of the country, has also failed to enlist good response. Although conversion to Buddhism began with much fanfare in the Doaba region of Punjab on 17 June 1958 under the leadership of Dada Sahib Gaikward of the Republican Party of India, it soon ran out of steam.Footnote 63 Since then, over the last four decades, a number of mass conversion ceremonies were organized at different places in the Doaba region of Punjab.Footnote 64 Invariably, all these so-called mass conversion ceremonies ended up in attracting only a small fraction of Dalits into the fold of neo-Buddhism. As of 1981, only 1,253 persons were able to embrace Buddhism in Punjab including the Union Territory of Chandigarh—the capital of two states of the Indian Union, Punjab and Haryana.Footnote 65 The picture remained more or less the same over the next two decades to follow. At present, Buddhists (mostly Dalits) constitute only 0.2 per cent (41,487) of the total population of the state of Punjab.Footnote 66 It would not be an exaggeration to say that Neo-Buddhism has failed to strike roots in Punjab. One hardly finds any evidence of its presence around.Footnote 67 Even though some Buddha Viharas (Buddhist shrines) have come up in Punjab over the last few years, they have failed to attract the Dalits of the state. Most of them have been functioning without the provision of permanent Bhikkhus (Buddhist priests) and are opened only on the occasion of certain holy events, such as Buddha Jayantis (birth and death anniversaries of Lord Buddha).Footnote 68 Moreover, all the Buddha Viharas have been established by, or with the financial support of, the Punjabi Dalit Buddhist diaspora.Footnote 69 In other words, there is not much zeal about neo-Buddhism among the Dalits of Punjab.
Diwan Chand Ahir, a reputed Buddhist scholar of the region, attributes the ‘slow and tardy’ growth of neo-Buddhism in Punjab to the ‘over-zealous attachment’ of the Dalits to Guru Ravidass, the most famous Dalit sant of the medieval north Indian Bhakti movement.Footnote 70 The roots of the faith of Guru Ravidass in Punjab seem to have gone so deep, argues Ahir that ‘(s)ome people say that Ravidas was our father, how can we disown our father?’Footnote 71 The fact that the maiden Buddhist conversion ceremony (1958) in Punjab was organized at a place called Dehra Guru Ravidass Mandir, situated on Phagwara-Jalandhar main road (believed to be visited by Guru Ravidass during one of his sojourns to the state) illustrates the stronghold of the Ravidass faith in the region.Footnote 72 The snail-pace growth of neo-Buddhism in Punjab could also be due to the mushroom growth of Deras of various nomenclatures, such as Radha Soamis, Sacha Sauda, Nirankaris, Namdharis, Divya Jyoti Sansthan, and Bhaniarawala, having a deep following among the Dalit population of the state.Footnote 73 The failure to overcome the sense of alienation among the Dalits, caused by deeply entrenched graded caste hierarchy, could be yet another reason behind the poor response neo-Buddhism has received in the state. As C. L. Chumber, Editor-in-Chief of the vernacular monthly Kaumi Udarian, puts it so graphically: ‘I could not find even a single example showing inter-caste marriages among the various converted Dalit Buddhist castes in Punjab’.Footnote 74
The story related to the fate of the agenda of sanskritisation in Punjab is even worse. The standard markers of the mainstream model of sanskritisation, as identified by its major proponent M. N. Srinivas, have failed to find any resonance in the case of Punjab. Sanskritisation in Punjab is more material than cultural both in content and form. Punjab is primarily an agrarian state. In an agrarian economy, possession of land, as compared with Brahminical rituals and ceremonies, is generally perceived as a key to higher social status. Moreover, for many centuries Punjab remained under the influence of Islam that loosened the grip of Brahminical forces on social structures. The rise of an egalitarian Sikh faith in the fifteenth century further weakened the remnant Brahminical forces by negating the role of ritual and ceremonial practices. Eventually, the space vacated by the Brahminical ritual and ceremonial practices has been filled up by the dominant regional cultural patterns thriving on social status based on the possession of land. Since the dominant agrarian peasant community in Punjab has replaced what Brahmins are in terms of social hierarchy in other parts of the country, the criterion of measuring social status has also undergone a major change. In such a distinct socio-economic milieu, social status has come to be defined more in terms of possession of land rather than ritual and ceremonial practices. This new system of social mobility makes the possession of land a prerequisite for all those who desire upward mobility on the social ladder in Punjab. The possession of land has come to be identified as a key index of social status in Punjab in the same way as emulation of upper caste cultural symbols and social practices (as mentioned by M. N. Srinivas in his celebrated thesis on sanskritisation) used to be, and still is, in other parts of India. It is in this particular context of Punjab that the phenomenon of sanskritisation has been understood more in terms of material than cultural indicators. I shall return to this point, with a detailed account of the reasons behind the failure of the mainstream sanskritisation agenda in Punjab, shortly in one of the sub-sections below.
So far, I have concentrated mainly on the agendas of conversion and sanskritisation in general, exploring the key reasons behind their dismal performance in Punjab. I have argued that both these agendas have failed to carve a niche among the Dalits of Punjab. But that does not imply that the Dalits of Punjab have remained entirely bereft of social mobility. On the contrary, they have been able to acquire an enormous amount of social mobility independently of the conversion and sanskritisation agendas.Footnote 75 What has prompted the Dalits of Punjab to strive for social mobility, despite the failure of conversion and sanskritisation agendas, and how the same could possibly be articulated in pursuit of an alternative Dalit agenda of equity and social justice, constitutes the central and critical concern of the remaining sections of this paper.
Contours of Alternative Dalit Agenda
Before I take on the task of articulating an alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab, the central concern of this paper, let me quickly paraphrase the rationale behind choosing Punjab as a critical case study. Moreover, such an exercise may also throw some light on the raison d'être for the need of such an agenda in Punjab.
Caste in Punjab
Punjab has a unique pattern of caste hierarchyFootnote 76 and social exclusion that distinguishes it from the mainstream Hindu social order, which prevails in the rest of the country.Footnote 77 In the predominant Hindu social order, Brahmins are placed at the top of the caste hierarchy. However, that order does not prevail in Punjab. Brahmins in Punjab are not venerated. Instead, they are treated rather derogatorilyFootnote 78 and are condemned as a mang khani jaat (a community/caste simply living on alms). Thus against the established practice of Hindu varnashrama dharma (a four-fold division of Hindu society based on a graded rank system of caste hierarchy),Footnote 79 Brahmins in Punjab are denied the status of sacred/holy persons or demi-gods. They have been, curiously enough, replaced by Jat Sikhs,Footnote 80 who considered themselves superior to all other castes in the state.Footnote 81 The replacement of Brahmins by the Jat Sikhs, however, has nothing to do with the complex patterns of Brahminical ritual and ceremonial practices. To be precise, it is due more to material and political considerations.
In fact, what matters the most in the predominantly agrarian political economy of Punjab is the ownership of land rather than the consideration of the Brahminical social order characterized by purity-pollution dichotomy. The mechanism of social exclusion in Punjab is historically tied with the asymmetrical structures of its rural economy that privileged the hegemonic interests of the land-owning ‘agricultural caste’ over the landless Dalit labourers. Social status in Punjab is closely associated with the ownership of agricultural land. Much of the available agricultural land (more than 80 per cent) is owned by Jat Sikhs who constitute roughly one-third (30–33 per cent) of the total population of the state.Footnote 82 Dalits of Punjab, the second largest community in the state, whose numerical strength is almost equal to that of the Jat Sikhs, are mostly landless.Footnote 83 They share only 4.82 per cent of the total number of operational holdings in the state and occupy just 2.34 per cent of the total area under cultivation. While many Dalits have abandoned their caste-based occupations and have also distanced themselves from employment in the agricultural fields, their social status in the rural economy remains marginal, precisely because of their acute landlessness. Though cultivation of agricultural land has ceased to exist as a profitable profession for the past few years, the ownership of land continues to be an important factor for the determination of social status in rural Punjab. Irrespective of the fact that many Dalits have benefited from post-independence constitutional affirmative action, proliferation of education, social welfare measures and emigration abroad, a vast majority of them still suffer on account of acute landlessness. This is due partly to historical reasons and partly because of the lingering prejudice amongst dominant upper castes that precludes landowners selling land to the landless Dalits.
Nowhere in India are Dalits so extensively deprived of agricultural land as in Punjab.Footnote 84 This severely undermines their social ability to participate in the local structures of power in which ownership of land, in other words ‘the currency of power in rural society’, plays a key role.Footnote 85 In the absence of alternative employment opportunities in Punjab, the landlessness of Dalits has reduced them to vulnerable agricultural labourers. Since they do not own land to work on independently, there is no choice for them but to work as landless agricultural labourers on the farms of the landed Jat Sikh aristocracy. Since Jat Sikhs occupy the major chunk of the agricultural land in Punjab and enjoy numerical preponderance, they have been able firmly to establish their hold on the sources and exercise of political power in the state.Footnote 86 It is the material and the political predominance of Jat Sikhs, formerly a Shudra (lower/menial) caste that has helped them to acquire the status of a dominant caste in Punjab, which, owing to egalitarian tenets of their faith (Sikhism), earned them sudden legitimacy. The egalitarian tenets of Sikh faith, in fact, has facilitated Jat Sikhs to overcome the ritual barrier of the Varna order, one of ‘[t]he three main axes of power in the caste system’ as described by Srinivas.Footnote 87
The ‘caste’ domination of Jat Sikhs in Punjab, however, does not compare at all with the Brahminical system of caste hierarchy in general. The defining principles of caste hierarchy are different in Punjab. They are mainly based on factors such as hard manual labour on one's own land, caste homogeneity, martialFootnote 88 status, numerical preponderance in the mainstream religion, and hold over the politics in the state. Furthermore, it is a complex combination of all these varied sources of power (social, ethnological, economic, political, religious, and numerical) that determines the status in Punjabi society. The only caste in which all the above-mentioned factors coalesce to form a dominant identity is that of Jat Sikhs in Punjab. They qualify as Khalsa or Singh by virtue of religion, Jat Sikhs by virtue of caste, a martial race by virtue of their being sturdy and having a military background, and landowners by virtue of their strong hold on cultivation. All these different identities reinforce each other and thus help Jat Sikhs, to assert themselves as the dominant caste in Punjab. Such a rare combination of powerful multiple identities and their concentration in a single community of Jat Sikhs is conspicuous by its absence among the Dalits, who, interestingly enough, are almost equal to the former in terms of their numerical proportion in the total population of the state. But unlike Jat Sikhs, Dalits are divided into 39 castes,Footnote 89 scattered amongst four religions (Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity and Buddhism), mostly landless, economically marginalized, socially oppressed and politically neglected. It is in such a context, marked by extreme disparity between otherwise almost numerically comparable communities of Jat Sikhs and Dalits, that the distinct pattern of caste hierarchy assumes critical importance in Punjab.
There is a general impression that many Dalits take fancy in borrowing the sub-caste titles of the Jat Sikh and feel proud in emulating the cultural patterns and iconography of this dominant caste. This, however, does not qualify to be a case of sanskritisation in Punjab. As explained above, the Sikh caste hierarchy is completely different from that of the Hindu social order. Unlike the Hindu social order, drinking and eating meat (mutton and chicken) is not a taboo with the Jat Sikhs in Punjab. Nor are the rituals and ceremonies accorded any space at all in the theology of Sikh religion, which has been nurtured by the spiritual and egalitarian social philosophy of Guru Nanak and followed by the nine Gurus of the Panth. As far as particular food habits are concerned, they have been cultivated during the long and tortuous journey of the peasantry (primarily belonging to the Jat Sikh community) in the region popularly known as a ‘gateway of invaders’. Relatively, Punjab remained an open society due to the lack of enduring power structures in this borderland state of north India.Footnote 90 Though many Dalits in Punjab, being fellow travellers of Jat Sikhs in the region, have similar food habits, this cannot be construed as a case of sanskritisation along the lines suggested by M. N. Srinivas.Footnote 91 In fact Dalits in Punjab did not emulate such food habits with the intention of getting some space in the eyes of the locally dominant caste, as may be the case in other parts of the country. On the contrary, they adopted such habits in a spirit of competition and to score the point that they too are second to none. In other words, Dalit social mobility in Punjab is more in the mode of assertion, demanding an equal share in the local structures of power, rather than meekly following in the cultural footsteps of the upper/dominant caste.Footnote 92 This suggests that the principle of ‘a chain reaction’ as advocated by M. N. Srinivas in his famous model of sanskritisationFootnote 93 cannot be applied to Punjab. Whatever cultural emulation has taken place among the Dalits of Punjab has certainly been not only non-Brahminic but also at the same time does not tally with what Juergensmeyer has described as ‘Sikhization’.Footnote 94 ‘Sikhization’ as a concept ‘signals a break with the Hindu system’.Footnote 95 There is a common impression among the Ambedkarite Dalits in Punjab that Dalit Sikhs have not been able to distance themselves from their erstwhile traditions of Hindu culture.Footnote 96 This ambivalence about the changed social status of the Dalits of Punjab is thus inexplicable in terms of the prevalent models of sanskritisation that further singles out Punjab as an apt case for articulation of an alternative Dalit agenda.
The exceptionally large Dalit population in Punjab is another equally important factor that makes it an interesting case for study. Dalits constitute as many as 29 per cent of the total population of Punjab, highest in comparison to all other states in India and much higher than the national average of 16 per cent.Footnote 97 Like their counterparts in other parts of the country, Dalits in Punjab do not constitute a homogeneous category. As pointed out earlier, they have been divided into 39 sub-castes scattered within four religious groups. Though some of them have struggled to overcome their forced social exclusion whilst seeking conversion into Islam, Sikhism and Christianity in the past, the spectre of untouchability continues to haunt them even in their new religious avatars! Their latest attempt, conversion to neo-Buddhism, has also been of little help in liberating them from the shackles of caste-based oppressive structures in the state. Moreover, it has further created another distinctive social category called the neo-Buddhist, which, as perceptively argued by Gokhale, remains different ‘both from other Untouchables and from caste-Hindus’.Footnote 98
Alternative Dalit agenda
The alternative Dalit agenda, as the discussion to follow will illustrate, has emerged in Punjab against the backdrop discussed above. Though there are ample signs of such an alternative agenda at the grassroots, one hardly finds any reference to it in the existing scholarly literature. This study aims at fulfilling this gap by critically analysing various facets of the emerging alternative Dalit agenda. This agenda may interchangeably be called Ad/Adi Dharm (original/primal religion), Sant Dharm (religion of the holy persons), Ravidass Dharm, Ravidassism, Ravidass cult, Guru Ravidass movement or Ravidass Deras movement. It is rooted in the native but hitherto scattered worldview of the Dalits of Punjab, who claim to be the indigenous people or the sons of the soil, and would want to be recognized as such. Contrary to the existing models of Dalit social mobility (conversion and sanskritisation) in the rest of India, the alternative agenda urges Dalits to come forward to contest the oppressive and hegemonic social order based on regional cultural patterns of the dominant caste of landed peasantry by giving a concrete shape (discussed below) to their separate social identity in the form of an indigenous religion. Punjab is not an exception. Similar attempts were also made in other parts of the country. Jotirao Phule (1826–1890), the precursor of the discourse of ‘the non-Aryan racial theories’, established ‘Sarvajanic Satya Dharma’ (1889) in Maharashtra as the original religion of the Dalits. Swami Achhutanand, a noted former Arya samaji turned Dalit social activist, founded ‘Adi-Hindu Dharma’ (1922) in Uttar Pradesh in north India. Adi-Dravida, Adi-Andhra and Adi-Karnataka are the south Indian counterparts of the Ad Dharm in PunjabFootnote 99.
The central argument of the alternative Dalit agenda revolves around the proposition that Dalits were native to Punjab. That they had their indigenous society (popularly known as Adi/Ravidassi samaj)Footnote 100 administered by its own rules. They had their own rich cultural heritage: rulers, gurus, heroes, traditions, culture, symbols, folklores and religion. The marauding Aryans, however, enslaved the natives and established their dominance over them. The Aryans deprived the natives of their history, erased their geographies, and consequently pushed into oblivion their religion, culture, heroes and gurus. The Aryans, it is alleged, ultimately reduced the original inhabitants to what came to be contemptuously called the social category of ‘Untouchables’. The narrative unfolds further to emphasize that if the subjugated Dalits want to shed their subordination and retrieve their lost religion, heritage and identity, they need to establish a separate Dalit identity independent of the prominent communities of the region: Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. It is further argued that in order to shed subordination, Dalits need not take refuge in conversion or sanskritisation, as has generally been the case in other parts of the country. Instead, what needs to be articulated is an alternative and innovative religious philosophy that will eventually help them to build a new society free from the oppressive binaries of high/low and pure/polluted.Footnote 101 It further reiterates that Dalits should not be shy of their forced low social status; rather they should deploy their so-called low caste identity as an instrument to contest the dominant, hierarchical social order. The emerging alternative Dalit agenda has thus sought Dalit social mobility in Punjab through the unique process of relocation of Ad Dharm—the original but lost Dalit religion—by building on the indigenous and pre-Aryan cultural heritage of the natives. In fact, this argument resembles that of Dr Ambedkar wherein he articulated his choice for conversion to Buddhism on account of its being an ancient religion of the Mahars of MaharashtraFootnote 102. In a similar vein, Ad Dharm can be considered as an ancient religion of the Dalits of Punjab.
The proposed alternative Dalit philosophy evolved in Punjab during the 1920s.Footnote 103 It was precisely during this period that a famous Dalit movement called ‘Ad Dharm’ was born in Punjab. During the same period, as mentioned above, similar Dalit movements based on the idea of native religion came into existence in several other states of the country. However, what made the Ad Dharm movement in Punjab so popular was that it remained at its core a struggle against the local structures of social domination rooted in the exclusive ownership of land and related resources, as well as its emphasis on a separate Dalit identity based on the teachings of the radical sants of the medieval north-Indian Bhakti movement.Footnote 104 It was also during this very movement, that the radical image of Guru Ravidass,Footnote 105 one of several Dalit nirguni Sants (a devotee of God without attributes)Footnote 106 of the medieval north-Indian Bhakti movement, was projected meticulously to concretize the newly conceived Dalit cultural space in the state. The fact that the Dalits of Punjab, especially those who belonged to the Chamar caste, consider Ravidass their Guru made the movement instantly popular among them.Footnote 107 Guru Ravidass was already well known among the lower castes of Punjab. The fact that 40 hymns and one couplet of the sacred bani (poetry) of Guru Ravidass are included in the Adi Granth (holy scriptures of the Sikh faith, popularly known as Guru Granth Sahib) speaks volumes to his immense popularity in the region. His struggle against the system of untouchability, anchored in an enlightened vision of an egalitarian social order (Begumpura), at a time when no one was ready to lend a supporting hand to the oppressed untouchables, won him a special place in the minds of Dalit masses. The Ad Dharm movement strategically cashed in on the mass popularity of Guru Ravidass by displaying his pictures as its emblem, reading his poetry as a revolutionary text and deploying legends about him as illustrations of lower caste pride and power.Footnote 108 In a nutshell, Guru Ravidass, who had already set the ball of alternative Dalit agenda rolling, ‘was brought to the centre-stage in Punjab by the Ad Dharm movement’.Footnote 109 Consequently, the Ravidass phenomenon, in the form of the Ravidass cult or Ravidass Deras movement, became the epicentre of the emerging Dalit agenda. In fact, it was in this unique way that the Ad Dharm movement has sown the seeds of an alternative Dalit philosophy in the state of East Punjab.Footnote 110
Ad Dharm versus conversion and sanskritisation
Adherence to the phenomenon of Ad Dharm or the Ravidass cult is different from both conversion and sanskritisation. Conversion implies denouncing one's own religion in which one is born, in order to embrace some other religion. Many Dalits are of the opinion that they are not originally Hindus, Sikhs, Christians or Buddhists and have acquired such religious identities by way of conversion at some point of time during their long history of social exclusion. They also emphasize that they were the natives of this country over whom the alien Aryan had not only established their rule by force, but also systematically destroyed their religion and cultural heritage. It is further alleged that the natives who are now called Dalits were forced to adopt the religion (Hinduism) of their alien masters.Footnote 111 With the passage of time, many Hindu Dalits embraced Islam, Sikhism and Christianity in the hope of shedding the shackles of the Hindu system of ‘untouchability’: a hereditary system of social exclusion. Ironically, the spectre of untouchability continues to haunt them even in their new religious avatars, which has forced them to retrieve their lost native religion and cultural heritage. It is against this background that the adherence of Dalits to the Ravidass cult could be considered as their ‘homecoming’ or a case of retrieving their lost native religion. However, if some non-Dalits come to join the Ravidass cult then in that case such adherence may be termed ‘conversion’. But as far as Dalits are concerned, their adherence to the Ravidass cult cannot be considered a case of conversion for the following reasons. First of all this cult was established by the Dalits themselves. Secondly, its roots can be traced to the teachings of Guru Ravidass who himself was also a Dalit. In addition, this cult is still in the process of developing into a full-fledged religion towards which Dalits themselves have been working meticulously.
As for sanskritisation, the emulation of cultural symbols of the Ravidass cult cannot be considered a case of this phenomenon either. For a Dalit to adopt the cultural symbols of this cult is in no way equivalent to cultural emulation, as is generally the case with mainstream sanskritisation. On the contrary, emulation of the symbols of the Ravidass cult by Dalits is a case of radical manifestation of their dormant and suppressed culture, and their resistance to dominant social practices that have relegated them to the periphery for centuries. It is radical also in the sense that it emancipates them from the sense of indignity being attached to their ‘lowly’ occupation. The adoption of high-caste iconography and practices among Ravidassias is more symbolic of a social protest than of cultural emulation. Guru Ravidass adopted cultural and ritual symbols of upper castes precisely to cross the prohibited boundaries of the restricted social domains separating the polluting ex-untouchables from the so-called holy Brahmins. He did not wear the sacred thread and other cultural symbols of the upper castes in order to rise on the scale of the graded caste hierarchy. On the contrary, what he was trying to demonstrate perhaps was that Brahmins were no longer a class apart in terms of ‘purity’. Nor could the Brahmins force the Dalits to abstain from emulating the iconography of the former on the grounds that the latter are impure. The pure, according to Guru Ravidass, is the one who works with his/her own hands rather than lives on the earnings of others and distinguishes himself/herself by hiding under bloated appearances. It is in this unique way that Guru Ravidass, the chief patron of the Ravidass cult, demonstrated successfully that it is the manual labour which is supreme rather than the hollow prestige based on false Brahminical ritual and ceremonial practices. In short, the adoption of cultural symbols of the Ravidass cult is more a case of radical manifestation of Dalit dignity and identity rather than a form of sanskritisation.
Before discussing the significant role played by the Ad Dharm movement in concretising the alternative Dalit agenda, let me explain at some length how the poetry and legends about the life of Guru Ravidass inspired the Dalits of this region to think about the possible articulation of an alternative Dalit agenda, and how emulation of the upper castes cultural symbols by the lower castes could not be described as a case of sanskritisation but instead as a unique way of radical manifestation of social protest.
The Ravidass phenomenon and an alternative Dalit agenda
One of the most famous untouchable sant-poets of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and a leading star of the north Indian bhakti movement, especially the nirguna sampradaya or sant mat/parampara,Footnote 112 Guru Ravidass is by far the most revered among Dalits, especially the Chamars/Chambhars/Charmakars of northwest and central India. His popularity can be known from a variety of names attributed to him by his followers in different regions and languages.Footnote 113 He is known as Raidasa, Rohidasa, Ruidasa, Ramadasa, Raedasa, Rohitasa, Rahdesa, Rav Das and Rab Das.Footnote 114 The mere mention of his name evokes a sense of confidence and self-respect among his followers who feel proud of their caste identity. ‘Although in the past Ravidas's low status may have presented a problem, his present-day admirers strive to affirm it, not deny it’, argues, James G. Lochtefeld.Footnote 115 A large number of Guru Ravidass followers prefer to be identified as ‘Ravidassias’ or ‘Ravidassi Adharmis’.Footnote 116 They also feel proud of their Chamar (a derogatory term, historically used for the leather-working caste) identity. This newfound pride of both collective and individual self-confidence, particularly among the Dalit diaspora, has led to what Kathryn Lum calls ‘the development of a unique symbol for the Ravidassia movement’.Footnote 117
What made Guru Ravidass the most popular Sant in northern India was probably his fight against untouchability and his frequent standoff with the pundits (Brahmin priests) of Varanasi (widely known as the cradle of the varnashram order, headquarters of Hindu religiosity, and the seat of Brahmin learning),Footnote 118 who saw his bhakti as a prototype of revolt by the Untouchables against the centuries-old system of Brahminic hegemony. He expressed his bhakti in the form of radical poetry, exposing graphically the atrocious treatment received by Dalits at the hands of upper castes. His was a new way, as he refused to ride the bandwagon of social prestige by adopting the cultural worldview of the Brahmins/upper castes or by embracing any other religion for that matter. Guru Ravidass preferred to contest social exclusion without compromising his distinct Dalit identity. Throughout his poetry, Guru Ravidass seems to be particularly concerned about his low caste status, as many of his poems conclude with a bold reference to his caste.
Yet another important aspect of Guru Ravidass’ life that made him a role model for the downtrodden is a legend that portrays him as firmly declining to use a paras [a mythical stone that turns iron into gold] given to him by a holy man.Footnote 119 This legend seems to be symptomatic of his indifference towards unearned wealth—a Brahminical trait—and of his deep resolve for manual labour and earnings by the sweat of brow. In other words, his resolve for the sweat of brow lent purity and respect to kirat (manual work)–a shramanic tradition. It vindicates the fact that the alternative Dalit agenda as articulated by Guru Ravidass comes closer to the shramanic tradition in opposition to that of Brahminic.Footnote 120 Guru Ravidass wanted to prove that Brahmins were ‘. . .hollow figures pumped up with false pride and hypocrisy’.Footnote 121 That is why he preferred to continue his association with the so-called hereditary low caste occupation of shoemaker. It clearly shows his firm belief that if the socially excluded wanted to improve their lot they need not abdicate their so-called defiled hereditary occupation. In other words, Guru Ravidass attributed dignity to the manual labour, the mainstay of a vast majority of Dalits.
Consequently, this in turn has inspired many Dalits who take pride in flagging their so-called low caste titles publicly. One often finds in the Doaba region of Punjab motorcycles and cars with stickers proudly proclaiming: ‘Putt Chamaran de’ (Sons of Chamars) and ‘SC boys’ (Scheduled Castes boys). I have also met an American Punjabi Dalit girl in California (during my visit to the United States in May 2008) who has obtained a special number plate (CHAMRI NO. 1) for her personal car in order to clearly demonstrate her so-called low caste identity. Thus Dalits, as the discussion so far has shown, in following the path shown by Guru Ravidass, have not only refused to conceal their so-called inferior social status, they are in fact vehemently questioning the Hindu as well as the local dominant caste-based social hierarchy that has forced them to live on the social-cultural margins for centuries. The leaders of the famous Ad Dharm movement in Punjab saw in the poetry and teachings of Guru Ravidass the intellectual tools for liberation.Footnote 122 The preaching of Guru Ravidass, in fact, has taken the shape of a political strategy based on his ‘dissident socio-religious philosophy and ideology’.Footnote 123 The ‘dissident socio-religious philosophy and ideology’ of Guru Ravidass has eventually become the most salient feature of the emerging alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab.
Bhakti, social protest and the alternative Dalit agenda
The alternative Dalit agenda, as enshrined in the teachings and writings of Guru Ravidass, can be better understood by exploring the subtle nuances of his unique form of bhakti that set the stage for a radical Dalit movement in India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Footnote 124 This form of bhakti appears to be free from all kinds of religious rituals and sectarian characteristics of the mainstream Hindu bhakti. Based on moral principles of compassion and dignity of labour, his bhakti reflected the democratic and egalitarian tenets of pre-Aryan cultural heritage. In fact, Guru Ravidass gave a new meaning to bhakti and transformed it into a novel and daring method of social protest against the system of untouchability and ‘the inequitable distribution of power and wealth. . .’.Footnote 125 It was novel in the sense that it emphasized compassion for all and expressed absolute faith in a formless God. The principle of compassion for all reflected the egalitarian traits of his social philosophy and struggle. His absolute faith in the formless God (nirgun) was aimed at exposing the apathy of the social elite of his times towards the plight of the downtrodden, for the emancipation of whom he had sought refuge in no one else but God. His bhakti-based method of social protest was daring because he chose to imitate Brahmins while symbolizing his protest; a highly objectionable form of social behaviour for an outcaste of his times.Footnote 126 Guru Ravidass challenged the tyranny of Brahmins by wearing Dhoti (cloth wrapped around the waist), Janeue (sacred thread) and Tilak (sacred red mark on forehead). The skillful deployment of Brahminical iconography by Guru Ravidass was an anathema for the Untouchables. His was an innovative as well as an alternative way of Dalit assertion. Though he attired himself like an upper caste, he deliberately did not hide his low caste identity. He also continued with his so-called defiled hereditary occupation of making and mending shoes. By imitating the Brahminical iconography, he probably was aiming to show how the lower castes could assert their separate and collective Dalit identity by challenging the social superiority of the upper castes but without compromising their hereditary low caste occupations or converting to any other religion.
Guru Ravidass expressed his bhakti in the form of bani (spiritual philosophy) written in a poetic medium. His bani has universal appeal. It is full of radical fervour and boundless love for a formless God. It created significant space for the articulation of the ‘hope for a better world and a fight against exploiters, power-holders and oppression going on under the name of religion’.Footnote 127 Some scholars are of the opinion that although the devotional songs and hymns of his poetry reflected the sufferings of the downtrodden, they lacked the reformatory zeal and outright condemnation of Brahminism and the caste system, something that animated the poetry of Kabir and Tukaram.Footnote 128 Apparently there is a difference in tone between the poetry of Kabir and Ravidass, but both seem to convey the same message. The poetry of Guru Ravidass is marked by a sense of humility and devotion. At the same time it is full of reformatory zeal and a deep concern for the downtrodden. The bani of Guru Ravidass reflects his concern for the social and spiritual needs of the downtrodden and underlines the urgency of their emancipation.Footnote 129
The above mentioned bhakti-oriented approach of social protest gained further importance due to its non-violent nature, which in turn underscores the peaceful stance of the emerging alternative Dalit agenda. Guru Ravidass, as mentioned earlier, wanted to transform the oppressive Hindu social order through peaceful means. For that he innovatively brought the benevolent but formless figure of God in to his arsenal of social protest. Guru Ravidass's God was graceful, who elevated and purified the so-called Untouchables relegated to periphery in the Hindu social order. Aaisee lal tujh binu kaunu karai. Gareeb niwaaju guseea meraa maathai chhatar dharai. . .neecho uooch karai meraa govind kaahoo te na darai (refrain My Beloved, besides you who acts like this? Protector of the poor, my Master. You hold a royal umbrella over my head).Footnote 130 He further said: Meri jaati kut bandhlaa dhor dhouwanta nithi baanaarasi aas paasaa. Ab bipar pardhan tihi karih danduouti tere naam sarnaaie Ravidass daasaa (My Caste is Kutabådhalā, I cart carcasses constantly around Benares. Now Brahmans and headmen bow down before me, Ravidās the servant has taken refuge in Your Name).Footnote 131 The formless God, reiterated Guru Ravidass, had not only elevated his social status, but also made him the elite of the elite amongst upper castes.
It is in this context that Guru Ravidass not only followed a non-violent form of struggle against social oppression, but also prevailed upon the oppressors to abandon the path of violence.Footnote 132 Thus, instead of embracing some other religion or following in the footsteps of the upper castes, Guru Ravidass convinced his followers of the advantage of remaining true to their unique Dalit identity: one of the most potent dimensions of the emerging Dalit agenda in Punjab. Guru Ravidass, therefore, is regarded as a messiah by the downtrodden, who revere him as devoutly as Hindus worship their gods and goddesses, and Sikhs revere their gurus.Footnote 133 They regularly worship his image, recite his hymns, and express faith in his spiritual powers.Footnote 134
The agenda and the resistance
The low-caste profile but high spiritual status of Guru Ravidass posed a serious challenge to the Brahmin priests who failed to confront his pragmatic and revolutionary reasoning based on the principles of non-violence, equality, dignity and fraternity. Instead of confronting Guru Ravidass head on, the Brahmin priests attempted to appropriate him within the Hindu fold. They concocted stories to portray him as a Brahmin in his previous life.Footnote 135 According to one such story, Guru Ravidass was a Brahmin in his previous birth. But due to his bad habits of meat-eating and the Untouchable status of his wife he had to be born as a Chamar. Another story tells that Ramananda, his so-called Guru, cursed him in his previous life to be born into a family of Untouchables on account of his accepting offerings from a local money lender who had dealings with leather workers. As Gail Omvedt has pointed out, ‘[t]his itself indicates the degree of purity-pollution behaviours observed even by Brahmin ascetics’.Footnote 136 Moreover, this account ‘also reinforces conventional opinions of Chamars as being extremely polluting. Ramanand curses his disciple not for taking food directly from chamars, but from a person who merely does business with them. Yet even such indirect contact is enough to render the food impure’.Footnote 137 The story does not end there, however. It further informs that baby Ravidass refused to accept the milk of his low caste mother. He accepted it when Ramanand supposedly reminded him of his misbehaviour in the previous life. Another story about his co-option in the Brahminical fold narrates that he had a golden sacred thread under his skin, though it was invisible on his body. When Brahmins declined to eat while sitting in the same row with him during a feast given in his honour by Jhali, the queen of Chittor, he left the room. But as they sat to dine, they found an image of Guru Ravidass appearing at the side of each of them. The story also tells that he cut open his chest and revealed the sacred thread that lay within as a clear proof of his being a Brahmin in his former life.Footnote 138
Thus challenged by the surging popularity of Guru Ravidass, among the lower and upper castes alike, Brahmins knitted layers of mythological narratives about his previous mythical high caste profile. ‘This was a final masterstroke, argues Chahal, an NRI [non-resident Indian] Dalit activist, to minimize his influence on the society as a whole’.Footnote 139 Probably, this was done to preclude the lower castes from rallying around his charismatic figure.Footnote 140 Yet another device adopted by the twice-born to diminish his popularity was to present him as a Guru of Chamars only.Footnote 141
The process of Brahminisation/sanskritisation of Guru Ravidass has come to be condemned by some of the Dalit activists and academics. They ridiculed the Brahminical narratives and interpretations about Guru Ravidass and also refused to accept Ramanand as his Guru.Footnote 142 Some have argued that Guru Ravidass had never mentioned the name of Ramanand in his most authentic bani recorded in the Adi Granth (Guru Granth Sahib). Instead, he mentioned names of the following sants: Jaidev, Namdev and Kabir.Footnote 143 Some radical Dalit activists claim ‘that his Guru was Sardanand, and emphasize his ability to defeat Brahmins time and again in debates’.Footnote 144 Thus the discourse of the Brahminisation of Guru Ravidass had not only failed to assimilate him into the fold of the upper castes, it further strengthened the existing cultural-spiritual bond between him and his lower caste followers. The latter took great pride in being known as ‘Ravidassias’. And Guru Ravidass became the paragon of their struggle for social equality and dignity as a viable alternative to conversion and sanskritisation agendas.
Begumpura: Utopia of the Dalit Raj
UtopiasFootnote 145 have played a crucial role in subaltern struggles against social exclusion in India. Emerging at almost the same time as in Europe, utopias in India were mostly envisioned by subaltern artisans of the Dalit and BahujanFootnote 146 samaj (society), the precursor of the radical bhakti movement in the ‘early modern period’.Footnote 147 Pandharpur (the city of social equality) of Tukaram, Amrapur (the city of immorality) of Kabir, and Begumpura (the city without castes, classes, taxes and free from all sorts of afflictions, sorrows and social barriers) of Ravidass are some of the most popular utopias in India during this period. The Bali Rajya of Phule, the Dravidastan of Periyar, the Buddhist commonwealth of the Sakya Buddhists, Achutistan and Sachkhand of Mangoo Ram, and Prabuddha Bharat of Ambedkar are a few other examples of utopian models of a subaltern state in India envisioned by its dalit-bahujan intellectuals and leaders. The utopias of Premnagar (the city of love) of Bullhe Shah of the Sufi tradition and Halemi Raj (the rule of benevolence) of Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru (Master) of the Sikh faith, however, are yet a few but forceful social alternatives envisioned in the non-dalit-bahujan circles that dared to ‘move beyond the dominant Islamic social order, and sanskritized and brahmanic perspectives that militated against visions of equality’.Footnote 148 Almost all the above mentioned utopias promised an equitable and inclusive social existence based on pious living earned through the sweat of brow. These varied utopian visions of a promised land of social justice and love were not at all motivated by some kind of mythical golden past or age, as happened to be the case with the Brahminical social world. Instead, they were deeply oriented towards a better future ‘along the lines envisioned by exploited castes, working classes and feminist visionaries throughout history’.Footnote 149
Among the above-described utopias, ‘Begumpura’ is the most comprehensive one. It played a critical role in the emergence of an alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab. The utopia of Begumpura or Dalit Raj is an egalitarian blueprint of a subaltern state envisaged by ‘the bhakti radical, Sant Ravidas (circa 1450–1520), [who] was the first to formulate an Indian version of utopia. . .’.Footnote 150 It encompasses civil liberties and human rights for all. Under its jurisdiction, no one would be discriminated against on the basis of caste and religion and everyone would be free from the burden of taxes, restrictions on movements and worries of livelihood. There would be no place for a caste-based system of ‘graded inequality’ in the city of Begumpura. The society would be free from the segregated and secluded geographies of domination and everyone would be absolutely free to move around without restrictions imposed by caste prejudices. In other words, the evil of untouchability would cease to exist in the city of Begumpura. Though Begumpura was a utopian city envisaged by the bhakti radical, Guru Ravidass, it was not a mere figment of his mind, a fantasy or an ecstasy. In the opinion of Gail Omvedt, ‘[e]cstasy arises because of the hope and fervent emotion aroused by the possibility of a utopian society, a society of equality and love’.Footnote 151 But the city of Begumpura was based on a critical understanding of the socio-economic and political conditions prevailing during the lifetime of Guru Ravidass, similar to what Gail Omvedt described as utopia based on reason against ecstasy.Footnote 152 Guru Ravidass lived during a period when foreign rulers, along with the members of higher castes, doubly oppressed the lower castes.Footnote 153 He had no hope whatsoever from any quarter regarding the betterment of the conditions of the downtrodden. In one of his hymns he says: Dardu dekh sab ko hasai, aaisee dasaa hamaaree. Ast dasaa sidi kar talai, sab kirpa tumhari (Everyone laughs seeing my poverty, such is my state. The eighteen perfections are in the palm of my hands, all through Your grace).Footnote 154 In fact, the entire poetry of Guru Ravidass echoed a loud protest against slavery on the one hand, and boundless love and devotion to the formless God on the other. He proclaimed that God created all human beings as equals and resided equally in all of them. If the same God pervaded the entire humanity, then it is foolish, argued Guru Ravidass, to divide the society on the basis of caste. He thus condemned the division of mankind on the basis of caste. He said, Jo ham shehri so meet hamara (whoever is my fellow citizen, is my friend).Footnote 155 It is in this context that the utopian Dalit Raj or the city of Begumpura based on dhyan and bhakti/bhav (reason and devotional love)Footnote 156 and articulated in the form of poetry becomes an icon of the emerging Dalit agenda in Punjab. How the Ad Dharm movement of Punjab has been able to carry forward this twin task of the revival of the lost native religion of the Dalits of Punjab and its projection as a central concern of the emerging Dalit agenda is the main focus of the next section.
Chiselling the alternative agenda
The Ad Dharm movement, well known for introducing a new element of Dalit politics in Punjab in the form of a separate Dalit identity, provided a systematic framework for sharpening the dormant dimensions of the above-discussed alternative Dalit agenda. This movement aimed at carving out a separate Dalit identity, independent of the Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims, by reminding the Dalits that they had actually possessed three powers, namely ‘qaumiat’ (communal pride), ‘mazhab’ (religion) and ‘majlis’ (organization) which subsequently were denied to them under the rubric of the hegemonic Brahminical social order. It urged them to come forward and assert their separate identity based on their native Dalit worldview. This is what distinguishes the Ad Dharm movement from that of the radical separatism (conversion) of the Ambedkarite, and the cultural assimilation (sanskritisation) drive of the Arya Samaji genre. In other words, this movement focused more on ethnification of Dalit identity than on following the tested paths of sanskritisation or religious conversion.Footnote 157 The ingenuity of the Ad Dharm movement further lies in the fact that it attempted to transform different Dalit castes of Punjab into what Hardtmann described as ‘Dalit counterpublic’.Footnote 158
It was the only movement of its kind in the Northwestern region of the country that aimed at securing a respectable space—the promised land of Begumpura—for Dalits by seeking separate Dalit identity through religious regeneration, cultural transformation and political assertion, in contrast to the traditional medium of social mobility through conversion and sanskritisation. Although, this movement became somewhat dormant after the first general election in independent India, the distinct markers of Dalit identity that it had been successfully chiselled in the course of the long struggle continues to shape the nature and thrust of the alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab even today.
Babu Mangoo Ram Mugowalia: the key architect of the alternative agenda
Babu Mangoo Ram Mugowalia,Footnote 159 a renowned revolutionary and founder of the Ad Dharm Movement, was the key figure behind the articulation of an alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab. The strategy that he deployed to achieve this ambitious goal revolved around the tasks of spiritual regeneration, cultural transformation and socio-economic emancipation of the lower castes. He was not in favour of deploying conversion as a strategy to contest social exclusion. Nor did he advocate assimilation of the Dalits into the preponderant cultural milieu of the alien Aryans. Instead, he was of the firm opinion that since Dalits were not born as Hindus, the question of abjuring Hinduism does not arise at all. Moreover, since Hinduism had been raised on the debris of Ad Dharm, the native faith of the indigenous people of Punjab, the Dalits of Punjab need not follow into the footsteps of the cultural patterns of a religion that was imposed on them by the alien Aryans. He strongly argued that the ex-Untouchables were neither Hindus, nor Sikhs, nor Christians nor Muslims.Footnote 160 On the contrary, they happened to be the original inhabitants of this ancient land called ‘Hind’ and their native religion was Ad Dharm—the oldest of all religions. According to him, Hindus were not the natives of the land. They came from outside, subjugated the local people and tried to completely erase their indigenous religion and cultures.
In a poster announcing the first annual meeting of the Ad Dharm movement, Babu Mangoo Ram Mugowalia made a fervent appeal to all the different Dalit castes (then termed as ‘Depressed Classes’) to come forward on a common platform and fight for the eradication of untouchability in Punjab. While addressing the various communities belonging to ex-Untouchable castes—Chamars, Chuhras, Sansis, Bhanjhras, Doms, Julahas, Meghs, Ghadhilias, Mahashas, Ravidassis, and Kabirpanthis—as brothers, Mangoo Ram Mugowalia argued:
We are the real inhabitants of this country and our religion is Ad Dharm. . .. We are the progeny of kings; Hindus came down from Iran to Hind and destroyed our qaum. . .. We are seven crores (seventy millions) in numbers and are registered as Hindus in this country. Liberate the Adi race by separating these seven crores. . .. Never consider ourselves as Hindus at all, remember that our religion is Ad Dharm.
N. Shivraj also expressed similar views during his presidential address at the Maharashtra Untouchable Youths conference held at Poona on 12–13 January 1936. He was of the opinion that ‘The only way to get rid of untouchability is that the Depressed Classes should leave Hindu religion not necessarily by conversion to another religion already existing but possibly by starting a new religion, or by reviving the ancient one practiced among the Adi-Dravidas, long before the Aryans brought to India Hinduism with its various customs’.Footnote 161 The obvious message conveyed in the poster, in the form of an appeal, outlined at the same time the main contours of the emerging alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab. It aimed to restore the dignity and freedom of the indigenous peoples who stood categorized into different castes and religious groups. Mangoo Ram argued that a permanent solution to the plight of the downtrodden indigenous people of the country was possible only through the restoration of their lost native religious and cultural heritage. The retrieved native religion in turn, he believed, would facilitate the formation of a separate Dalit identity, resulting in the restoration of the lost Dalit glory in the region and beyond.
The task of revivification of the lost indigenous religion, however, was made cumbersome by the fact that during the alleged long period of persecution at the hands of the caste Hindus, the Untouchables had not only forgotten their cultural heritage and their gurus but had also come to believe that the religion of the invaders was their own. Strictly forbidden to cultivate an aspiration for a separate faith, the Untouchables were further condemned as profane and declared unfit to have their own independent religion. Thus to revive Ad Dharm was tantamount to developing altogether a new religion for Dalits. The Ad Dharm leadership was successful in its objective of reviving the native religion of the Dalits by getting it recognized from the British government as a fully-fledged religion of the downtrodden. Consequently a total of 418,789 persons reported themselves as Ad Dharmis in the Punjab census of 1931. It was for the first time in the history of lower castes that such a large number of them had come forward to officially declare themselves as separate and independent of the Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. This was, perhaps, the beginning of the radical Dalit assertion in North India. It got further shot in the arm in the first provincial election that took place in 1936 after the promulgation of the Government of India Act of 1935. The Ad Dharm Mandal of Punjab contested election in all eight reserved seats and won seven of them. Similarly, in the 1946 Punjab Legislative Assembly elections on the eve of independence, the Ad Dharm also registered its presence by contesting in alliance with the Unionist Party. Mangoo Ram was declared elected from the Hoshiarpur reserved constituency.
Ad Dharm for Mangoo Ram was what neo-Buddhism was for Ambedkar. If for Ambedkar the Mahars of Maharashtra were once Buddhists, the Dalits of Punjab for Mangoo Ram were Ad Dharmis. However, for Mangoo Ram, Dalits of Punjab includes all the different lower castes whereas Dr Ambedkar's appeal was exclusively for Mahars. It did not include Chambars and Mangs, the other two main Dalit castes in Maharashtra. Ad Dharm, the native religion of Dalits, eventually became the central theme of the emerging alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab.
Spiritual regeneration, cultural transformation and socio-economic emancipation
Ad Dharm constitutes the core of the emerging alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab. It is both a nomenclature of the religion of the natives and the title of the famous Dalit movement (Ad Dharm movement) in the state. As a religion, Ad Dharm became the central concern of the Dalit movement, aiming to forge a distinct identity for the socially excluded natives of Punjab. It figures prominently in the famous ‘Report of the Ad Dharm Mandal, 1926–1931’ (Ad Dharm Report) prepared and published in Urdu by the Ad Dharm Mandal, Jullundur (now ‘Jalandhar’) on 15 May 1931.Footnote 162 As a religion, Ad Dharm came to coalesce with the identity formation process of the Ad Dharm movement in the state. It is in this context that Ad Dharm as a religion and as a movement came to dominate the emerging Dalit space (counterpublic Dalit sphere) in pre-partition Punjab. Although Ad Dharm as a political movement petered out in post-partition Punjab, as a religion of the downtrodden as well as a counterpublic Dalit sphere it continues to flourish even today. It is in fact pursued far more vigorously among the Punjabi diasporas in Europe and North America, who have been able to establish a solid system of social networking across the globe. Moreover, Ad Dharm as a religion continues to flourish in the premises of a large number of Ravidass deras in Punjab and abroad.
As a religion of the natives of Punjab, Ad Dharm assumed critical importance in the early 1920s. In fact, it was during this time that various socio-religious movements made frantic efforts to win over the downtrodden. The main agenda of various social reform and religious organizations was to hammer out an independent space in the then evolving electoral number game by winning over the fluid and floating Dalit population to their side. None of such organizations was actually interested in the empowerment and social uplift of the Dalits. It is the Ad Dharm movement that ultimately came forward to project Dalits as a separate qaum Footnote 163 with a distinct social identity and rich religious heritage. Under the leadership of Babu Mangoo Ram, the movement decided to prevent Dalits from falling prey to the strategic designs of the various upper caste social reform organizations by providing them with an alternative social and political platform from which to compete independently for their own genuine civic rights. The Ad Dharm movement had come to realise that the only way to liberate the Dalits of Punjab from the shackles of social exclusion was to relocate and institutionalize their native religion (Ad Dharm) rather than to make them an appendage to the so-called upper caste/dominant caste social reform organizations.
The Ad Dharm Report clearly mentioned that every Ad Dharmi is expected to be proud of his/her native religion and to propagate its basic tenets.Footnote 164 Babu Mangoo Ram Mugowalia worked hard towards the herculean task of compiling a separate sacred text of the Ad Dharm, comprising the bani of its patron, Sant Ravidass, and various other Dalit Sants on the pattern of already existing mainstream religious Holy Scriptures in the region. For this purpose, he approached two famous Ravidass religious centres of his time (Dera Chak Hakim near Phagwara and Dera Sachkhand Ballan near Jalandhar).Footnote 165 Sant Pipal Dass of Dera Sachkhand Ballan and Sant Hiran Dass of Dera Chak Hakim ‘. . .were charged to fashion a body of scripture for the Ad Dharm under the title ‘Sri Guru Ad Prakash Asankh Deep Granth’ (The Lord's Original Scriptures of Infinite Light), but for most of the movement's history this document remained only a name’.Footnote 166 However, in the mean time, ‘Rae Das Ki Bani’, a collection of the poetry of Guru Ravidass and the verses of Sant Hiran Das, published by the Allahabad: Belvedere press in 1908 by the latter, came to be considered as the religious text of the Ad Dharm.Footnote 167 Later on, Sant Isher Dass of village Nandgarh of District Hoshiarpur, Punjab compiled the holy book of the Ad Dharm entitled ‘Ad Prakash’ (‘The Original Light’).Footnote 168 Ad Prakash Granth contains 1,248 pages, which include hymns of Guru Ravidass, Maharishi Valmiki, and Kabir, as well as many other Adi Gurus. For the first time the Manorma electronic press published its 500 copies in 1983. It is important to note that the title ‘Ad Prakash’ was chosen by the leaders of the Ad Dharm movement.Footnote 169 In the aftermath of the Vienna attack, ‘Ad Prakash’ has once again come into the limelight, resulting in the publication of around 2,000 copies of its Punjabi and Hindi editions.Footnote 170
The compilation of sacred scriptures of the Ad Dharm was, in fact, an important step towards the systematization of the Ravidassia/Ad Dharmi Qaum. Mangoo Ram expressed his will to his close associates that on his death couplets from the sacred ‘Ad Prakash’ should be recited so that his death rituals could not be usurped by any mainstream religion to the disadvantage of the emerging alternative Dalit theology and philosophy meticulously groomed under his leadership.Footnote 171 His will was fulfilled.Footnote 172 Since then Ad Prakash is referred to, at least among the Ad Dharmis, as the religious text of the Ravidassia community and has also emerged as a vision of alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab. Devotional reading of sacred scriptures of Ad Prakash and acting upon its precepts becomes the foremost duty of every Ad Dharmi as emphasized in the Ad Dharm Report. The report urged that every Ad Dharmi needs to be a missionary for the faith and is expected to remember Guru Dev for half an hour each morning or evening. It is also expected that every boy and girl will perform such duties after the age of five.Footnote 173 In order to strengthen the separate social identity of the Ad Dharmi community its members were asked to celebrate the festivals of Adi gurus and to follow their faith meticulously.Footnote 174 As a separate faith, Ad Dharm expects every Ad Dharmi to conduct the marriage ceremonies according to its distinct rituals. Ad Dharmis should marry only Ad Dharmis, but if someone does marry an outsider, he or she should be brought into the fold of the faith.Footnote 175 Ad Dharmis are not supposed to follow any other law except their own, and they should call themselves as such and register in the census as ‘Ad Dharmi’.Footnote 176 In order to clearly distinguish themselves from Hindus and other communities, the followers of the movement were asked to use the red colour (the colour of their ancestors) as a marker of their distinct identity.Footnote 177 The Ad Dharm Report further emphasized that anyone who violates the laws of the Ad Dharm or of the guru, or insults these laws in one way or another, will be liable to punishment. In some cases the violator could even be excommunicated. The Report further mentioned in unambiguous terms that the essential teachings of the Ad Dharm will always remain the same and no one dare challenge or change them.Footnote 178 The Ad Dharmis were asked to boycott and abandon books such as the Laws of Manu, other granths and sastras, which were alleged to have created the problem of untouchability and had led to discrimination against the ex-Untouchables.Footnote 179 All such commandments seem to be intended to construct Ad Dharm as a separate religion of the Dalits of Punjab.
The alternative Dalit agenda articulated by the Ad Dharm movement was not only confined to constructing a separate religion for the Dalits, it was also concerned with their cultural transformation and socio-economic empowerment. It made a substantial contribution towards improving the socio-cultural conditions of the Dalits in Punjab. It tried to generate awareness among them by bringing a cultural transformation in their personal lives while saving them from falling into the traps of sanskritisation and conversion. It aimed at creating a social and cultural awakening among the downtrodden by making them aware of their incarcerated life within the oppressive boundaries of the Varna order. It also revealed the debilitating impact of the various social evils on the downtrodden and called upon them to get rid of them as quickly as possible.Footnote 180 For the economic empowerment of the Dalits, the Ad Dharm movement emphasized the economic rights (including land ownership rights) of Dalits on a par with others and also demanded proper representation in all the government departments and legislative bodies.Footnote 181 It further encouraged the Ad Dharmis to open shops and businesses in every village so that they can get rid of the oppressive patron-client relationship that made them subservient to the dominant castes in the rural setting of Punjab.Footnote 182
Ravidass Deras, alternative agenda and conflict formation
It is important to note at the outset here that, although the Achhut FederationFootnote 183 and the Republican Party of India emerged in the wake of the Ad Dharm movement, it was the Ravidass deras that became the major carriers of its legacy. Interchangeably known as gurughars, temples, gurdwaras, and deras, Ravidass deras began emerging in Punjab in the early twentieth century. A vernacular field study completed in 2003 puts their number around one hundred.Footnote 184 Since the publication of this study many more such deras have come into existence in Punjab.Footnote 185 Paramjit Judge and Gurpreet Bal in their empirical study reported that the number of Ravidass deras has reached 176.Footnote 186 The phenomenon of Ravidass deras, as mentioned earlier, is not confined to Punjab alone; it has become equally popular overseas as well. Punjabi Dalit diasporas have established their separate Ravidass deras abroad in large numbers. Some of the most prominent Ravidass deras abroad are in the following cities: Vancouver, Calgary, Brampton, Toronto, Montreal (Canada), New York, Sacramento, Pittsburg, Seattle, Fresno, Fremont, Houston, Selma, and Austin (United States), Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Bradford, Coventry, Derby, Lancaster, Southall, Southampton, Kent and Bedford (United Kingdom). In the last few years many Ravidass temples and gurdwaras have also been built in Austria, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Holland, New Zealand, Greece and the Lebanon.Footnote 187 It is pertinent to note that Ravidass deras have emerged not merely as centres of spiritual gatherings for Dalits but have also metamorphosed slowly into epicentres of social protest.
Ravidass deras devised their own separate rituals, ceremonies, slogans, ardas (prayer), kirtan (musical rendering of sacred hymns), religious festivals and iconography. Since the entire gamut of religious and cultural activities in Ravidass deras revolve around the teachings and life of Guru Ravidass, he emerges as the central figure in the premises of these deras. Ravidass idols are installed and worshipped in the sanctum sanctorum of almost all such deras and his sacred figure is elevated to the status of a Guru. Guruship is also bestowed upon the head priests of the Ravidass deras, popularly known as Gaddi Nashins. Calendar posters printed in the image of Guru Ravidass decorate the walls of the premises of these Deras. In Sikh gurdwaras idol worshipping and touching the feet of human Guru is an anathema. And in the Hindu temples, though idols images of innumerable gods and goddesses are worshipped, the idol of Guru Ravidass is conspicuous by its absence.
Ravidass deras represent a critical Dalit space where bhakti-based tradition of social protest, propounded and practiced by Guru Ravidass, gets finely blended with that of the political spearheaded by Dr Ambedkar. In Ravidass deras the ecstasy and reason of the song of the utopia of Begumpura, as envisaged by Guru Ravidass in the early modern period, perfectly fits with the analytical resonances of the Prabuddha Bharat of Dr Ambedkar, one of the most popular and reason-based utopias envisioned by dalit-bahujan intellectuals and leaders of the anti-caste movement during the colonial period. The Ravidassia movement in Punjab, in fact, represents what Johannes Beltz, an eminent authority on neo-Buddhism, describes as ‘a new terrain of exciting future research’Footnote 188 whose potential strength is yet to be fully exploited.Footnote 189 The present paper is a small beginning in this regard—the emerging field of critical Dalit studies in India.
The phenomenon of Ravidass deras has taken the form of a sort of a new socio-cultural Dalit movement in Punjab—what has also come to be known as the ‘Ravidassia movement’ or ‘Ravidass Deras Dalit movement’.Footnote 190 Led by the Sants of Dera Sachkhand Ballan, one of the most prominent Ravidass Deras in Punjab,Footnote 191 this new Dalit socio-cultural movement ‘is silently sweeping the Punjab countryside offering a new hope to the untouchable, particularly the Chamars’, argues V. T. Rajshekar, editor of the famous weekly, Dalit Voice.Footnote 192 It has generated a sense of confidence amongst the socially excluded sections of Punjabi society and provided them with an opportunity to exhibit their hitherto eclipsed Dalit identity. The movement of Ravidass deras, argues Rajshekar, ‘. . .reflects the fast changing socio-cultural scene of Punjab where the once powerful and revolutionary Sikh religion is failing to meet the needs of the oppressed who discovered the right remedy to cure their wounded psyche in the Ballan experiment’.Footnote 193 The secret of the success of this movement, perhaps, lies in an excellent strategy based on close interaction between the two rich subaltern traditions: the north-Indian radical bhakti movement and neo-Buddhism. The Sants of Ravidass deras, again, particularly of Dera Sachkhand Ballan, have been quite successful in blending together the bani of Guru Ravidass and the philosophy of neo-Buddhism as propounded by Dr Ambedkar.Footnote 194 Dera Sachkhand Ballan has become a paragon of the Ravidass movement in northwest India. It has also been regulating the affairs of various Ravidass Deras overseas through its international trusts.Footnote 195 It has made concerted efforts towards the construction of a separate Dalit identity since coming into existence at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Ravidass Deras and a separate Dalit identity
Ravidass deras are not merely a religious space. They do, in fact, symbolize a meticulous ongoing process of concretization of a separate Dalit identity. Their central concern has been to present themselves as different from the Hindu and Sikh shrines and to provide an alternative religious domain whereby their followers, belonging to the so-called low caste populace, need not hide their identity and meekly suffer the onslaught of social exclusion. Their distinctiveness also lies in the fact that they neither take refuge in any of the established theology nor do they present themselves as emulating the dominant socio-cultural ethos of upper caste society. On the contrary, they proudly distinguish themselves from the mainstream religious systems and also contest their long-imposed supremacy over the Dalits of Punjab. The manner in which they distinguish themselves from others and the extent to which they have been successful in this regard is the key concern of the remaining part of this section.
The figure of Ravidass, as mentioned above, is worshipped as a Guru in Ravidass Deras. In addition, the gaddi nashins (heads) of Ravidass deras are also revered as Gurus. The prefix of Guru before Ravidass and the heads of Ravidass Deras separated them from Sikh gurdwaras and Hindu temples. In Sikh religion only ten historic Gurus and the Guru Granth Sahib are considered the only legitimate Gurus. The tenth Master, Guru Gobind Singh, puts the tradition of human Guruship to an end and the institution of guruship is permanently endowed in Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Since then human guruship has remained an anathema in Sikh religion. Thus in Sikh gurudwaras, Ravidass is addressed as ‘Bhakta’ and not as ‘Guru’. The issue of Bhakta versus Guru has not only pitted the Ravidassia community and Jat Sikhs against each other in Punjab and elsewhere, but has also led to communal polarization between the Sikh and Dalit diasporas as well.
Another key factor that underlines the assertion of a separate identity by the Ravidass deras is the distinct nomenclature preferred by its priests—distinguishing them from their counterparts in Sikh shrines, especially since the formation of the Khalsa in 1699. The titles of the last names of the Sants of Ravidass Deras are ‘Dass’ (humble). It seems they have inherited the tradition of suffixing ‘Dass’ from their Guru Ravidass whose first name is also suffixed with ‘Dass’. Whereas the titles of first names of Sikhs are invariably followed by ‘Singh’.Footnote 196 Though the Sants of Ravidass deras keep unshorn hair and flowing beard, and don turban, like that of the Sikh priests, they still do not consider themselves as Sikhs. Even some of the heads of Ravidass deras were/are clean-shaven.
‘Har’ (Supreme Being),Footnote 197 the insignia of Ravidass deras, known as ‘Koumi Nishan’ of the Ravidassia samaj, is yet another distinct identity marker that endows them with a separate identity. The religious symbol of the Sikh gurdwaras is ‘Khanda’ (Two-edged sword over a quoit with two crossed sabers below the quoit) and of Hindu temples is a trident and also holy image of various gods and goddesses. The insignia ‘Har’ is composed of a Sun-like circle with an image of 40 rays on its circular edge. The 40 rays around the circle of the insignia signify 40 hymns of Guru Ravidass. Within the circle, there is another smaller circle within which ‘Har’ is inscribed in Gurmukhi script with a sign of flame on the top of it. The flame represents the ‘Naam’ (word) that would illuminate the entire world. The sign of flame crosses over into the bigger circle. In between the bigger and smaller circles is written a couplet: Naam tere kee jot lagayi, Bhaio Ujiaaro Bhawan saglaare (Your Name is the flame I light; it has illuminated the entire world). This inner circle couplet is taken from one of the 40 hymns of Guru Ravidass. The insignia ‘Har’ represents the very being of Ravidass and his teachings. The insignia ‘Har’ is chosen after the name of their Guru [Ravi (Sun) dass (servant), servant of the sun]. The Dalits, especially the Chamars of Punjab, proudly hoist flags with the image of ‘Har’ atop their religious places, and vehicles during processions on the occasions of Guru Ravidass birth anniversaries and other festivities and raise slogans such as ‘Ravidass Shakti Amar Rahe’ (long live the grace of Ravidass). The insignia ‘Har’ has become a distinct marker of a separate Dalit identity. It is also being circulated in the form of souvenirs, stickers and wall calendars printed in the image of Guru Ravidass.
The format of the ardas (a formal prayer recited at most Sikh rituals) performed in the Ravidass Deras also differentiates them from that of Sikh religion.Footnote 198 It comprises a Shloka (couplet) and one of the 40 hymns of Guru Ravidass.Footnote 199 The ardas closes with the utterance: ‘Bole So Nirbhay, Sri Guru Ravidass Maharaj Ki Jai’ (Fearless is the one who utters: Victory to Shri Guru Ravidass). Whereas, in the Sikh religion the ardas concluded with: ‘Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal’ (Blessed is the one who utters: True is the Immortal One). The reference to Nirbhay (fearless) in the conclusion of the ardas of the Ravidass deras has become a central motif of the Dalit consciousness, and is thus not only symptomatic of the historical oppression of the Dalits at the hands of the upper castes, but is also reflective of their determined willingness to confront it head-on.
Like the ardas, the aarti (a Hindu ceremony of adoration which consists of waving round the head of an idol on a platter containing five burning wicks) that is offered at the altar of the sanctum sanctorum of Ravidass deras differentiate them from that of Hindu temples.Footnote 200 The Sants of Ravidass deras do not wave a platter of burning wicks. They blow conch-shells and rattle gongs, which is followed by a recitation of a hymn from the bani of Ravidass.Footnote 201 The salutations in the Ravidass Deras have also been formulated selectively in order to project their separate identity. Every religious community has its own way of greeting. ‘Sat Shri Akaal’ (True is the Immortal One) is the greeting of the Sikhs. ‘Namaste’, ‘Jai Ram Ji Ki or Jai Sita-Ram’ (Victory to Ram or Victory to Sita-Ram) is of the Hindus. Ravidass Deras adopted the greeting: ‘Jai Gurudev or Jai Guru Ravidass’ (Victory to the divine Guru or Guru Ravidass) to which the reply was ‘Dhan Guru Dev’ (blessed the divine Guru). The short version of the greetings is ‘Jai Santan Di’ (Victory to the Saints).Footnote 202
The forms of ‘ardas’, ‘aarti’, insignia, and salutations adopted by the Sants of Ravidass deras have thus become distinct markers of a separate Dalit identity that not only differentiate them from other religious communities of the region but also project them as prominent Dalit social and religious sites. The Ravidassia movement, argues Kathryn Lum, ‘uses religion as a tool to push for greater social equality. . .while discouraging any affiliation to other religions’.Footnote 203 Ravidass Deras, in fact, have become a testing ground for the cultivation of a separate Dalit identity in the form of a ‘separate religion based on the bani (sacred scriptures) of Guru Ravidass Ji’.Footnote 204 In other words, Ravidass Deras have evolved into a nursery of symbols, icons, signifiers, and narratives of a separate Dalit identity that has helped tremendously in shaping the contour of an alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab.
Ravidass Deras and conflict formation
In the context of an emerging alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab, the rise of Ravidass deras amidst mainstream, dominant Sikh gurdwara culture assumes critical importance. This has led to bitterness, provocation, and even violent clashes between Dalits and dominant castes in the state. The relationship between Dalits and the dominant castes in Punjab continues to be marked by the contradiction and confrontation between landless agricultural workers and their landlords. However, there are many Dalits in Punjab who have improved their economic conditions by dissociating themselves from their caste occupations as well as distancing themselves from agriculture. They have strengthened their economic position through state affirmative action, hard work, and ventures abroad. Some of them have also established their own small-scale servicing units, and work as carpenters, barbers, blacksmiths, masons and so on. In addition, they have also been politicized to a large extent by the rise of Dalit social and political movements over the years in Punjab. The emergence of various Dalit-dominated deras has further contributed towards the continuing process of Dalit social mobility in the state. All this has not only helped Dalits to improve their economic status but has also liberated them from the subordination of the landed peasantry in the state. This in turn has reinforced existing contradictions between the dominant castes and Dalits who are engaged in a power-struggle in Punjab and has led to a series of violent clashes between them in the past few years. The violent manifestation of Dalit-upsurge in the aftermath of the 2009 Vienna attack, particularly involving the followers of the Ravidass cult, is the most recent case in point.
The attack was launched on the two topmost Sants of the Dera Sachkhand Ballan (headquarters of the Ravidass cult in North India situated in the village of Bal near Jalandhar city) during the sermon ceremony on 24 May 2009 at Guru Ravidass Temple in Vienna-Rudolfsheim, the capital's 15th district near Westbahnholf, one of Vienna's main train stations. The number of persons involved in the attack was reportedly six, who were overpowered by around 200 devotees gathered on the occasion. In the mêlée, around 16 people were reportedly injured. Sant Ramanand, the second-in-command of Dera Ballan, later died of his injuries in the hospital.Footnote 205 This incident has been interpreted by some as an attack on the fast emerging distinct Ravidassia Dalit identity: the core of the alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab, that has led to massive sabotage of public property worth thousands of millions of Indian Rupees and a curfew for four days in the state. Surinder Kaur, one of the millions of followers of Dera Sachkhand Ballan is quoted as saying, ‘[t]his is happening to us because our community is making attempts to uplift itself’.Footnote 206 Another devotee of the Dera interprets the recent Dalit upsurge as ‘a fight for equality’.Footnote 207 He is further quoted as saying that ‘[t]he dominated community is attempting to rise and the dominant community is fearful of its rise’.Footnote 208 Yet another interpretation links the Vienna incident to the violation of the Sikh code of conduct during the spiritual preaching by the Sants of Dera Ballan in the temple over there, which has led to a deviation from the tradition of the ‘Prakash of Guru Granth Sahib’ at Dera Sachkhand Ballan, a practice followed by many Ravidass Deras both in Punjab and abroad.Footnote 209 The antim ardas (last rites) ceremony of the slain Sant Ramanad of the Dera Ballan was performed in the absence of the ‘Prakash of Guru Granth Sahib’. In other words, the spontaneous violent reaction to the Vienna attack and the subsequent deviation from the long established tradition of recitation of the bani from the holy scriptures of the Sikh faith has widened the wedge between the Dalits and the dominant castes in Punjab and overseas.Footnote 210 The Vienna attack, however, is not an exception. There are some similar cases earlier too where the question of separate Dalit identity had led to violent confrontation between the dominant castes and Dalits in Punjab. The Nirankari-Sikh clash in 1978, the Bhaniarawala conflict in 2001 and the Dera Sacha Sauda dispute in 2007 are a few, but are amongst the most prominent examples of such violent conflicts that have erupted between dominant castes and Dalits in East Punjab.
A steadily rising Dalit assertion against social exclusion and discrimination in Punjab is often interpreted through the idiom of native religion and cultural heritage by Ravidass deras. The crude experience of open as well as subtle indignities suffered by the Dalits in almost all the religions they have embraced in order to evade the scourge of pollution-based social exclusion in Hindu religion, has played a major role in pushing them towards Dalit dominated deras, particularly to the Ravidass deras in Punjab. The Ravidass deras not only symbolize assertion of a separate Dalit identity in Punjab, they also underscore the ongoing process of articulation of an alternative Dalit agenda in the state.Footnote 211 As argued by Judge and Bal in their recently published empirical study, ‘[t]he dalit politics has shifted to the Deras and saints who have established themselves as the sole and soul spokesmen (incidentally all such saints are men) of the Dalits, particularly the Ad-dharmis and Chamars’.Footnote 212
The mushrooming growth of Ravidass deras, along with various other kinds of Dalit dominated deras that have emerged over the last few decades, has not only alarmed the mainstream Sikh organizations and the neoconservative Sikh leadership, but has also led to varied disputes relating to claims and counterclaims of the premises, as well as other related properties of these deras of various nomenclatures in Punjab. Dalit dominated deras are often considered as intruders into the hitherto well-guarded territory of the Sikh religious centres, controlled and governed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, the supreme governing body of the Panth (path or organization). The main source of contention at the surface, however, lies in the emerging separate Dalit identity that these varied deras give rise to in contradistinction to the hegemonic Sikh identity in Punjab. At a deeper level, the deras in fact strike critically at the political economy of the agricultural dominated and gurdwara encircled state of Punjab. Since Dalits constitute almost one-third of the total population of Punjab and many of them, particularly from the Doaba region, are settled abroad, their sheer number makes a big difference to the amount of offerings being received at these deras in Punjab and overseas. This further complicates the contention between the deras and the mainstream Sikh organization responsible both for guarding the vast domain of various Sikh gurdwaras and religion laced politics of the state. The rich offerings made at these deras are often considered by some as a case of cash/currency diversion from the treasury of the mainstream Sikh gurdwaras. The large number of Dalit devotees of such deras also carries serious political implications as religion continues to play a dominant role in electoral politics in Punjab. Thus, besides facilitating the ongoing process of upward social mobility among the Dalit population of Punjab, the rise of Dalit dominated deras has led to social conflicts with the dominant caste, which feels threatened in terms of its exclusive hold on both the political economy of religion and the vote banks. From the perspective of an alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab, the resistance framed in caste-class equation, against the backdrop of the upsurge of Dalit social mobility in Punjab, is a progressive, and not regressive, step towards broadening and deepening Indian democracy. As succinctly pointed out by Amartya Sen, ‘[t]here is a need for caution, however, for those who believe that invocation of caste in any form in democracy is an evil force. As long as caste is invoked in speaking for a lower caste or uniting it, it is good’.Footnote 213
Conclusion
My key argument in this paper is that given different socio-economic structures in Punjab, and the striking reality of landlessness among Dalits in the state, the agendas of conversion to neo-Buddhism and sanskritisation have failed to strike a cord. As far as conversion to neo-Buddhism is concerned it remains a very low-key affair in Punjab. Whatever little presence it has acquired over the years is more or less confined to occasional gatherings at annual celebrations at the Buddha Viharas. Furthermore, the meager neo-Buddhist Dalit population in the state has failed to liberate itself from the caste shackles.
The story of the pursuit of the agenda of sanskritisation in Punjab, as I have attempted to argue and illustrate in this paper, is no different. Sanskritisation in Punjab is more material than cultural in content. Since land continues to be an important index of ‘material well being’ in the agrarian state of Punjab, sanskritisation of the lower castes has come to be perceived largely in terms of their coming to possess some tract of land. But that could not be the case with the vast majority of Dalits in Punjab who were historically deprived of the right to own land and continue to be landless even after six decades of independence. Although cultivation of agriculture has ceased to serve as a profitable venture, the ownership of land continues to be the most salient and seductive status symbol in rural Punjab.
Though many Dalits have benefited from constitutional affirmative action, spread of education, social welfare measures and immigration abroad, a vast majority of them remain ‘hopelessly’ landless; a reality that continues to cast a dark spell on their social status in the rural economy of Punjab. That land determines social status in rural Punjab is a fact. That less than three per cent of the total area under cultivation land is owned by Dalits is also a fact. Equally palpable and compelling is the fact, however, that Dalits have achieved a significant level of awareness and political consciousness over the last few decades in Punjab, independently of the conversion and sanskritisation agendas, the two most popular models of upward Dalit social mobility in the rest of India.
Another key argument in the paper is that Dalits of Punjab draw heavily on the phenomenon of Guru Ravidass for the construction of a separate Dalit identity, the core of the alternative Dalit agenda. This agenda is based on the narrative of a native religion of the Dalits of Punjab. It links them with their own low caste-fellow Guru Ravidass of the medieval north Indian bhakti movement, who unleashed a frontal attack on the dominant structures of the Brahminical social order while deploying the strategy of bhakti as a vehicle of peaceful social protest. Although the Ad Dharm movement was the originator of the idea of the native religion of the Dalits, providing an initial platform for the articulation of the alternative agenda for the Dalits as a separate qaum, it acquired its concrete shape through the versatile agency of numerous Ravidass deras. These deras also stand out as sites of non-violent social protest where the ‘spiritual’ and the ‘political’ are blended dexterously in the sense that these are the only religious centres in Punjab where the political leaders of the community are accorded due respect along with the spiritual figures in the premises of the Ravidass deras. Ravidass deras represent a distinct socio-religious space independent of both Hindu temples and Sikh gurdwaras where followers of the Ravidassia panth need not submerge or collapse their separate Dalit identity within any other religion, Indic or otherwise, as in the case of conversion to other religions including the neo-Buddhism of Dr B. R. Ambedkar. At the same time it also enables the Dalits to escape from the dominant cultural patterns of the upper/dominant castes that accompany the agenda of sanskritisation.
The paper concludes by illustrating that Ravidass deras have evolved into viable socio-religious sites, enabling the alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab to thrive on distinct identity markers such as religious places, centres of pilgrimage, slogans, salutations, prayers, insignia, traditions, rituals, heroes, festivals, and scared texts. The alternative Dalit agenda empowers the Dalits of Punjab to peacefully contest their historically entrenched social exclusion and enables them to press for their due share in the local structures of power without compromising their so-called low caste Dalit identity. It also encourages them to flag rather proudly their separate Dalit identity—the central motif of the alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab. The alternative Dalit agenda has in fact turned their so-called low caste identity into a potent weapon of radical Dalit assertion, which has led to various conflicts with the dominant castes in Punjab. It has also raised the possibility of a struggle for better living without discarding one's own cultural heritage and native religion. This clearly distinguishes the emerging patterns of Dalit social mobility in Punjab from the rest of India where the so-called low caste Dalit identity is often concealed either in a cultural assimilation process of sanskritisation or in a radical-separation process of conversion to neo-Buddhism.
The pursuit of empowerment, while refusing to compromise one's own social identity, is what sharply differentiates the articulation and assertion of an alternative Dalit agenda in Punjab from the two most popular Dalit agendas of conversion and sanskritisation as followed in the rest of the country. Looking ahead, it is possible to visualize the articulation of a similar Dalit agenda through highly contentious democratic politics in other parts of the country where the archetypical agendas of conversion and sanskritisation have either failed to deliver social justice and dignity or could not simply appeal to the local Dalit population.
