Religiosity, Identity and the Deras in Contemporary Punjab: A Study of Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan
Author: Geetanjali Atri, gitanjaliatri@gmail.com
Department: Centre for the Study of Social Systems
University: Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
Supervisor: Prof. Tanweer Fazal
Year of completion: In progress
Language of dissertation: English
Keywords:
Dera
, New Religion
, Sikh Identity
, Guru-led organisations
Areas of Research:
Religion
, Deviance and Social Control
, Stratification
Abstract
The sacred geography of Punjab has always been a complex reality. From once a Muslim majority state, various socio-political events have changed its religious character to Sikh majority, as it is known today. Sikhism is relatively a new religion with its own share of conflicts and contestations. From the period of Sikh gurus itself, there ran multiple discourses of Sikh religious identity. The challengers to the succession of gurus, like the Udasis, Gulabdasis, Nirmalas, Dhirmaliyas, etc. were seen as religious deviants, for not falling in line with the recognition of Khalsa as the ultimate Sikh identity. With them is identified the historicity of the modern day guru-led religious organisations in Punjab, known as the ‘deras’. In the contemporary time, scholars use caste as a major conceptual tool to study the dera phenomenon. However, over emphasis on the caste variable, slides any other possible reason for the flourishing of deras in Punjab to the periphery.
The literature, though, speaks about various categories of deras in Punjab, which can be clubbed as either Sikh or non-Sikh deras, such a classification remains problematic on grounds more than one. Firstly, what exactly is meant by Sikh itself remains contested, provided the heterogenous account of Sikh religious history. Secondly, these convenient categories of deras emerge from the work of certain prominent Sikh scholars who see the world from their end alone. The non-Sikh deras are not Sikhs because they do not follow the Khalsa rahit. Thirdly, this classification is a product of etic perspective of such scholars who do not take into consideration the views of the deras, as to where they locate themselves.
What remains common to almost all the deras, is the authority of a guru. In that case, further investigation is required in order to probe similarities or dissimilarities between such organisations in Punjab and other important guru-led movements elsewhere in the country, like Mata Amritanandmayi Mission, Satya Sai phenomenon, Art of Living, Isha Foundation, etc. Deras today are not limited to Punjab alone, they have established branches not only across India, but also abroad. In such a case, further research is required to understand how the deras adapt to the changing context.
My research work aims to fill in these gaps, using Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan (DJJS), a religious organisation in Nurmahal, Jalandhar, Punjab, as its unit of analysis. The idea of DJJS originated against the backdrop of Sikh fundamentalism in 1983 with the efforts of Ashutosh Maharaj. In such a background, his ideas of peace and fraternity became an instant hit among people from different class and caste backgrounds, who surrendered their resources for the establishment of a formal organisation for dissemination of his ideas. Today, the organisation has more than 350 branches in India and abroad.
