With one yr to go for the meeting polls within the state, specialists see the prime minister’s go to as a extra focused technique to succeed in out to particular caste communities that maintain the important thing in intently contested electoral battles, significantly the Ravidasias and Advert-Dharmis, who represent the most important subgroup among the many Dalits in Punjab.

“Ravidasias and different Dalit voters don’t vote en bloc for a single celebration; they usually shift relying on native points, candidates and coalitions. The overt reaching out to the Ravidasia dera is strategically vital for the BJP,” says Dr Kanwalpreet Kaur of the division of political science, DAV Faculty, Sector 10, Chandigarh.

“The Ravidasias have been demanding recognition as an unbiased neighborhood, and the BJP intends to just do that—leverage identification recognition, aligning with the neighborhood’s calls for for nationwide visibility and respect for its religious management,” she added.

ThePrint explains the importance of the prime minister’s go to to the central establishment of the Ravidassia sect within the state.

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Additionally Learn: BJP’s Ravidas Jayanti push to woo Dalits in poll-bound states — shobha yatras, sant sammelans 

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BJP’s bid for a slice of the pie

The BJP, as soon as a junior associate of the Akali Dal, has been making an attempt to construct an unbiased electoral footprint in Punjab after the SAD-BJP alliance resulted in 2020 over the contentious farm legal guidelines introduced in by the BJP-led centre.

The BJP’s technique within the state has been profitable sufficient for it to enhance its vote share from 6.60 % within the 2022 Vidhan Sabha elections to 18.56 % within the 2024 parliamentary elections, reducing into the vote share of the AAP and the Congress.

Previously yr, the celebration has centered on rising its foothold in rural areas dominated by Sikh peasantry.

Dalits represent nearly 32 % of Punjab’s inhabitants, the best within the nation. Nevertheless, the Dalits are divided amongst Sikhs, Hindus and Christians, a lot of whom additionally observe deras.

Deras, widespread on Punjab, are socio-religious centres of assorted sects and organisations. In contrast to Sikh gurudwaras, the place the Guru Granth Sahib is taken into account a dwelling guru, derad are usually led by a dwelling guru with a private following.

Dera Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Dera Sacha Sauda (headquartered in Sirsa) and Dera Sachkhand Ballan are the three most adopted deras in Punjab, commanding a following working into a number of lakhs.

Among the many Dalits, the Ravidasias, Ramdasias and Advert-Dharmis are the most important sub-groups, concentrated within the Doaba area districts of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, SBS Nagar and Phagwara.

In keeping with Dalit research skilled Ronki Ram of Panjab College in Chandigarh, the Ravidasias are probably the most distinguished Dalit neighborhood in Punjab.

“Out of the 39 SC castes in Punjab, the 4 main castes of Chamar (23.45 %), Advert-dharmi (11.48 %), Balmiki (9.78 %) and Mazhabi (29.72 %) represent 74.44 % of the whole SC inhabitants,” he stated.

“Chamars are additional divided into Ravidasias (leather-based staff) and Ramdasias (weavers). The Ravidasias are probably the most distinguished for a number of causes. They utilised the supply of reservation in schooling effectively, and are probably the most upwardly cell. Many went overseas and represent a big part of the NRIs from Doaba,” he added.

In consequence, Ronki Ram stated, they’ve “grow to be financially well-to-do”.

“They’ve invested in Guru Ravidas deras and now have substantial social capital. They’re additionally networked and, as a neighborhood, get pleasure from political clout,” he added.

Guru Ravidas 

The Ravidasia identification is rooted within the teachings of Guru Ravidas, a Fifteenth-century Bhakti saint and social reformer of the Chamar caste whose egalitarian message resonates with Dalit communities.

“Ravidas was born into the Chamar caste, often known as Kutbandhla, one of many Scheduled Castes (SC) in Uttar Pradesh. Chamars are identified by their occupation of leather-based and tanning. They have been oppressed and their contact and sight have been thought of polluting by the higher castes. Ravidas revolted towards this inhuman system of untouchability. He adopted bhakti as a mode of expression for his revolt,” stated Ronki Ram, quoting from his analysis paper.

Guru Ravidas’s poetic hymns are additionally included within the holy textual content of the Guru Granth Sahib,  thought of a dwelling Guru by Sikhs.

“Ravidas holds a particular place within the coronary heart of Dalits, as he was one who unleashed a frontal assault on the normal apply of caste-based social exclusion and oppression. Belonging to one of many lowest castes, his iconic determine continues to behave as a catalyst within the emergence of a separate Dalit identification in Punjab,” stated Ronki Ram.

“Ravidas, as a religious determine who Omvedt (Gail Omvedt, an American sociologist) boldly referred to as ‘the bhakti radical’, instructions a large following amongst his caste fellows, particularly the Chamars in Punjab, who think about him their guru. They’ve constructed temples, gurdwaras, bhawans (memorial halls), instructional establishments/ chairs, cultural organisations and hospitals in his title throughout Punjab,” he added.

Sachkhand Ballan

The Ravidasias share a religious narrative centred on Guru Ravidas, together with a definite set of non secular practices centered at locations like Dera Ballan and the Shri Guru Ravidas Janam Asthan (Varanasi).

Yearly, trains stuffed with devotees from this dera head to Varanasi to mark the guru’s beginning anniversary.

The Sachkhand Dera at Ballan in Jalandhar is the most important dera of the Ravidasias in Punjab. It’s a central establishment for this custom and a hub of social cohesion, schooling, and identification for the Ravidasias.

A faultline amongst Ravidasias and radical Sikhs emerged in 2009 when six armed males attacked a Ravidasia congregation in Vienna in Austria, the place Sant Ramanand, the then second accountable for the dera, was killed.

Sant Niranjan Dass, the dera chief who was accompanying Sant Ramanand, was additionally injured.

Sikh extremists noticed some Ravidasia practices as divergent from orthodox Sikh canon. This assault triggered protests in Punjab with clashes among the many Sikhs and Ravidasias reported in Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, and different areas.

The incident was pivotal in galvanising the neighborhood’s sense of separate identification. The following yr, the Ravidasias, refusing to align both with Sikhs or the Hindus, declared themselves to be a part of a separate faith, with a definite identification, spiritual traditions, and scripture (Amritbani Guru Ravidass Ji).

Political significance

Over time, Dera Ballan has expanded its affect past religious issues into schooling, healthcare, and neighborhood welfare, making it a focus of social life for a lot of Dalits in Punjab and overseas.

The dera instructions vital social affect in at the very least 19-20 meeting seats of Doaba. Politically, the Ravidasias—like many Dalit sub-groups—don’t vote as a monolith, however their collective affect in key constituencies makes them a prize for any celebration in search of energy in Punjab.

All main political events within the state—the Congress, Aam Aadmi Occasion (AAP), the Shiromani Akali Dal ( SAD) and others—have courted this neighborhood, with distinguished leaders making a beeline for the dera to hunt blessings, particularly throughout the election season.

When Congress chief Charanjit Singh Channi, now an MP, turned the primary Dalit chief minister of Punjab in 2021, considered one of his first visits after he turned CM was to the Sachkhand Dera Ballan, the place he was welcomed by the Dera chief. Channi has additionally promised to determine a analysis institute to review the life and teachings of Guru Ravidas.

Dalit voting sample

In contrast to different states the place cohesive Dalit events, just like the Bahujan Samaj Occasion (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh, have a united Dalit vote financial institution, in Punjab, no single Dalit political celebration has sustained main success past a number of early victories within the Nineties. It has not received a single seat since 1998.

The BSP, based by Kanshi Ram who hailed from Punjab, noticed some early success however its vote share has been depleting over time.

Dalits in Punjab have by no means voted en bloc. Their votes are usually divided amongst various events.

Nevertheless, based on a Lokniti-CSDS report of 2021, Dalits have persistently most well-liked the Congress over the SAD, and even the AAP, the celebration that made its meeting election debut within the state in 2017.

In keeping with Lokniti-CSDS, within the 2017 meeting polls, 41 % of the Dalit Sikh vote went to the Congress, adopted by the SAD (34 %) and AAP (19 %). Equally, 43 % of the Hindu Dalit vote went to the Congress, adopted by the SAD (26 %) and AAP (21 %).

Within the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Congress mopped up 58 % of the Hindu Dalit votes and 35 % of the Sikh Dalit vote. The SAD-BJP alliance secured 27 % Hindu Dalit and 26 % of the Sikh Dalit votes.

The AAP, which entered electoral politics within the 2014 Lok Sabha election, was initially seen to be consuming into the BSP’s Dalit vote financial institution.

Nevertheless, in 2022, the AAP swayed nearly the complete Dalit vote financial institution to itself. The Congress managed to win solely 5 of 34 reserved seats (out of 117), and the then Dalit CM Channi misplaced each seats he contested from.

(Edited by Sugita Katyal)

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