The recent conviction of Baba Ram Rahim has expectedly highlighted the entrenched element of criminality in the operations of godmen across India. This is not the only case of its ilk, but his conviction in a rape case hogged disproportionate limelight due to the ferocity of the violent reaction to the CBI court’s verdict by his followers.Over the years, most godmen across the country have all been accused of, and sometimes convicted for crimes against women. The commonality between these cases highlights the ugly side of their godliness. Spirituality has been replaced with a lure of lucre and has been thoroughly commercialised.
There is a ‘godman’ industry right now in India, which seems to resemble European Christianity in the middle ages where favours and forgiveness were exchanged for money. But it is not just the lack of spirituality that has led to the rise of the godman industry. These godmen and godwomen command considerable followings primarily because the state has failed to integrate or even provide for those who are marginalised socially, economically and educationally. These self-styled godmen provide for these subalterns what the state does not, a sense of dignity with a heavy dose of intoxicating religion. They exist and thrive at the intersection of religious fervour, political power, and often, massive wealth.
This puts them in positions of unimaginable and multi-dimensional power that they can wield in many ways. The nexus with politicians and those in power ensures that misdemeanors of these so-called godmen are kept under wraps.How and why they accumulate their political capital by building up a large army of blind followers, which they subsequently trade off to politicians hankering for a vote bank, however is often ignored. There have been religious movements in India for centuries that have taken care of the downtrodden. Religions such as Buddhism and Jainism began that way as a reaction of the traditional Hinduism’s fragmentation and corruption. The Bhakti movement generated many cults such as Kabirpanthis and Ramadasias to check conversion of low caste Hindus to Islam.
A look at the Deras that proliferate in Punjab, Haryana and adjoining states gives us an idea about the composition of their followers. While they come from every caste, most are Dalits and OBCs. Modern Sikhism, which promised to get rid of untouchability, failed to provide that social equality in practice. The hold of casteist prejudice and hegemony sustained in spite of Sikh gurus’ preachings against untouchability and their propagation of equality.Punjab has the largest proportion of Scheduled Caste population (29 per cent, as against the national average of 16 per cent) who have a negligible share in the land ownership. Not only have the landless Dalit Sikhs been dependent on big land-owning Jat farmers, but also faced unequal treatment in the Jat Gurdwaras. The vacuum was filled by the Deras, which exploited this alienation.
In the post-independent India, the reasons for mushrooming of the Deras in the Northwest and Central India can be linked to the failure of the Indian State to provide equal status and opportunities to a society fragmented by a hierarchal caste structure of the society. This allows the sect leaders to convince the oppressed masses that they can offer solace and mitigate their suffering. Self-delusion then turns into blind faith and their followers are then ready to follow these godmen without applying their reason.
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