Guru Ravidass, his teachings are related even nowadays: Prof Santosh Ok Singh

This yr for the primary time in virtually twenty years, the Begumpura information, a unique teach from Jalandhar to Varanasi, was once cancelled because of the pandemic. This teach has performed a large function in Punjab’s reference to Varanasi. Professor Santosh Ok Singh, a sociologist who has researched the caste dynamics of Punjab, and keenly adopted the Ravidassia identification articulation via Jalandhar-based Dera Sachkhand Ballan over a decade talks to The indian Expresss about Punjab and its reference to Varanasi.

Why is the Begumpura information so central to the Ravidassia identification articulation and what’s the idea of Begumpura?

Guru Ravidass had propounded and advocated the concept that of “Begumpura” or a town with out sorrow (“gam”), the place there will probably be no taxes and the place there can be no discrimination and all can be positioned horizontally within the socio-economic panorama. Most of the legends and hagiographical accounts associated with Guru Ravidas attest to his equalitarian philosophy, his non-combative sahajbhao or persuasive mode of preaching.

Teach no. 12238, previously Jammu-Tawi- Varanasi information by the use of Jalandhar, is referred to now as Begumpura information.

At the instance of Ravidass Jayanti once a year, particular reserved trains of Begumpura information, wearing hundreds of pilgrims start their adventure from Jalandhar Station to Varanasi, to commemorate the start of Guru Ravidass.

The teach engine’s entrance carries a full-size flex poster of Guru Ravidass and the compartments are all decked up with balloons and posters of the gurus of Dera Ballan. It has now develop into a practice since early 2000.

The DJ device within the background, enjoying the songs of Dalit singers similar to Ginni Mahi, Roop Lal Dhir and others, younger Ravidassia frenetically dance out of doors the railway station because the adorned teach begins for Varanasi.

Why is Varanasi so important for Ravidassias of Punjab?

The 15th century Bhakti poet Guru Ravidass was once born in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, in a circle of relatives belonging to a neighborhood that labored with leather-based and regarded as lowly and ‘polluting’ within the caste-ridden social hierarchy. However via his sheer highbrow brilliance and via preaching the philosophy of inclusive coexistence, in keeping with a casteless and classless society, he won standard appreciation and reverence from other folks throughout all strata. Many from the then princely states, together with Mirabai, turned into his disciples.

For over greater than a decade the Dera of Ballan in Jalandhar has been singularly and actively in the vanguard of growing the start position of Guru Ravidass in Varanasi in Seer Goverdhanpur, on the subject of the Banaras Hindu College campus, with beneficiant monetary beef up from its fans, a significant bite coming from the diaspora. Guru Ravidas Janamsthan in Varanasi in that sense through the years has emerged as a significant pilgrimage centre for the Ravidassias of the area.

What’s the relevance of Guru Ravidass’ teachings within the provide state of affairs?

Guru Ravidass and his teachings are simply as related even nowadays. Guru Ravidass had a singular approach of critiquing the discriminatory caste device and ritualism prevalent within the society. Guru Ravidas, preached with none irreverence to people who didn’t practice him.
He persisted to apply his conventional caste-profession during his existence, regardless of accolades and the standing of an enlightened soul, necessarily to keep in touch a message that the paintings or labour is what takes the human beings nearer to the almighty or Hari and there is not any hierarchy of professions. When the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy ebook of the Sikhs, was once being compiled, 40 shabads of Guru Ravidass have been incorporated in it, signifying the present ethos of syncretism and spiritual co-existence.

Have you ever travelled in Begumpura information ever?

Sure. One has to go back and forth and be a part of it to in truth revel in it. In UP, the native Ravidassia teams will compile with bands and far fanfare to greet the Dera Mahant and the pilgrims. On those events, stations get full of the thunderous chants of “Jo Bole So Nirbhaya, Sat Guru Ravidas Maharaj Ki Jai”, the salutation of the Ravidassia, which means “Be fearless, the disciple of Guru Ravidas”. The salutation proclaims the neighborhood’s public presence and demonstrates its rising power and aspirations.

Can Begumpura dream be completed when caste dynamics has been a posh factor in Punjab?

Indelibility of caste as an establishment is definitely documented. Punjab society too skilled this phenomenon the place caste markers persisted to stigmatise some because the lowly and ‘polluting’ regardless of a colourful and egalitarian tradition of social lifestyles propagated via Sikhism. The mushrooming of Dalit-Deras of all denominations and the phenomenon of separate Dalit gurdwaras and cremation grounds within the villages of Punjab constitute that cave in of that collective dream of Begumpura, as Ravidas envisioned.

Ravidassias of Punjab, particularly the ones related to the Dera Ballan, were probably the most vocal about this modified state of affairs. Dera Ballan belongs to the filthy rich Doaba area, continuously known as the NRI area of Punjab. The neighborhood has traditionally been prosperous and influential owing to its conventional monopoly of leather-based trade since colonial occasions. Subsidized via the top get started within the financial sphere, the Ravidassias over the century have unfold throughout continents with sizeable numbers in international locations like Italy, Austria, Canada, UK and the US.

In the neighborhood positioned Ravidassias, virtually solely non-landed in Punjab, like the opposite Dalits, too benefitted from get entry to to non-farm occupations, most commonly in city spaces, because the native agrarian members of the family turned into much less beneficial with the access of migrants from different deficient wallet of the rustic.