Why tolerate Dera culture? Alarm bells for political class

Few civilisations have witnessed and thrived with the diversity created by extreme contrasts as in India. The Indian society lives through extreme swings between modernity and antiquity, sensuality and asceticism, reasoning and carelessness. These explain the huge controversy and the embarrassment the country faced with the latest Dera episode from Haryana. Can we decode the huge popularity of Dera cult of religiosity in few northern states?

Essentially, the same argument would apply to the influence of the khap panchayats. These Dera or khap in effect reflect society’s lack of faith on established norms — the rule of the text book. Because the normal discourse fails to deliver, people presume Dera or for that matter even Khap panchayat as institutions that can dispense justice. One biggest reasoning: is that there is no caste discrimination in Deras. These qualities attract primarily disadvantaged group of people – who are mostly lower middle class and harbour big dreams of making big or achieving big things quickly.

People over the years develop greater faith in the Dera system than the normal policing, village panchayat and even the court. People also start marrying within the deras and hence a new social norm comes into being.

In contrast — such Dera culture with the socio-political paradigm of eastern and southern India — you will find none. This is essentially because the religiosity in states like Haryana and Punjab — unlike eastern and southern India — have over the decades depended more on ‘pravachan (oral speeches and rhetoric) of the masters or the charlatans.

There is a tendency to believe in written works in eastern and southern India. Hence, even religious argument has developed more with the reasoning. This can be easily linked to strong caste system prevailing in northern India and perhaps can be argued also why communism as a doctrine of atheists has not flourished in the north. However, the Godmen with their version of expertise on meditation and yoga can be popular in south and eastern India.

But the latest Haryana development offers opportunities to study hard on why and how the political system also has its share of the blame. This is not merely in the context of “patronage” of Dera leaders. This also means the political system has hardly tried to create a social reform and rather – irrespective of party affiliations – the political order only tried to keep the influential social groups in good humour.

As a result the political administration under BJP chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar was found prostrating in front of Gurmeet Ram Rahim. Hence, this is to underline here that politicians need to quickly opt for corrective step. Or else – things would every time slip out of their hands.

In a different paradigm, but importantly, the dispensation of justice is also related to development and economic uplift. Don’t we often hear — the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer? Now does this puzzle relate to thesubject matter we are dealing here?

If one poses a question – why have the poor not done so well? The answer is simple but lucid and clear – the inequality in people’s income is caused by the inequality in “economic freedom” that the different groups enjoy. Thus we find poorer sections of tribals in states like Meghalaya. But at the same time an average tribal population in these north eastern states is much richer than the tribals in Jharkhand or Chhattisgarh.

Paradoxically, the natural resources of Jharkhand vis-a- vis iron ore is much more than any north eastern states — perhaps except Assam. The point I am trying to underline is that if development does not reach people as per their aspirations and  — importantly — the due potentials — people may opt for Naxalite or various insurgency movements and like in Haryana — people would glorify Dera culture thinking individuals like Ram Rahim can offer solutions to various ills.

Examining further these socio-economic issues can lead one to few more questions — as to why and how the post-1991 economic reforms has not unleashed the kind of developments it was expected? Economic uplift is also related to social reforms and hence one cannot ignore the vital matters about development or the lack of it – when we try to examine matters concerning the emergence of Dera culture.

Here comes a challenge for the political class. People in India are democrat but they also want the democracy and the democratic institutions including developmental agencies, policing and judiciary to be result oriented. Most of the time — the failure of these agencies are attributed to the absence of political will.

This is true for Haryana and also Gujarat. The political class on the whole must react to the challenges from the likes of Ram Rahim and their Dera culture.

In the ultimate analysis, having dealt at length on some of the factors those lead to the Dera culture, it is time to scrutiny on what should have happened in various states under various political parties. This is more so in the context of 1991 and economic liberalisation. The issue is not that economic reforms have failed people, the real issue is what has failed people is the “lack” of reforms.

Before dwelling into these, I have a few statistics to share. Poverty in India was about 45 per cent in 1980, it came down to 36 per cent by 1994 and it fell below 26 per cent in 2000. By the next decade, according to the Planning Commission documents, the percentage of persons below poverty line in 2011-2012 has been estimated as 25.6 per cent in rural areas, 13.7 per cent in urban pockets and 21.9 per cent for the country as a whole. These figures combine together to establish one fact that reforms and developmental yardsticks have been showing positive results — despite the portrayal of negativity often.

But it is true the poorer sections, the Dalits and the overwhelming section of lower middle class (like the followers of Dera culture) have not advanced as quickly as they should have. The three main areas where the poor in India can improve their livelihood are — the agriculture sector, the natural resources and forest-richness (of tribals) and the urban informal sector. Importantly, these three areas have not seen the kind of liberalisation and economic reforms as desired.

Worst has been the agriculture sector – where the absence of reforms and the inability to link the agro-farms to market have caused immense havoc among the farmers. The farmers’ suicide is only a tip of the iceberg. Things are certainly turning more serious by the day.

Finally, one needs to raise a basic question — why do god men like Ram Rahim get so many devotees?

One analysis is: Abuse of religion, rather than an honest practice of religion, appears to be more attractive.

Have we examined another question, why Real “godman” gets millions of followers only after they die. Do not question the history: Lord Budhha had very few followers when he was alive. The truth is just the opposite with the likes of Ram Rahim and the cult figures of Dera culture. India needs to act, not simply react.

The writer is a former chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Electronics Development Corporation, and the founder of the Prof. G.V. Sudhaker Rao Foundation