A Column That Does Not Exist: The Ravidassia Demand Before Census 2027

Article summary

Thousands of members of the Ravidassia community gathered at Phagwara in Punjab to renew a long-standing demand: a distinct 'Ravidassia religion' category in the Census of 2027. The community follows Guru Ravidas, a saint-poet of the North Indian Bhakti movement who lived between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, was born near Varanasi into a family of cobblers and tanners belonging to a caste historically subjected to untouchability, and preached the equality of caste and class — articulating the vision of Begampura, a city without sorrow, fear or discrimination. The community is concentrated in Punjab's Doaba region, across Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr, with a principal sacred site at Goverdhanpur in Varanasi. The assertion of a separate religious identity accelerated in 2010, when the Dera Sachkhand Ballan severed its long association with Sikhism and declared a distinct Ravidassia religion — a step precipitated by an attack on a Ravidassia congregation in Vienna in May 2009 in which the senior spiritual leader Sant Ramanand was killed. The community argues that it now possesses its own scripture, places of worship, symbols and practices, but no corresponding option on the enumeration form.