Decoding the Deras

A major attribute of deras is their capacity to provide succour to those tossed aside by the mainstream

- Ronki Ram

SPIRITUAL gurus or babas are believed to possess unique healing powers and are usually popular among those who are socially deprived and economically insecure. Many gurus and babas play a positive role in the lives of their followers by delivering charity to the needy or by providing the marginalised with hope. Many flock to these godmen because they believe that mainstream politics and religion have failed them and as a result of this, many gurus and babas end up having an astonishing number of followers.

Some of the deras in Punjab/Haryana-mainly Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa, Dera Radhasoami, Beas, and Dera Sach Khand, Ballan-have been generating social capital for the empowerment of historically disadvantaged sections of society. In French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's words, it is a "durable network of more or less institutionalised relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition."

Social capital emanates from varied socioreligious and cultural networks, and norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that exist in the relations among persons. It is not located 'either in the actors themselves (like less tangible human capital, which is embodied in the skills and knowledge acquired by an individual) or in the physical implements of production (as is the case of physical capital, wholly tangible, being embodied in observable material form).

Nonetheless, though less tangible in comparison to both physical and human capital, social capital enhances the capacity of adherents of deras to excel in their chosen sphere of life by honing their interpersonal relations.

American sociologist James Samuel Coleman further defined it 'by its function', which manifests itself through different forms within the ambit of 'some aspect of social structures'-embedded, as mentioned earlier, with extensive trustworthiness and mutual trust.