Don't Sidestep Caste

Demystifying the world of deras and babas

- Santosh K Singh

THE Hathras incident has brought one more baba into the national limelight. In a country of more than a billion people, there are babas, big and small, and perhaps in millions. The tragedy notwithstanding-and the clear lapses in organising the event-what is baffling is the continued popularity of some of these babas across the country despite all their misadventures. Gone are the days of babas who were hermits, renunciants and ascetics. It's not as if this breed is completely extinct, but they are very few and far between. A large number of today's babas have mushroomed as entrepreneurs, as insecurity management start-ups, catering to varied kinds of clientele. Some, like the 5-star ones, handhold the rich and the privileged facing difficult times in exotic and highly esoteric settings. In the meantime, a vast majority of the ordinary, underclass, both urban and rural people, grappling with all kinds of anxieties and insecurities veer around the rest.