Dera Sacha Sauda: How Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh lords over his little fiefdom

Since 2007, when he was accused of impersonating Guru Gobind Singh — which in the Sikh maryada constitutes beadbi (disrespect) — Ram Rahim has been in the news for anything but sacred reasons. Currently serving a twenty-year jail term at the Sunaria Jail in Rohtak, Haryana, for crimes including rape and murder, he is able to regularly secure furlough, often before elections or other electorally significant events either in Punjab, Haryana or Rajasthan.

Used force to become DSS head?

His twenty-day furlough in February 2022 was followed by a thirty-day one in June 2022, and another forty-day furlough in October 2022. His release from jail in the year 2023 included a forty-day one in January, thirty days in July, twenty-one days in November. In January 2024, he was granted release for fifty days, and in August, furlough for 21 days. Most recently, in October 2024, he was released on a twenty-day parole. So, in total, the Dera sant has been out of jail for 232 days in two years.

Interestingly, during these periodic releases from prison, he conducts satsangs or religious congregations and delivers lectures online, in which thousands, including public representatives and political heavyweights, participate to seek his blessings. These darshans and satsangs are organised not just to demonstrate his dominance over the empire he has created under the DSS but also to send the message that, rather than waning, his influence, has grown since his conviction.

Dera Sacha Sauda’s mercurial rise under Ram Rahim may be ridden with controversies, but it has been a phenomenal journey. Born into a Jatt Sikh family in Gurusar Modia village in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, as Gurmeet Singh, he gradually added ‘Ram’ ‘Rahim’ and then ‘Insan’ (human) to his name to foster a sense of inclusivity and syncretism around the dera, which had remained relatively inconspicuous before he took over the leadership. Founded by the ascetic Beparwah Mastana from Baluchistan, who was a follower of Baba Sawan Singh, the second satguru of the Radha Soami Satsang of Beas, the dera gradually consolidated itself in Sirsa, Haryana, where it is currently headquartered.

After Baba Mastana, the gaddi of the ashram was passed on to Sant Satnam Singh. Baba Satnam Singh carried on the ascetic legacy of his predecessor, remaining out of the limelight even as the dera grew in membership and influence not just in Haryana, but also in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and pockets of other neighbouring states. However, it was after Gurmeet Singh took over the reins of the dera that it rose to prominence and grabbed national and international attention.

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There are unconfirmed versions about how the leadership of the dera passed from Sant Satnam Singh to Gurmeet Singh While Gurmeet Singh’s faction claims that Sant Satnam found Gurmeet to be a blessed and committed disciple and was hence his favourite when it came to handing over the baton, others believe that Gurmeet and his associates used force and coercion to influence the passing on of the gaddi, pressuring Sant Satnam Singh to declare Gurmeet Singh his successor.

How DSS spread its wings

Be that as it may, the fact remains that Gurmeet Singh took over DSS and turned it into a huge network of organisations with massive political and economic clout. It has developed into a little fiefdom in Sirsa, with a vast, independent township that includes almost everything it needs, including an elaborate security apparatus.

Located in a sprawling campus of over 700 acres, the dera headquarters is well equipped with a stadium, a 100-seater revolving restaurant, a boutique, a beauty parlour, banks, a hospital and more. Gurmeet Singh, who likes to be called Pitaji (father) by his followers and devotees, runs the organisation like a professional venture, exhibiting amazing entrepreneurial acumen. He and his team took a keen interest in the sociocultural milieu in and around Sirsa, planning and executing their community outreach activities accordingly.

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Three activities — blood donation, drug de-addiction and mass marriages of girls and boys from poor families — stand out as testimony to this approach. All three became DSS’s trademark activities, catering to the marginalised and poor families in the region. Gurmeet Singh’s following grew exponentially in Punjab as well, especially in the Malwa region, which, compared to the other two regions — Doaba and Majha — is the poorest pocket of the state.

The rise of the Dera Sacha Sauda in Punjab followed a similar trajectory. It attracted the poor and the Dalits from the region who were looking not only for economic patronage but also for a social shield to fight the caste discrimination they experienced at the hands of the dominant land-owning community of the region. Reeling under social, economic and political marginalisation, poor people thronged to Gurmeet Singh’s satsangs and congregations.

There was massive disillusionment with the state due to the slow economic revival in the post-militancy period, and the poor segments of the state, doubly hit by the agricultural slowdown and decline, were rudderless. There was rampant drug abuse and an escalation in suicides in the ‘grain basket’ of the nation and the land of ‘agriculturists par excellence’. It was at this juncture of hopelessness and economic downturn that the DSS spread its activities in the region. The organisation’s claims of being a Guinness World Record holder in blood donation and running drug de-addiction camps reflect the transition that the state was undergoing and how the dera used the moment as an opportunity to establish itself.

(Excerpted from The Deras: Culture, Diversity and Politics by Santosh K. Singh, with permission from Penguin Random House India)