Ravidass Deras and Social Protest: Making Sense of Dalit Consciousness in Punjab (India)

Caste and Identity Processes among British Sikhs in the Midlands

“…This is of course partly maintained by the historical significance of caste, the cultural and spatial reflections of caste, and the construction of other religious and political identities on the basis of caste identities (e.g. the emergence of Ravidassia, Valmiki, Ad Dharm identities) (Takhar, 2014;Kalsi, 1989), given that these "new" identities too serve to reify and perpetuate the caste system, albeit in indirect ways (see Ram 2008& Takhar 2011.…”

Dera Sant Sarwan Dass of Ballan: Invention of a New Form of Community Assertion Experienced and Perceived as an Individual Quest

“…These religious places belong to and are managed by Punjabi Chamars -one untouchable caste in the Hindu hierarchy -who named themselves as Ravidassias. Until then, commentators have tended to see Ravidassias as an 'autonomous caste-religious community, an outcome of vibrant Dalit identity movements in Punjab' ( Jodkha 2009, 79) and the Dera Sant Sarwan Dass of Ballan (henceforth DSSDB) -the most popular religious institution among the Ravidassias -as the 'epicenter of [this Dalit] social protest' (Ram 2008(Ram , 1343. A closer look at DSSDB and the place it occupies in the lives of its followers, however, indicates that it is not only the communitarian assertion that DSSDB is embodying that can account for its huge popularity.…”

Imagining Punjab and the Punjabi diaspora: after more than a century of Punjabi migration

“…While the essays engage with the particular region of Punjab, the ideas developed there have implications beyond Punjab. Thinking in terms of Punjab's free-flowing Punjabi cartographies underlines the constant crossing of boundaries between languages, cultures and sects in the Punjabi village (Oberoi 1994;Ahmed 2003;Ram 2008).…”