Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA

RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE

Research Response Number: IND35375 Country: Date: 2 September 2009

Keywords: India – Sacha Sauda – Mistreatment of followers prior to 2007

This response was prepared by the Research & Information Services Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. This research response may not, under any circumstance, be cited in a decision or any other document. Anyone wishing to use this information may only cite the primary source material contained herein.

Questions 1. Please provide any evidence which may suggest that members of the were subject to mistreatment by prior to 2007?

RESPONSE

1. Please provide any evidence which may suggest that members of the Dera Sacha Sauda were subject to mistreatment by Sikhs prior to 2007?

No information was located which provides detailed evidence of mistreatment of Dera Sacha Sauda members by Sikhs prior to 2007. Most reports on the Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) prior to the outbreak of violence in 2007 are in reference to the legal troubles of the sect’s leader Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh, who, according to an October 2007 article in Himal South Asian magazine, “stands accused of murder, sexual exploitation and illegal possession of arms and ammunition, amidst longstanding demands by the Punjab and High Courts of a CBI probe”. In addition, the Himal South Asian article and a July 2007 article from Frontline magazine make general references to a history of violence against the DSS and other Deras in Punjab, but do not specify the nature of any violence experienced by DSS followers (Alig, A. & Anwar, A. 2007, ‘Embers of a Sikh fire’, Himal South Asian, October http://www.himalmag.com/2007/october_november/embers_of_a_sikh_fire.html – Accessed 9 October 2007 – Attachment 2; Zaidi, A. 2007, ‘Faith and conflict’, Frontline, Vol. 24 Issue 14, July http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=20070727003302800.htm&date=fl 2414/&prd=fline& – Accessed 2 September 2009 – Attachment 1).

A July 2007 article from Frontline magazine provides a history of Sikh violence against the various Deras in Punjab. No mention is made of violence toward the Dera Sacha Sauda

1 (DSS) prior to the 2007 outbreak, but the article does describe the 2007 violence as the “latest outbreak”, without specifying the nature of previous “outbreaks”. It also states that the “Dera Sacha Sauda is now something that causes fear and anxiety among many people in Punjab” and that it “is now facing stiff opposition from mainstream Sikhism” (Zaidi, A. 2007, ‘Faith and conflict’, Frontline, Vol. 24 Issue 14, July http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=20070727003302800.htm&date=fl 2414/&prd=fline& – Accessed 2 September 2009 – Attachment 1).

Two articles from 2007 provide a summary of reportage on the DSS up to that time, and neither of them specify any acts of violence toward them. Nonetheless, an October 2007 article from Himal South Asian claims that “the organisation’s movement away from Sikhism has inevitably irked the Sikh community, which has long criticised the Dera”, and that “violence has not been unheard of”. The article also notes the various criminal charges leveled at DSS leader Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh:

Gurmeet Singh has said, “Our religion is humanity and to help the needy.” The group’s faith, considered a combination of all religions, is referred to within the Dera as insaan. Though Dera Sacha Sauda technically does not follow any one religion (other than Insaan) – its base of followers, though mostly Sikh, is also Hindu and Muslim – it is still considered a Sikh breakaway group because all three of its chiefs have been from the Sikh community. As such, the organisation’s movement away from Sikhism has inevitably irked the Sikh community, which has long criticised the Dera, as well as other deras, for ‘diluting’ the spirit of Sikhism. At times, these criticisms have been more intense than others. While violence has not been unheard of, the incidents of May 2007 were in a category of their own.

The Dera leader’s personality has not helped matters. Indeed, at the centre of the storm – several storms, in fact – is Huzoor Maharaj Sant Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh, third leader of the Dera Sacha Sauda, himself. Gurmeet Singh was born on 15 August 1967 to a devout Sikh couple in Ganganagar, a frontier town in . By the time he was seven, the Dera’s second guru came to know of Gurmeet – “In other words, one Master Saint found the Other one”, according to his official biography. Sixteen years later, on 23 December 1990, during the peak of the militancy in Punjab, Gurmeet Singh took over as the head of the Dera Sacha Sauda.

Subsequent years, particularly the first several months of 2007, have revealed Gurmeet Singh to be less than a ‘god incarnate’. Indeed, past indiscretions aside, he now appears to be more of a thoroughly earthly megalomaniac – even worse, one that has found, in faith, a convenient outlet for indulging his lusts. Gurmeet Singh now stands accused of murder, sexual exploitation and illegal possession of arms and ammunition, amidst longstanding demands by the Punjab and Haryana High Courts of a CBI probe. In early August of this year, the CBI filed a charge sheet against the Dera and Gurmeet Singh (Alig, A. & Anwar, A. 2007, ‘Embers of a Sikh fire’, Himal South Asian, October http://www.himalmag.com/2007/october_november/embers_of_a_sikh_fire.html – Accessed 9 October 2007 – Attachment 2).

An 18 May 2007 article from states that the DSS was “embroiled in a number of contentious issues” around 2003, and also claims that it “courted trouble just before the Punjab assembly elections” in 2007 because “the president issued an edict asking his followers to support Congress candidates”:

The era also saw the sect embroiled in a number of contentious issues, especially those involving the dera chief. In 2003, an anonymous letter alleged sexual exploitation of young girls at the dera. Later, murder of a senior member of the dera and a -based journalist set

2 the rumour mills working overtime. Family members of the slain scribe moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, demanding a CBI probe into the role of dera in the murder. The case was handed over to the CBI. However, the CBI probe moved at a slow pace despite the HC pulling up the investigating agency. Also, political pressure and protests by dera followers did not help.

More recently, the dera courted trouble just before the Punjab assembly elections this year. Though it enjoyed the patronage of both the Akali and Congress leaders, the president issued an edict asking his followers to support Congress candidates. According to sources, this favour was extended after the party (Punjab Congress) promised relief in the CBI case. Post elections, there have been complaints of Akalis harassing dera men (‘Dera Sacha Sauda and Gurmeet Ram Rahim’ 2007, The Times of India, 18 May http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2060431,prtpage-1.cms – Accessed 14 December 2007 – Attachment 3).

Research Response IND33077, of 28 March 2008, provides a summary of the charges levelled against the DSS and its leader, as well as sources which speculate on the caste-based nature of the violence between mainstream Sikhs and the DSS in Punjab (RRT Research & Information 2008, Research Response IND33077, 28 March – Attachment 4).

• Dera Sacha Sauda, and in particular its leader Guru Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh, have been the subject of various allegations of criminal activity. An article published on the Frontline website in December 2002 outlines allegations which had been made against Guru Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh, indicating that in 2002, a female member of the organisation sent a letter to the Indian Prime Minister and other national and state authorities, accusing Guru Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh of the sexual exploitation of female sadhvis, or disciples, and that in September 2002, the Punjab and Haryana High court referred the matter the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation. The article also reported that on 24 October, 2002, Ram Chandra Chatrapati, the editor of a Sirsa newspaper which had been publishing extensive coverage of the accusations against Guru Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh, was shot by two assailants, and later died of his injuries. When captured, the assailants confessed that that were members of the Dera Sacha Sauda, and had been sent to kill Chatrapati by a senior leader of the Dera (Rajalakshmi, T.K. 2002, ‘Godman under a cloud’, Frontline Magazine, Vol. 19, Iss. 26, 21 December http://frontline.in/fl1926/stories/20030103003404000.htm – Accessed 10 March 2008 – Attachment 5).

• One Indian news source in particular, Tehelka, has published numerous articles containing allegations against the Dera Sacha Sauda. One article published in June 2007 reported allegations that the Dera has been involved in land-grabbing, and has amassed wealth from the exploitation of followers. This article also reports allegations that Guru took control of the Dera Sacha Sauda by force; another article published as an “expose” of the Dera Sacha Sauda reported allegations of other murders and sexual exploitation, allegedly committed at the behest of Guru Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh (‘Much Vice at The Seat of Virtue’ 2007, Tehelka, 2 June http://www.tehelka.com/story_main30.asp?filename=Ne020607Much_vice_CS.asp – Accessed 18 March 2008 – Attachment 6; Khan, E. A., & Tripathi, A. 2007, ‘Operation Jhootha Sauda’, Tehelka, 11 August http://www.tehelka.com/story_main33.asp?filename=Ts0110807investigation.asp – Accessed 10 March 2008 – Attachment 7).

3 • An article published on the Tehelka website in June 2007 reported that in September 2002, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had ordered the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to begin investigating the allegations against Guru Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, and in April 2007, had criticised the CBI for the amount of time taken to investigate the matter. An article published on the India eNews website on 1 August 2007 provides information to indicate that on 31 July 2007, the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation filed charges of murder, conspiracy, and rape against Guru Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh. Charges were also filed against other Dera followers (‘High Court Says CBI Hushing up Dera Cases’ 2007, Tehelka, 2 June http://www.tehelka.com/story_main30.asp?filename=Ne020607High_court_CS.asp – Accessed 18 March 2008 – Attachment 8; ‘CBI charges Dera Sacha Sauda chief with murder, rape’ 2007, India eNews, 1 August http://www.indiaenews.com/politics/20070801/63533.htm – Accessed 10 March 2008 – Attachment 9).

Research Response IND33077 also located sources which speculate on the role of caste in the political conflict between mainstream Sikhs and the Dera Sacha Sauda:

• In an article published in October 2007, Ronki Ram indicates that while the jat Sikhs, who dominate the political and religious structures of Punjab, constitute about one- third of the population of the state, the are almost as demographically significant, comprising about 29% of the total population: Punjab has the distinction of being home to the largest proportion (29 per cent) of scheduled castes (SCs) population in the country with the lowest share in the ownership of land (2.34 per cent of the cultivated area). The SCs in Punjab belong to different religions and castes. Mazhabis and ramdasias, the two castes among the Sikhs, particularly the mazhabis, are the most deprived. They embraced Sikhism in the hope of gaining social equality, but even in the new religion untouchability continued to be practised against them.

…They have been forced to live in separate settlements, contemptuously called ‘thhattis’ or ‘chamarlees’, located on the western side and away from the main body of the villages. They carry no “say” in the local structures of power. All the Sikh organisations like gurdwaras, Sikh deras, SGPC, and are under the control of the jat Sikhs.

…Dalits are often heard complaining that the jat Sikhs refused to consider them equal even after death by disallowing cremation of their dead in the main cremation ground of the village. This has forced them to establish separate gurdwaras, ‘janjghars’ (marriage centres) and cremation grounds. It is against this backdrop of social exclusion that a large number of dalits have been veering away from the mainstream Sikh religion and enrolling themselves into various forms of non-Sikh deras in Punjab. Another probable cause behind the large-scale dalit following of the deras could be the absence of a strong dalit movement in the state (Ram, R. 2007, ‘Social Exclusion, Resistance, and Deras’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 42, No. 40, October 6, pp. 4066-4074 – Attachment 10).

• An article published in Frontline in June 2007 noted that while Guru Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is himself from a jat family, the egalitarian message of the Dera Sacha Sauda has attracted many people within the dalit community, with informal estimates by Punjab police indicating that up to 70 percent of Dera followers may be dalits (Swami, P. & Sethi, A. 2007, ‘Politics, Religion, and Resistance’ , 4 June

4 http://www.hindu.com/2007/06/04/stories/2007060402631100.htm – Accessed 11 March 2008 – Attachment 11).

• Lionel Baixas argues that a de facto consociational mode of government, which inhibits communal conflict between Sikhs and Hindus, has developed in Punjab, but questions the extent to which this system is calibrated to deal with the political aspirations of the dalit population, and flags the possibility of long-term conflict if these aspirations are not accommodated. Baixas identifies alternative religious movements in Punjab as the primary locus of dalit assertion (Baixas, L. 2007, ‘The Dera Sacha Sauda Controversy and Beyond’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 42, No. 40, October 6, pp 4059-4060, 4064-4065 – Attachment 12). Similarly, Ronki Ram situates the phenomenon of the Dera Sacha Sauda within a broader pattern of dalit assertion in Punjab, noting that while many dalits in Punjab have had opportunities for economic advancement by distancing themselves from traditional caste occupations, this has not been matched by social advancement:

With an improved economic position and a sharpened sense of social consciousness, dalits in Punjab started demanding a concomitant rise in their social status that has also probably pushed them closer to the alternate religious bodies promising dignity and social equality. In the process, they also challenged the dominant caste and its claims to represent true Sikhism. The jat Sikhs, however, interpreted it as a challenge to the Sikh-Khalsa identity, which further deepened the existing contradictions between them and the dalits. That is what has led to a series of violent caste clashes between dalits and jats in Punjab in the past few years, as also the repeated confrontation (1978 Nirankaris crisis, 2001 Bhaniarawala crisis and 2003 Talhan crisis) between the Akalis and followers of one or the other non-Sikh deras. The confrontation between the Akalis and the premis of the Dera Sacha Sauda is the most recent case in point. These clashes seem to be more about identity politics between jat Sikhs and dalits than a row over religion. They are in no way a manifestation of communalism in the state. However, given the religious milieu of the social sphere in Punjab they often assume a communal posture. They, in fact, are signs of an emerging dalit assertion against social exclusion that have all the possibilities of snowballing into violent conflicts if left unresolved (Ram, R. 2007, ‘Social Exclusion, Resistance, and Deras’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 42, No. 40, October 6, pp 4067-4068 – Attachment 10).

List of Sources Consulted

Internet Sources:

Search Engines Google http://www.google.com/ Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com/schhp?hl=en&lr= Region Specific Links The Hindu website http://www.hinduonnet.com/ Frontline Magazine website http://www.frontlineonnet.com/ India Today website http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/ Times of India website http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ website http://www.tribuneindia.com/ website http://www.hindustantimes.com/Homepage/Homepage.aspx Punjab Newsline website http://www.punjabnewsline.com/ Government

5 National Human Rights Commission of India website http://nhrc.nic.in/ Punjab State Human Rights Commission http://www.pshrc.net/ United Nations UNHCR Refworld website http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain Non-Government Organisations Asian Human Rights Commission website http://www.ahrchk.net/index.php Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org/ Human Rights Watch website http://www.hrw.org/

Databases:

FACTIVA (news database) BACIS (DIAC Country Information database) REFINFO (IRBDC (Canada) Country Information database) ISYS (RRT Research & Information database, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Department of State Reports) RRT Library Catalogue

List of Attachments

1. Zaidi, A. 2007, ‘Faith and conflict’, Frontline, Vol. 24 Issue 14, July http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=20070727003302800.htm &date=fl2414/&prd=fline& – Accessed 2 September 2009.

2. Alig, A. & Anwar, A. 2007, ‘Embers of a Sikh fire’, Himal South Asian, October http://www.himalmag.com/2007/october_november/embers_of_a_sikh_fire.html – Accessed 9 October 2007.

3. ‘Dera Sacha Sauda and Gurmeet Ram Rahim’ 2007, The Times of India, 18 May http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2060431,prtpage-1.cms – Accessed 14 December 2007.

4. RRT Research & Information 2008, Research Response IND33077, 28 March.

5. Rajalakshmi, T.K. 2002, ‘Godman under a cloud’, Frontline Magazine, Vol. 19, Iss. 26, 21 December http://frontline.in/fl1926/stories/20030103003404000.htm – Accessed 10 March 2008.

6. ‘Much Vice at The Seat of Virtue’ 2007, Tehelka, 2 June http://www.tehelka.com/story_main30.asp?filename=Ne020607Much_vice_CS.asp – Accessed 18 March 2008.

7. Khan, E. A., & Tripathi, A. 2007, ‘Operation Jhootha Sauda’, Tehelka, 11 August http://www.tehelka.com/story_main33.asp?filename=Ts0110807investigation.asp – Accessed 10 March 2008.

8. ‘High Court Says CBI Hushing up Dera Cases’ 2007, Tehelka, 2 June http://www.tehelka.com/story_main30.asp?filename=Ne020607High_court_CS.asp – Accessed 18 March 2008.

6 9. ‘CBI charges Dera Sacha Sauda chief with murder, rape’ 2007, India eNews, 1 August http://www.indiaenews.com/politics/20070801/63533.htm – Accessed 10 March 2008.

10. Ram, R. 2007, ‘Social Exclusion, Resistance, and Deras’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 42, No. 40, October 6, pp. 4066-4074.

11. Swami, P. & Sethi, A. 2007, ‘Politics, Religion, and Resistance’ The Hindu, 4 June http://www.hindu.com/2007/06/04/stories/2007060402631100.htm – Accessed 11 March 2008.

12. Baixas, L. 2007, ‘The Dera Sacha Sauda Controversy and Beyond’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 42, No. 40, October 6, pp 4059-4060, 4064-4065.

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