It took only a few hours for fires to erupt across Punjab after the news from Vienna of “serious injuries” to Sant Niranjan Dass, head of Dera Guru Ravidass Sachkhand Balan, and the death of his deputy Sant Ramanand, both of whom were on a tour to Europe.

The rapidity with which protests spread is a pointer to the growing clout of deras that have mushroomed across the state and their potential to spark off conflict.

In fact, all major villages in Punjab today have two gurdwaras — one frequented by the so-called “upper castes” or Jat Sikhs, another by Dalits or “lower castes,” including members of SCs and OBCs. Ironically, Sikhism was founded five centuries ago to counter the caste system. Today, it’s members of under-privileged communities who constitute the growing ranks of deras, each one usually headed by a living guru — much against the tenets of Sikhism.

While there’s no exact number of how many deras there are or how many followers they have, there are at least a dozen with a following of 1 lakh or more devotees each. Dera Sachkhand is one of them and it hasn’t been in the news of late. Its leader Niranjan Dass had done little that could be seen as provocative as in the case of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh who is said to have worn clothes akin to those worn by Guru Gobind Singh.

The apparent provocation for the attack on Dass could be his presence in a Vienna gurdwara and his calling the Dera’s inspiration Ravidass as Guru Ravidass. Vienna is considered a base for former militants and Sikh ideologues who were given “political asylum” during the peak of Punjab militancy. They are said to have continued backing hardliners through monetary and moral support.

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