“These are definitely high trends in comparison to other treatment centre data in Punjab and other parts of the country”, says S K Sharma, senior research officer at the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre of AIIMS, New Delhi.

They come to the Dera for its puritanism. At the top of the 47-point rule book of the Sacha Sauda Dera is prohibition against monetary offerings, television, eggs, non-vegetarian food, but above all, intoxicants. Pappu Garg joined Salabatpura Dera in Bathinda district in 1995. “I was 19 at that time and a liquor addict. Everything changed the day I became a Dera follower. I quit drinking and began concentrating on my work.” He is now the Dera’s media advisor.

The ban on intoxicants was cited the most by the women The Indian Express spoke to inside the Salabatpura Dera as their primary reason for joining it. They come to the Dera to enhance social status. In a state with a very large SC population — almost 29 per cent — the Dera also offers an equal space. But for Punjab Dalits, says Pramod Kumar, director of the Chandigarh-based Institute for Development and Communication, going to the Dera is not so much an act of seeking refuge. “Unlike in UP and Bihar, the Dalit in this state is not a victim of purity and pollution, has experienced some occupational mobility, adopted the cultural markers of Jat identity and then looks for a separate arena of assertion”.

They come to the Dera to submit to the guru. In an increasingly complex world, the guru takes over, gives direction. “Ýou can fill the room with books, but of what use are they without a guru to guide you” asks young Rupinder Singh, 20. He lives in Patiala and regularly goes to a prayer hall of the Dera Sacha Sauda located on the city’s outskirts. It’s a home away from home, he says.

... contd.