The road to the Dera Sachkhand headquarters, 15 kms outside of Jallandhar, is lined with protesters.
Burnt vehicles on the highway stand testimony to the anger that singed Punjab on Tuesday.
As we reach the Sach Khand headquaters, verses and hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib greet us. Inside, the grief and shock is palpable.
The head of the Sachkhand Dera was shot in a Gurdwara in Vienna. As the news came in, followers of the sect turned violent across Punjab.
"You feel angry when they attack your leader. We never did anything to anybody. We are all peace-loving, but you feel annoyed when something happens," says one follower.
Sant Surendra Dasji, Sachkand sect leader, appealed for peace.
The Dera was started about 90 years ago.Today, it is considered a mecca for the Ravidas sect, which comprises primarily of Dalit followers.
The Sachkhand, like other Deras, was started to fight exploitation by the upper castes and landlords.
Their followers had two things in common -- most of them were landless peasants and they followed the teachings of Guru Ravidass.
Today they worship the Granth Sahib, because Guru Ravidass' teachings were added into the Granth Sahib by the fifth Sikh Guru.
Says S R Heer, spokesperson of Dera Sachkand: "Guru Ravidass' teachings came to Punjab through the Guru Granth Sahib and we follow the Guru Granth Sahib. We don't have any rift with the Sikhs. Even during militancy, we had normal relations."
But now the increasing number of devotees and followers is at the heart of their rivalry with traditional gurudwaras.
The upper caste gurduwaras have well established hierarchies dominated by upper castes. The growing strength of the deras has not been liked by the clergymen of the traditional gurudwaras.
Punjab perhaps has the most number of deras, and the result -- a number of small sects were born. Now over the years, these deras have gained strength in terms of number of followers and vote bank. The positive side is, these deras can prevent exploitation of lower caste people but on the negative side, there are chances of their being exploited by political parties.
