Khuralgarh Sahib: A Pilgrimage Destination for Adi Dharm Followers

In the 1920s, a protest movement named Ad(i) Dhar(a)m, or Original Religion, emerged in the British province of Punjab with the aim of establishing a religious identity for the untouchable castes and low-caste people, basically from the Sikh community. The Adi Dharmis venerated Sant (Saint) Ravidas, a medieval mystic poet, a Chamar or tanner by origin. The list of their gurus also included Maharishi Valmiki, the legendary first poet — Adi Kavi, or the author of Ramayana, as well as two low-caste Bhakti poets — Kabir and Namdev. The colonial Census of 1931 listed Adi Dharm as a new religion boasting over 420,000 followers; in subsequent censuses, Adi Dharm was listed as a caste. By the mid-1940s, the protest movement subsided, but in the 1970s it came back to life mainly due to the efforts of Punjabi diaspora. Its revival was also linked to the socio-political activities of Dalits (the downtrodden) in India, especially in Punjab where Scheduled Castes account for over 30 percent of the population nowadays. The current phase of the Adi Dharm history is associated with the activities of the All-India Adi Dharm Mission; its main temple is located in at foothills of the Himalayas in the village of Kharali in the district Hoshiarpur, Punjab. This paper presents a brief overview of the Adi Dharm history and highlights the role of the Khuralgarh Sahib pilgrimage site in maintaining and boosting the Adi Dharm religious identity in present-day Punjab and beyond.