P for Punjab, P for Periyar: All the way from Tamil Nadu, to Kanshi Ram’s state

In 1996, Hoshiarpur elected Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Kanshi Ram to the Lok Sabha. Almost three decades later, Jeevan Singh Tamil, previously known as Jeevan Kumar Mall, is looking to revive the BSP founder’s legacy with his Bahujan Dravid Party (BDP) and some help from Guru Nanak Dev, the first Sikh guru.

Seated in a room of a community centre in the sleepy village of Raipur adjacent to a giant poster that reads “Begumpura Khalsa Raj di praapti layee, Jeevan Singh Tamil nu vote pao ji (Vote for Jeevan Singh Tamil for the rule of a casteless and just society),” Jeevan Singh looks every bit a weather-beaten, local farmer with his shock of white beard, blue turban, and white kurta-pyjama. But that is where the similarity ends.

The 51-year-old Jeevan Singh is a Supreme Court lawyer, practising in the national capital for the past four years. He introduces himself as “a socio-political activist from Tamil Nadu who believes that Guru Nanak’s path has the solution to issues related to human dignity and the fundamental rights of the lowest castes”.

This seems like music to the ears of some locals, who have been viewing him with a mix of disbelief and awe, especially when Jeevan Singh gained prominence after few social media platforms reported how he had adopted Sikhism in Patna on Guru Gobind Singh’s birth anniversary in January last year.

Jeevan Singh says his change of heart was gradual. It started with Periyar, the father of the Dravidian movement who opposed caste inequality, and Kanshi Ram. “I am a lifelong student of Kanshi Ram. He frequently quoted verses of the Sikh gurus. In fact, he once conducted a rally around Guru Gobind Singh’s verse, ‘Manas ki jaat sabhe eke pehchanbo (The human race is one)’. He declared in