Bhavsagar Granth is a 2,704 page religious treatise

Treatise

A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject.-Noteworthy treatises:...

 said to been written by 30 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

s, including Dr. Pritam Singh

Pritam Singh

Dr Pritam Singh, current Director of IMI , New Delhi, is a professor of eminence in the field of management studies and has been awarded the Padma Shri for his outstanding contribution in the field of management education.In 2003, he became the second Padam Shri recipient in the field of management...

 of Dhudhike village, under the direction of Baba Bhaniara

Baba Bhaniara

Baba Piara Singh Bhaniara born in 1958, is the spiritual of a breakaway Sikh sect based in Dhamiana village in Ropar, Punjab. He is believed to have once worked as an employee of the Horticulture Department at a sericulture farm in Asmanpur village. He grew up in a modest family, his father Tulsi...

.

Several copies of the book were snatched and burned by orthodox Sikhs. The book was banned by the Punjab government in 2001. Bhaniara has claimed that the ban is "illegal and unconstitutional" and is politically motivated.

It is not known if the book contains anything offensive, but orthodox Sikhs consider it to be parallel to the Guru Granth Sahib

Guru Granth Sahib

Sri Guru Granth Sahib , or Adi Granth, is the religious text of Sikhism. It is the final and eternal guru of the Sikhs. It is a voluminous text of 1430 angs, compiled and composed during the period of Sikh gurus, from 1469 to 1708...

. They have also determined that one of Bhaniara's photographs, which shows him riding a horse, to be offensive.

Praveen Swamy wrote in Frontline:

"Sadly, there has been little debate in Punjab on the legitimacy of the Punjab Government's decision to ban the Bhavsagar Granth. .. The Bhavsagar Granth ..at no point demeans the tenets or practice of the Sikh faith. ..The Bhavsagar Granth falls within a long tradition of insurgent folk religion

Folk religion

Folk religion consists of ethnic or regional religious customs under the umbrella of an organized religion, but outside of official doctrine and practices...

. The Guru Granth Sahib itself, after all, took on Brahmanism in no certain terms."

It is not known if any copies of the Bhavsagar Granth have survived , as an article in Economic and Political Weekly May 26, 2007 states:

"The Bhavsagar granth was banned by the government. The copies under circulation were confiscated. Any one found in possession of a copy was arrested. The print ready copy was taken away by the police and perhaps destroyed. Baba Bhaniara’s various deras across the state were destroyed. At least in a few places the deras were forcibly converted into Sikh gurdwaras and brought under the administration of the SGPC. No action was taken against those who had perpetrated these attacks"

SC has quashed the ban on Bhavsagar Granth on 11th Nov'2008