FreeHinduTemples

The Constitution of India stipulates India to be a secular country, where all religions are treated the same. However, the Government has been targeting only Hindu temples, especially in South India, for takeover in the name of better management, leaving aside all mosques, gurudwaras and churches, accounting for a large share of land under them.

The revenues, sometimes in crores, have been wrongfully diverted to the State treasury, against which there is wide spread dissent among the public. The maintenance of many heritage temple structures all over the country has fallen drastically, affecting the temple community.

Namma Devasthana, a small group of like-minded individuals have come together  to ensure a  dharma based ecosystem, together with Jijnasa CESS, Dharmic Action and Temple Worshippers Society (Chennai). They organized today a seminar on “Autonomy for Hindu Temples”, launching a nationwide campaign  #save the temples.

IndiaFacts Research Centre was the media partner for the event.

Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education stressed on the need for the Hindu Community to be pro-active, and fight for their rights:

He said that the issue is all about the separation of state from religion, and not people from religion. Today, to be secular, means to be anti-Hindu. A Hindu is a vastly secular person in the Western sense, we accept differences.

We are being divided. The temples are being looted by politicians, and if any Hindu stands up to protect his religion then he is termed communal. Only in India that we discriminate against the majority community, take away the temples, ruin the religious practices and make them ashamed to be Hindus.

Pai urged the people to demand for the temples to be given back to them and also stressed the need for the temple money kept in bank deposits to be used for public welfare and education.

Padmashree Dr VR Gowrishankar presented an administrative perspective:

He said that the temples should be autonomous, free from government control, but at the same time answerable to someone. He mentioned that most of the land endowed with the temples have gone, leaving the temples to rely upon commercial activities to sustain itself.

He asked the people to change their mental make-up, which always looks to satisfy someone above them. Dr. Gowrishankar urged people to look at what our forefathers have done and that we should follow in their footsteps to preserve our heritage.

Prof. MD Srinivas, author/columnist brought in a historical perspective:

He said that it was the British who made the temples centers of conflict, by overseeing the day to day affairs, but sending off all disputes to the courts. This was just reverse of what was practiced earlier by the kings, who were overseeing the temple affairs much before the British came to India.

Kiran Bettadapur, IIT Kharagpur alumni, entrepreneur, and member of the Bar Council of India, spoke on the legal aspects involved with the temples:

He mentioned that the RTIs filed on the issue are not replied to, showing complete lack of transparency. The government is very tight lipped on the temple issue.

He said that the Architectural Committee for all the temples in Karnataka has only 5 members who meet once in 3 months and 3 experts. This highlights the inadequate measures taken by the government for maintaining the heritage structures.

V Vijayalakshmi, dancer, engaged in promoting Indian culture and natural heritage stressed on the temples lacking a platform for intellectual dialogue:

She said that cities have expanded in an unplanned manner and consumed the spaces around the temples, originally present. She criticized the government for interfering in the ancestral lineage of priesthood, pathetic pay scales and the presence of people of other religions in Hindu Endowment Department. Would the Wakf Board appoint her, a Hindu, was her query to the gathering.

The seminar highlighted how the legal machinery in the country is trying its best to have an upper hand in controlling the temples and the questionable environment enveloping the Hindu institutions. It also drew attention to many efforts undertaken by people from various walks of life to stand up to a common cause of protecting our temples.

Other speakers who spoke at the event were CS Rangarajan of Chilkur Balaji Devasthanam, Chakravarthi Sulibele and Shivakumar. Shivakumar spoke on effective use of RTI for improving governance of temples