Swarn Kishore Singh
Over-zeal to have watertight control over religious institutions isn’t new; Aurangzeb wanted Ram Rai, the eldest son of Guru Har Rai (seventh Guru of Sikhs) to be anointed as the ninth Guru and via that appointment he had planned to keep Sikhs under his control, somehow that didn’t happen and hence he got Guru Teg Bahadur, the ninth Guru assassinated.
First day of year 2022, a horrific stampede took place in Bhawan of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Temple, which resulted in substantial loss of human lives but what still lives is a question; what caused that stampede? LG administration ordered inquiry and eventually a report was submitted too. No fresh measures employed, no fixing of responsibility and no public scrutiny of the report, then what was that inquiry ordered for? Maybe for good optics! Even High Court of Jammu & Kashmir developed a cold feet over the matter. As is popularly believed, the stampede happened due to clogging of crowd because some high and mighty bureaucrats had to be given a red carpet welcome in the temple and VIP darshans of the goddess. VIP Darshans; an obscene repercussion of governmental control over temples, otherwise there is no discrimination in the house of God; No VIPs, no commoners, just devotees.
Few days ago while arguing for state of Tamil Nadu in a matter pertaining to appointment of priests in temples controlled by government of Tamil Nadu, Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave said that, “the appointment of ‘archakas’ is a secular function and the state is entitled to appoint them”. Seriously ? Secular ? Isn’t it absurd ? If appointment of a priest is a secular function then temple is a public office can be safely obviated? Appointment of a priest without following the basic tenets of that belief is nothing but fraud with that faith only.
The secular state of India has been controlling thousands of Hindu temples; running and profoundly mismanaging them all. A secular state intruding into realm completely religious; Irony! Due to governmental control, when temples are supposed to propagate a belief and to be exhibited as free flowing epitome of that belief system, they are used for blatant, absurd and obscene display of secularism; sadly due to this temple as an institution is dying everyday and is on the verge of extinction.
As far as functioning of temples is concerned, the government needs to understand that every temple has its own style of function; Chidambaram Temple in Tamil Nadu works differently than Shri Mata Vaishno Devi in Jammu; Kedarnath in Uttarakhand has different aesthetics than Puri Jaganath Temple in Orissa. The Sanatan belief system has a major significance attached to certain procedures called karm-kaand and these are to be performed in a manner prescribed by scriptures and customs with no scope for any deviations from these fundamentals. We see depiction of deities of other beliefs in very simple and penurious conditions; Sanatan as a belief doesn’t celebrate poverty; our temples also reflect that. The Sanatan Dharam recognizes that after the ceremony of praan-pratishta, the deity lives in the temple (idol) and law recognizes Hindu deity as a judicial person. Considering the affairs attached to the deity as secular is first rate absurdity; there is nothing secular about a temple.
Someone builds a new temple and somehow it becomes popular, the government sends a notification and takes over the same; the government allows itself to do so via proper legislations and sometimes via executive orders; legal but unconstitutional. The embargo imposed by constitution of India on the government by virtue of Article 25-28 are twisted and religious institutions belonging to the majority population of India are grabbed by the government and no court in India is reaching to their rescue. Majority is discriminated and their institutions are illegally taken over. Irony!
Right from managing the economics of temple to conducting its security, from aesthetics of temple to the appointment of priests, from amount of prasada to the management of assets of temple,there is a method to it which is further backed by religious references; an executive order can in no case substitute the godly regulations. Unlike Abrahamic faiths, temples aren’t just places of worship but centre of learning art, craft, music, literature, economics, politics etc.; to further the process of learning libraries were build therein and nothing of it was secular. Temples used to have social functions, economic functions and religious functions; all religious in nature.
There are great architectural aesthetics attached to every temple, bringing them under governmental control has resulted into damning them all. There is a preserved science of temple building and the architectural marvels across those parts of India not touched by Islamic invaders and European pillagers bear testimony to that. Those long preserved aesthetics have now been left at mercy of some stray bureaucrats’ idea of aesthetics; Pity! Leave aesthetics, the appointment of priests is being tampered with, the priests constitute a religious denomination and their rights are to be preserved and protected from any invasion from the state. The priest is supposed to serve the deity and not some petty bureaucrats. Due to governmental control over temples a new phenomenon of special darshans has evolved and for that the devotees have to pay some hefty amounts. The deity never seeks money in lieu of darshans but the government does. Why would we pay to have darshans of our deities; isn’t this just an extension of licence raj or permit raj in temples? What governmental control brings along is not just economic plunder but desecration of the sacred places too. People having no feelings for temples or deities are managing them; the temples and temple properties are being excruciatingly exploited.
The temples in India have been facing the brunt of aggressive reigns since long; from Islamic invaders to the contemporary governments. Muslim invaders destroyed the temples and now government is treating the temples as mere revenue generating units; to make the matter worse, some exiled sarkari babus are now running temple administrations. It is like having a rabbi to run the administration of Mecca mosque. Is there any non-muslim in hajj committee in India? ostensibly not. But Azam Khan can be allowed to manage Kumbh mela at Prayagraj. This selective secularism is trampling the right guaranteed to Hindus as ordinary citizen of India to practice and profess their religion.
Most of the times financial management is the excuse to hijack a temple then applying the same algorithm; telecom ministry was subject of abject corruption in UPA tenure, was it shut down? Coal ministry was also sold at corporate offices, was it disbanded? No, but temples have to be taken over for such sham reasons. Even if there are some financial discrepancies in running a temple the state can intervene to a restricted domain, set it right, then leave and give it back.
Interference to the extent of being a watch dog of the financial management can be condoned but taking the complete control over temple administration is absurd, anti-religion and unconstitutional. The Government can keep a watch over the manner in which the temple revenue flows, but the Government can’t be allowed to direct it or to regulate it. From the money generated from a religious activity if some assets are developed, those assets should be used for propagation of that faith only. For example we have Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, the revenue generated from the shrine is not state revenue, its temple revenue and it has be utilized to further propagate and preserve that faith only.
When this whole lot of temples are mismanaged by the Government, it is high time the system of management of temples is best left to the religious heads of the respective faiths. For Hindus entrusting Shankaracharyas with the management of temples in their jurisdiction won’t be a bad idea. It is high time the government withdraws itself from temples and allows some prominent religious figures to run the show, while the Government can be retained and restrained to the role of a financial watchdog. The demand of freeing of temples has its fiercest advocate in the constitution of India which has enough safety values to protect every religion from this rat race of secularism.
(The author is an advocate & a political and legal commentator)
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