[Assam] The Sustained Loot of Hindu Temples - Sentinel Op Ed

[Ram Sarangapani]

I think people have long known that funds collected in temples have been
misused right from the get go. This Op Ed tells us how serious ans big the
problem has become.

--Ram



The Sustained Loot of Hindu Temples

*The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Act of 1951 allows State
governments and politicians to take over Hindu temples and maintain complete
control over them and their properties. It is claimed that they can sell the
temple assets and properties*

While Congress leaders are hell-bent on damning the RSS — it is an old game
that has long ceased to have any meaning — they seem to be unaware (or
deliberately wish to ignore) that as late as on July 4, 2010, the right hand
of a 53-year-old Christian College professor (One TJ Joseph) was chopped off
by Muslim fundamentalists, at Thodapurzha, Iduki district, in Kerala, for
alleged blasphemy. Digvijay Singh probably does not want to be reminded of
this. Nor, one suspects, would he be anxious to know that police found out
that this heinous crime was committed as part of the implementation of the
verdict of a Shariah court run by fundamentalist elements in Kerala. The
police apparently discovered that 14 such parallel courts have been running
in Kerala for the last 20 years, and Kerala Home Minister Kodiveri
Balakrishnan has been reported as confessing that since 1993, 22 murders
have taken place under the direction of the Shariah courts in Kerala (vide,
Mangalam, July 21, 2010).

Digvijay Singh can check this bit of information as could Rahul Gandhi. At
the same time they could both check out on the performance of the Hindu
Religious and Charitable Endowment Act of 1951 which allows State
governments and politicians to take over thousands of Hindu temples and
maintain complete control over them and their properties. It is claimed that
they can sell the temple assets and properties and use the money in any way
they choose. A charge has been made not by any temple authority, but by a
foreign writer, Stephen Knapp, in a book (Crimes against India and the Need
to Protect Ancient Vedic Tradition) published in the United States that
makes shocking reading.

Hundreds of temples in centuries past have been built in India by devout
rulers, and the donations given to them by devotees have been used for the
benefit of the people. If presently, money collected has ever been misused
(and that word needs to be defined), it is for the devotees to protest and
not for any government to interfere. This latter is what has been happening
currently under an intrusive law. It would seem, for instance, that under a
Temple Empowerment Act, about 34,000 temples in Andhra Pradesh have come
under government control and only 18 per cent of the revenue of these
temples have been returned for temple purposes, the remaining 82 per cent
being used for purposes unstated. Apparently even the world famous Tirumala
Tirupati Temple has not been spared. According to Knapp, the temple collects
over Rs 3,100 crore every year, “and the State Government has not denied the
charge that as much as 85 per cent of this is transferred to the State
Exchequer, much of which goes to causes that are not connected with the
Hindu community”. Is it for that reason that devotees make their offerings
to the temples?

Another charge that has been made is that the Andhra Government has also
allowed the demolition of at least ten temples for the construction of a
golf course. “Imagine the outcry,” writes Knapp, “if ten mosques had been
demolished.” It would seem that in Karnataka, Rs 79 crore was collected from
about 2 lakh temples, and from that, temples received Rs 7 crore for their
maintenance, Muslim madrassahs and Haj subsidy were given Rs 59 crore, and
churches about Rs 13 crore. Very generous of the government. Because of
this, Knapp writes, “25 per cent of the two lakh temples or about 50,000
temples in Karnataka will be closed down for lack of resources.” And he
adds: “The only way the government can continue to do this is because people
have not stood up enough to stop it.”

Knapp then refers to Kerala where, he says, “funds from the Guruvayur Temple
are diverted to other government projects denying improvement to 45 Hindu
temples”. Land belonging to the Ayyappa Temple apparently has been grabbed
and “church encroaches are occupying huge areas of forest land, running into
thousands of acres, near Sabarimala”. A charge is made that the communist
State government of Kerala wants to pass an Ordinance to disband the
Travancore & Cochin Autonomous Devaswom Boards (TCDBs) and take over their
limited independent authority of 1,800 Hindu temples.

If what the author says is true, even the Maharashtra government wants to
take over some 4,50,000 temples in the State which would “supply a huge
amount of revenue to correct the State’s bankrupt conditions...” And to top
it all, Knapp says that in Orissa, the State government intends to sell over
70,000 acres of endowment lands from the Jagannath Temple, the proceeds of
which would solve a huge financial crunch brought about by its own
mismanagement of temple assets.

Says Knapp: “Why such occurrences are so often not known is that the Indian
media, especially the English television and press, are often anti-Hindu in
their approach, and thus not inclined to give much coverage, and certainly
no sympathy, for anything that may affect the Hindu community. Therefore,
such government actions that play against the Hindu community go on without
much or any attention attracted to them.” Knapp obviously is on record. If
the facts produced by him are incorrect, it is up to the government to say
so. It is quite possible that some individuals might have set up temples to
deal with lucrative earnings. But that, surely, is none of the government’s
business? Instead of taking over all earnings, the government surely can
appoint local committees to look into temple affairs so that the amount
discovered is fairly used for the public good?

Says Knapp: “Nowhere in the free, democratic world are the religious
institutions managed, maligned and controlled by the government, thus
denying the religious freedom of the people of the country. But it is
happening in India. Government officials have taken control of Hindu temples
because they smell money in them, they recognize the indifference of Hindus,
they are aware of the unlimited patience and tolerance of Hindus, they also
know that it is not in the blood of Hindus to go to the streets to
demonstrate, destroy property, threaten, loot, harm and kill... Many Hindus
are sitting and watching the demise of their culture. They need to express
their views loud and clear...”

Knapp obviously does not know that should they do so, they would be damned
as communalists. But it is time someone asked the government to lay down all
the facts on the table so that the public would know what is happening
behind its back. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not secularism. And temples
are not for looting, under any name. One thought that Mahmud of Ghazni has
long been dead.

MV Kamath