Hindu temples are under government control, but not Muslim mosques and Christian churches. This information shocked me beyond belief and I felt a burning need to compile an article on this issue through various sources.
But why is this so? Hindus are being fooled since centuries, because Hindus are divided by sect, caste, ethinicity, and languages. They keep on fighting within themselves so the most ancient religion is mostly misused by everyone. Hindu temples are a great source of income (a cash cow) for the Government. Hindus are dismayingly apathetic and just shrug their shoulders, just as they do with other challenging and serious issues facing the Hindu community in India. If this were to be done to Christians and Muslims, they would be outraged and probably protest vehemently. India, a secular country also used to subsidise and financially assist Haj pilgrims (discontinued by the current government on Supreme Court's orders) but not for Tirtha-yatris. Further, when devotees put cash offerings in the hundis (cash collection boxes), it goes in the government coffers. One way to circumvent this, is to put the cash on the arati plate, so that the Hindu priests and the temple can benefit.
Why Hindu temples must be freed from the Government of
India's control?
For this, we need to understand what is the importance of temples
in India. Temples are as old as civilization in the Indian subcontinent. India has
a tremendous variety with respect to temples. This has been a land of seekers.
Innumerable gods and goddesses have been worshiped by Hindus since time
immemorial. In this context, temples have always been of great significance in India’s
culture. Temples are sacrosanct for the devotees. Temples have always been
places of worship, spiritual seeking, masterpieces of outstanding architecture,
forums for performing arts, places for public gatherings to celebrate festivals
and other important social functions. So they are not mere structures where
people just go to pray or make offerings. They have been the very nerve centres
of our country.
Many of the ancient temples have been important landmarks
for a long time. Towns were built around them. Several kings and emperors used
to behold the deity as the real authority, while they only ruled as humble
representatives. The size, scale, architectural splendour and engineering
marvel employed in many of the temples is too remarkable. Their richness,
beauty and endurance is amazing. Even today, the temples are a refreshing sight
to behold amidst the concrete jungles.
Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangapuram, Tamil Nadu:
It is often listed as the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world. The
temple, located in Tamil Nadu, occupies an area of 156 acres (631,000 m²) with
a perimeter of 4,116m (10,710 feet), making it the largest temple in India and
one of the largest religious complexes in the world. The other famous temples
are Ramanathaswamy Temple in Rameshwaram, Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai,
Sri Brihadeshwara Temple in Thanjavur, Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvanathapuram,
Chennakeshava Temple in Belur, Virupaksha Temple in Hampi, Venkateshwara Temple
in Tirupati, Lepakshi Temple in Anantapur, Shri Jagannath Temple in Puri, Lingaraja
Temple in Bhubaneshwar, Shri Somnath Temple in Saurashtra, Konark Sun Temple in
Orissa, Brahma Temple in Pushkar, Dakshineshwar Temple in Kolkata, Kashi
Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi, and Dwarkadeesh Temple in Dwarka.
The Hindu temples in South India were largely under the
patronage of the kings or merchant guilds or the people and in North India by
Mahants. Later, when the British took over, they made laws to gain control over
the temples since they were intelligent enough to see that controlling temples
and its wealth can give them an effective way to divide, control and loot us.
Later, the Government of India more or less continued the ‘status quo’ as with
most of the other borrowed systems from the British era. In Tamilnadu, the The
Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act 1997 was implemented
to govern the temples. This gave them the power to take over temple lands,
properties and then the mismanagement started. Please note that Tamilnadu and
Karnataka have the maximum number of temples in India.
The Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable
Endowments Act 1997
As per this law, all the revenues generated by the temple
will go to the Govt. And what gets spent for the temple maintenance or
development is entirely left to their whims and fancies and it is the
prerogative of the Govt to decide how much of this revenue will be returned to
the temples for their maintenance. Gradually, secularism has turned into
pseudo-secularism which is basically appeasement politics. Many times, it is
evident that only a small percentage of the revenues collected by the state
governments is spent on the temple and the remaining has been mismanaged. It is
very clear the same rules are not being applied to all religious institutions.
Temples have been singled out for milking out funds. This is not at all fair in
a pluralistic and secular nation.
Alarming neglect and mismanagement of temples
In 2020, in a report submitted by the Tamil Nadu Government
to the High Court, it mentioned that 11,999 temples are dying without a single
pooja taking place. 34,000 temples are struggling with less than Rs.10,000 per
year. 37,000 temples have just one person for pooja, maintenance, security, and
so on. Some of the other serious issues are no timely rituals, poor upkeep and
maintenance of the temples, idol/jewel thefts, serious land encroachments, poor
maintenance of temple structure, no money or respect for archakas and people
who take care of the temples. All these factors lead to a poor experience for
devotees because of the above. The fee-based darshan introduced by the Govt is
again a kind of discrimination against Hindu devotees.
Ever since the Sabarimala temple case made headlines, the
matter of government control over temples has attracted attention. What began
with the British
rulers trying to control temple riches continues till today. It has not
only led to government interference and incompetence, but has also disempowered
the age-old system of traditional temple priests. Until the British came to
India, temples were managed by local communities. They were centres of dance
and art, and at the heart of a massive decentralised trade network according to
author Sanjeev Sanyal. Every temple had charitable endowments, including
property given to temples, for the benefit of the community. The benefits
included rest-houses, pathshalas, gaushalas, and institutions for the
advancement of education and feeding of the poor.
For the British agenda of colonisation and conversions to
succeed, the temple organisation had to be weakened. So, temples were brought
under government control mainly in south India because not too many temples in
the north possessed such massive property or wealth. The British introduced The
Madras Regulation VII of 1817 to do this. In 1840, there was a directive from
the East India Company to return the temples to their trustees, because
Christian missionaries, in India and abroad, did not like the idea of
Christians managing Hindu temples. Thus, temple management was slowly, handed
over to trustees and in case of prominent temples to Mutts by 1845. The Board
of Revenue supervised the administration of large temples. Next came The
Religious Endowments Act 1863, which handed over temple administration to the
trustees from the British government.
The primary purposes of worship and utilisation of funds for
the upkeep of temples were never lost sight of by the Mutathipatis or other
trustees. Hundreds of temples in the Madras Presidency were handed over to the
respective trustees with the government playing little or no role in
supervising them. Trustees ran the temple following the tenets applicable to
the temple. All was well till the British introduced The Madras Religious and
Charitable Endowments Act 1925. It drew large protests from Muslims and
Christians. Thus, it was redrafted to exclude them, made applicable to Hindus
only and renamed as the Madras Hindu Religious and Endowments Act 1927. Ironically,
in 1925, the Sikh Gurdwaras Act was passed that brought gurdwaras under the
control of an elected body of Sikhs. So, the British had one set of laws for
Hindus and another for the Sikhs, Muslims, and Christians.
Even today, Hindu educational institutions, temples,
religious traditions are subject to government control and judicial review,
look for instance at the Supreme Court order on the Sabarimala temple. But a
radical change was introduced in the legislation by way of Act XII of 1935,
through which temples could be notified by the government and their
administration taken over. This way the Hindu Religious Endowment Board assumed
powers to take over and administer temples. The board consisted of three to five
members. Indic scholar and author Subhash Kak wrote: “The state governments
have based their policy on the recommendation of the Hindu Religious Endowments
Commission headed by CP Ramaswamy Aiyer in 1960 that Hindu temples and maths be
considered as belonging to the public. The government entered into the
religious sphere when the Indian government was very aggressively pushing state
control over all aspects of Indian life.”
It is time the Hindu community is allowed to manage their
own temples once again – the devotees’ donations should be used for social
benefit instead of sitting in a government treasury where it is grossly
mismanaged. Even after Independence, the British policy continues. Are Hindus
so incompetent and spineless that they cannot manage their own temples? Certainly
not!
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