Abstract
Historically, temples in Tamil Nadu have enjoyed political patronage and have commanded socio-economic influence in the Tamil society and have been enmeshed in power politics. Various social groups and political elites have had associations with the temple and its varied activities and for such sections, controlling the administration and management of the temple, its functions, assets and resources became important to enlarge their spheres of socio-economic control and political dominance. In a caste-stratified society, temples also came to reflect graded social relations and became a site of caste confrontations and anti-caste struggles. This chapter interrogates the ‘Free Hindu Temples’ campaign’s focus on protecting the religious freedom of Hindus through its demand of freeing temples from government control and entrusting them to the control of the Hindu community. Through narrations of Dalit contestations of the temple space against casteiest practices in temples, this chapter questions the rationale behind this campaign, for instances of caste discrimination and exclusion of Dalits have occurred in community-controlled temples in Tamil Nadu, forcing Dalits to seek government intervention to restore their civil rights in such cases. This chapter emphasises the necessity of freeing temples from untouchable practices and casteiest control and equalising the temple space for free access by the Dalits.
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Notes
- 1.
Covering a variety of topics ranging from devotion, spirituality and consciousness to human well-being, culture, youth and environment, Sadhguru is the YouTube channel of the founder of the Isha Foundation—Jaggi Vasudev that airs his talks and dialogues. The mission statement on the website of Isha Foundation reads—‘his fundamental vision is to offer the science of inner well-being to every human being and to raise every human being to the peak of their potential, so that they are exuberant, all-inclusive, and in harmony within themselves and the world’ (https://isha.sadhguru.org/in/en/sadhguru/mission).
- 2.
Founded in 1925 by K. B. Hedgewar, the RSS (National Volunteers Association) focuses on organising and consolidating Hindus and is a well-organised group that campaigns for promoting Hindu political, cultural and religious interests.
- 3.
The VHP (World Hindu Council) was founded in 1964 and propagates Hindu unity on the basis of Hindu pride by taking an aggressive stance towards non-Hindu religions. Similar to RSS, it pictures national identity as Hindu identity.
- 4.
The Mukt Karo Mandir (Set free temples) was a campaign launched by the news channel Times Now in September 2021 to protect the faith of Hindu devotees by demanding that the temples be set free from the control of government.
- 5.
A Mutt or matha in Hinduism is a monastic establishment. Each Mutt is led by a spiritual leader.
- 6.
In 1972, in the Seshammal & others vs State of Tamil Nadu case, the Supreme Court firstly examined whether the hereditary appointment of priests constituted a well-established religious usage or custom or whether the act of appointment of priests was an outcome of state action. The Court concluded that the priest is appointed by the temple trustee, owes his appointment to a secular authority and hence holds a public office as a temple functionary. It thus upheld the validity of the Amendment Act of 1970. In 2002, the Supreme Court in the N. Adithayan vs Travancore Devaswom Board dismissed a petition that sought to enforce the long-established custom and usage of appointing only Namboodiri Brahmins as temple priests. Observing that appointment made solely on the basis of caste/birth/pedigree is unconstitutional, the court validated the appointment of the well-qualified and ritually trained non-Brahmin priest in the temple in Kerala. In the Adi Saiva Sivacharyargal Nala Sangam & Others v The Government of Tamil Nadu & Another in 2015, in congruence with the decision in the Seshammal case, the court affirmed that the source of the authority and appointment of the priest is secular and is a public office under state administration and hence cannot be hereditary. SC did not strike down the 2006 G.O. but only directed that the priestly appointments must be in accordance with the agamic scriptures and religious usages governing the rituals and worship pertaining to agama—protected temples. The Court also added that the validity of issues arising from such cases in future will depend on the circumstances of each case and thus the matter of appointments and the associated customs, religious usages and practices will be determined on a case-by-case basis which will be subject to the applicability of the agama shastras and customary usages which themselves will be subjected to judicial scrutiny to ascertain their adherence to the constitutional mandates and principles of non-discrimination, indicating that it continues to remain a matter of adjudication.
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Sivaramane, D. (2023). Whose Freedom? Interrogating the Free Hindu Temples Campaign, Caste Politics and Dalit Contestations of Temple Space in Tamil Nadu. In: Bhoi, D., Gorringe, H. (eds) Caste in Everyday Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30655-6_8
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