By P. Raman
Before the foreigners arrived, so goes the saffron narrative, India had millions of temples managed by the priests and devout Hindus. They were centres of art, education, dance and cultural activities of the community.
Every temple had charitable endowments, including property given to them, which were used for running public utilities, pathshalas (schools), gaushalas (cow shelters), dharamshalas (rest houses) and feeding the poor. Now under the ‘state control’, temples are disappearing every year.
“If we continue like this, in another 100 years all of them, except a few major ones, will be extinct. How did we end up here?” asks Jaggi Vasudev Sadhguru of Isha Foundation, in an article published in Firstpost.
As per the saffron narrative, in Tamil Nadu, the East India Company took over temples in 1817 and ‘robbed’ the owners of land, gold and diamonds. Then, they returned the temples to their rightful owners because the missionaries insisted that Christians should not run ‘pagan’ temples.
Why are Hindus not allowed to manage their own temples, they frequently ask.
In a similar tone, Sadhguru said that the Hindu community “should stand up and say to political parties, ‘If you do not hand over the temples back to the community, we will not vote for you.’… Before the 75th Independence Day, we must free the temples.”
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat too wanted the state governments to return all property belonging to the ‘Hindu society’ to their rightful owners. He found fault in temples being run by governments and trusts.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
