Hindu Temple – Under the Plunder & Prison of Government Control.
The SC judgment and court Proceedings on two cases Natraja Temple Vs TN Government and Jagannath Temple Puri Vs Orissa Government recorded its displeasure and made scathing observations as to why the Government is so keen to administer the temple. The Learned Judge S A Bobde and S A Nazeer could not have used better sober words to communicate to Government its displeasure and constitutional illegality, Yet nothing changed till date.
Hindu
temples house huge Land assets, daily donation, Hundi collection and Gold
deposits in the name of God. And lobby surrounding the Government official
having vested interest are holding eye on this wealth. Untold and unrecorded
plunder of assets and wealth has already happened.
Perhaps
Sleeping Hindu society does not deserve better than this.
How
has this all started? While Christian Muslim and Sikh have been allowed to
manage their own religious places, Hindu are not? While others do not have to
pay any Taxes, Hindu religious places have to pay taxes? While others can run
their financial resources, temples are not permitted to manage their financial
assets?
Which
article of Government prevents Hindu from running its temple? How has this
emerged?
It
all started like this.
1817- Driven by
missionary zeal, the British introduced “The
Madras Regulation VII of 1817”. The sole purpose of this act was
to break the running network of Sanskrit and Ved Education (Path-Shala), Rest
house, Social welfare work, Poor food program and Cow shed (Gau-Shala) by
taking over the Temple`s massive land assets and Management. It was especially
designed to destabilize and take control of South Indian temples.
1840:- British ordered
to appoint Temple Management Trust under the supervision of its
Department of Revenue. This Trust in turn took control and running of
Temples and Mutt in India. In this process the British ensured that the
traditional management of the temple and Mutt was discontinued. This new
process of forming Trustee for all prominent Temples were completed in no time
rather as early as 1845.
1863: The
Religious Endowments Act: - The act was enacted to transfer both
the management and the assets of all the Temple and Mutt under the British
control. Under this act, limited autonomy was allowed to the Trust to look
after the religious affair as per the traditional practice of the Temple.
However the other social and welfare programs were not allowed to be carried on
under this act. Thus scope of all the social and public welfare work including
Ved-education were taken away from the ambit of Temple through this act.
1925:
The Madras Religious and Charitable Endowments Act 1925. The original act
was drafted to take control of all the religious institutions including the
Church and Mosque. But after vociferous protests from church and Mosque, they
were excluded and the act was redrafted and passed only for Hindu temples. The
act took the entire control of activities related to education, religious
matters, traditional practices, Social welfare and management in the hands of
British Government. This act transferred even the right to perform religious
duties at the discretion and control of British.
1935:-
Act XII of 1935:
It proposed a radical change by empowering the state to take over all the
Temple Management. A Hindu Religious Endowment Board was
constituted and who would assume all the charges to administer temples. So we
can conclude what started in 1817 was finally completed in 1935. This act
brought the Temple in complete control of British.
1951
Act:-Drawing
power from 1935 Act, Tamil Nadu government took control of Temple management
and their assets and funds by an act passed in 1951 called the Hindu
Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1951. Following this rest all the
states in India created their Endowment Trust to manage Hindu Religious
Property. This action of Govt was challenged by Shirur Math in Madras high
court and later on in Supreme Court. Many provisions of 1951 Act were struck
down then. Yet the Government did not feel it appropriate to revisit the spirit
of the act.
1959
Act:
With some amendment to the 1951 Act another Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and
Charitable Endowments Act was passed in 1959. The legislation was
piloted by the Congress government at that point of time. This act
brought the Temple Management Trust/ Mutt in complete control of Government for
its appointment action, removal and continuance. The new act 1959 abolished
the Hindu Religious Endowments Board and transferred its authority to the
Hindu religious and charitable endowments department of the government headed
by a commissioner.
Thus
a Government commission took complete control of Hindu Temple, however no such
control was designed for Christian and Muslim institution in India. Thus most
of the southern states have now a minister in-charge of Hindu religious and
charitable endowments.
For
example, Today Kerala has four Devaswom boards namely,
1- Guruvayur, 2- Malabar, 3- Travancore
and 4- Cochin.
The
Government of the day controls all the temple Assets, Donation, Hundi,
financial deposits, rent and revenue. It also controls management, its
functioning and day to day affairs.
Daily
functioning of Government Control: -
All Hundi collections/ Revenue are directed to be
deposited in the designated temple bank account. The indicative control of the
assets and utilization are as under.
·
Nearly 70 percent of Temple income is used for Government Schemes.
· Nearly 25 % is
spent in administrative expenses of Temple.
· And less than 5% is
spent on events related to religious practice and Puja.
· No money is made
available for conducting Ved Education – Gau Shala or preaching Sanatan
religion and practice.
· If a temple is not
able to spend at least 85% of its collection, an Unspent amount is subjected to
tax as per Income tax rule governing Trust.
Example
of some of the plunders of Asset that had happened across the India:--
· “Between 1986 and
2005 Tamil Nadu temples ‘lost’ 47,000 acres of land and currently more than 10
million square feet of valuable sites belonging to Hindu Temples in Tamil Nadu
are under encroachment.”
· AP– 2020- Over 1
Lac Acre of Temple has been encroached upon and no functionary has looked
after.
· “In Tamil Nadu
temples have over 478,000 plus acres of land, 2.44 cr sq feet of property for
which the TN HR & CE department gets only Rs 58 crs p.a. In reality income
from all temples, mutts would, on a conservative basis generate Rs 6,000 cr
p.a.”
· Religious practice,
priesthood, Idol, antique structure are all subject to plunder and destruction
under the government control.
The unfortunate and
willful plunder of Temple assets has continued since the days of Mughal and
British. Post-Independence also nothing changed. Infect as late as 2019,
despite regular adverse observations made by the Supreme Court, Uttarkhand Govt
went ahead to control Chardham Board. Various Court Judgments have stressed the
need of forming an independent Management Committee or Temple Charter but
nothing has materialized so far.
Even
Hindu Society Saint and Social Leaders are not unanimous. They lack vision and
farsightedness in themselves to manage their own temple. The despair and
plight of Hindu Temple is still continuing. No one else but ourselves has to
take the blame.
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