04-21-2007, 08:29 AM
<b>State control on temples, funds siphoned off, no preservation</b>
By Jagan Kaul & Krishan Bhatnagar
Government control of Hindu religious infrastructure is the instrument
of decimating Hindu religion and culture. Hereunder are the examples
of the abusive control by states in South India that are virtually
engaged in demolishing the Hindu religious infrastructure. The
abundance of available evidence has proved beyond any doubt that under
government control, the Hindu temples have not only been exploited
injuriously but are also being driven to their ultimate extinction.
Nationwide, the famous temples of Jagannath Puri, Tirupati, Kashi
Vishwanath, Vaishno Devi, Shirdi, Guruvayoor, Chamunda Devi,
Dattapeeth, Kali Mandir of Patiala, Amarnath, Badrinath, Kedarnath,
etc. have already been taken under the government control.
Andhra Pradesh: AP government's continuing blitzkrieg against Hinduism
with massive sale of temple lands seems a policy of looting temples
for bringing down Hinduism.
Andhra Pradesh government is going all out for controlling the entire
spectrum of Hindu religious institutions. The Endowment Minister Shri
Diwakar Reddy announced on March 12, 2007 that AP government plans to
take over all temples, mutts and religious trusts in the state.
Furthermore, the government is planning to amend the AP Endowments Act
to enable the endowments commissioner to oversee the day-to-day
administration of mutts.
Injurious Governance: As per recent information there are more than
1,84,000 temples under government control, which is taking away all
the donations given by devotees in the form of cash, clothes,
jewellery or in any other form. In return only 18 per cent of the
revenue is given back for the maintenance of temples and to pay
salaries of priests. More than 40,000 priests are earning salary below
Rs. 500 per month and over 3,000 priest earns 400 for the whole year.
The major chunk of money is used by government for various schemes
under Indira Yojna, Rajiv Yojna, etc, which in no way help either the
Hindu community or Hindu temples.
In 2004, the AP government engineered the entry of JRG Wealth
Management Limited, an organisation owned by Christians, into the
decision-making and procurement process of prasadam materials for use
in Tirupati temple. Furthermore, the criminal destruction of
centuries-old historic Mandapam at TTD with official participation has
been universally condemned by all Hindu ranks and has generated
enormous resentment. The fact that even with huge battalions of staff
for oversight, the government could not protect the temple lands
simply proves incompetence and indifference of the authorities in
performing their responsibilities. Such an irresponsible establishment
cannot and must not be trusted to handle these centuries-old estates
and temples belonging to Hindu community.
Unwarranted and Illegal Actions: Against the spirit of the law, strong
opposition and wishes of the Hindu community the AP government wants
to: a) take away Rs 500 crore from TTD (Tirupathi Tirumala
Devasthanam) supposedly for irrigation projects on top of Rs. 1,500
crore it already owes to them; b) build a ropeway at TTD for turning
the sacred shrine into a tourist attraction thus commercializing and
desecrating the deeply revered shrine and vitiating its religious
sanctity; and c) to take over the 500-year-old Chilkur Balaji temple
so efficiently run by the pujaris and locals. These highly
provocative, unsettling and expeditious measures amongst many others
are being taken without any public debate or the approval of the Hindu
community, who are the real owners.
TIRUPATHI (AP)
The world famous Tirupathi Tirumala Temple is under complete control
of the ruling government of Andhra Pradesh. The temple receives an
annual income of Rs three thousand one hundred crore in the form of
direct cash collected from (a) Hundi collections (b) Donations towards
annadanam scheme © Large amount of donations collected from devotees
(d) Thula Bharam (e) Renting out 12,000 cottages to devotees on daily
basis (f) Sale of prasadam (including ladoos) (g) Leasing of premises
to commercial establishments including shops and hotels on the hills
(h) Profit from export of tonsured hairs of devotees (i) Profits from
TTD publications (j) Income generated from sale of Sewa Tickets (k)
Television rights
Apart from this, the TTD also generates income in the form of
collecting and pledging the same for government schemes.
In the financial year 2005-06, the TTD collected 2,400 kilograms of
gold, 2,33,000 kgs of silver and 543 kgs of other precious stones
including diamonds, rubies etc. from devotees.
SIMACHALAM (AP)
Situated 15 kilometres from the port city of Vishakhapatnam,
Simachalam is the ancient temple of Narasimha Swamy. Very recently the
temple has come under the siege of Christian missionaries, who have
illegally occupied over 300 acres of temple land with the help of
Christian land mafias and local Congress leaders. The devotees are
restricted at the foothills by the Christians who abuse our God as
demons and physically try to stop Hindus by luring them to provide
them basic day-to-day needs. On many occasions the devotees have
complained to the local administration, who are watching all this
helplessly. In a span of 20 months, four churches and three convent
schools have come up in the vicinity of the foothills and a small
temple of Hanuman has also been demolished overnight.
BHADRACHALAM (AP)
Bhadrachalam is a famous temple dedicated to Sri Ramchandra and
situated on the banks of the sacred river Godavari. Today this temple
is also under the siege of Christian missionaries who have influenced
the government to donate 884 acres out of 1289 acres of the temple
land for their activities. The temple which had a passage of eight
entrances has been left with a narrow passage for the devotees to
enter the temple.
ARASAVALLI (AP)
At Arasavalli, which is practically the same as Srikakulam, the
headquarters of the northernmost district of Andhra, there is a temple
of Lord Surya. Temples dedicated to the worship of Lord Surya are rare
in our country.
Seventh Day Adventist Church has constructed a church right in front
of both the entrances. The number of devotees visiting the ancient
temple has come down by 85 per cent in just one year.
SRISAILAM (AP)
Srisailam is situated in the thick and inaccessible forests of the
Nallamalai hills, in the northeastern portion of the Nandikotkur taluk
of Kurnool District. It lies on a straight line west of Vijayawada. It
is 73 miles north of Nandyal railway station.
Puranas have described this abode of Mahadev as Pranta Jyotirlinga
which is surrounded by mountains. The Endowment Department has sold
over 1,600 acres of temple land surrounding the temple to various
Christian organisations including Tribal Gospel.
MANGALAGIRI (AP)
Mangalagiri is situated on the Bezwada-Guntur road and is about eight
miles by road from Vijayawada. On the top of the Mangalagiri hill
there is a famous temple called the Panakala Nrusimhaswamy temple,
which has been attracting pilgrims for a very long time, and from all
parts of the country. The nearest railway station is Mangalagiri on
the Guntur-Vijayawada line but to visit the temple, the better course
would be to get down either at Vijayawada or at Guntur and take a bus.
This anicent temple, which has the largest Gopuramâapproximatel y 14
floors, constructed by King Yudhishthra, has been under the attack
from Christian Missionaries. Due to poverty over 35 per cent of the
population are forced to convert to Christianity and others are
coerced to convert. Hindus are forced to visit the temple between 10
A.M and 1 P.M because of fear of attack from Christians who are
residing in large number at the foothills.
AHOBILAM (AP)
Ahobilam is located in Karnool District of Andhra Pradesh in the hills
of the eastern ghats, about 400 km northwest of Chennai. The temple
consists of nine shrines to Lord Narasimha located around a 35-km
circle in dense forest.
Not many know, Ahobilam is the same place where Lord Narasimha had
taken incarnation and had killed the demon Hiranayakashyap. Lot of
evidence are available even today - e.g.: (a) Place where Lord
Narasimha appeared, (b) Cave school of Prahalad, © Vascul (door
entrance) on which Lord killed the demon; (d) Palace remains of demon
Hiranayakashyap.
Unfortunately, no government of Andhra Pradesh took any interest to
develop or provide facilities to the oldest temple on this earth.
Poojas and aartis are conducted in only three temples daily and
annually once for the remaining nine temples which are in thick forest.
The negligence on the part of the government is helping Christian
missionaries to illegally occupy Temple land and they have slowly
taken up the task to destroy the ancient remains of Hindu temples.
In Tamil Nadu, H.H. Shankara-charya, whose status is not less than
that of the Pope for Hindus, was arrested on Diwali night. He was
humiliated, put in jail without bail and treated like a common
criminal. Such a barbaric action against the most revered leader of
the highly civilized and non-violent faith was tantamount to a serious
assault on Hindu religion and psyche. It is over two years now and
neither the case against him has been proven nor has he been exonerated.
The statue of E V Ramasamy Naicker - Periyar for the devotees of
Dravidianism has been allowed to be installed in front of the
Rajagopuram of Srirangam temple. He was a known Hindu-baiter and will
obviously hurt the sentiments of many. He was a man who made a life
out of mocking the Hindu sensibilities and sentiments. But he did that
in his individual capacity. By installing his statue, where Hindus
congregate in large numbers, the government seems to have given
institutionalised legitimacy to his acts.
In Kerala: The government hastily promulgated an ordinance on February
4, 2007 to disband the Travancore and Cochin Autonomous Devaswom
Boards and usurped its authority. The timing, intent and integrity of
the said ordinance was extremely suspicious and questionable
particularly in view of the impending session of the state Assembly
and the existence of a three man commission appointed by the High
Court for investigating the allegations of corruption.
In the current fiscal year, secular Kerala's treasury was filled with
Rs 268 crore solely by the revenue from temples under Travancore
Devaswom Board, Cochin Devaswom Board and Guruvayur Devaswom. How much
of the money has been used for temple maintenance and Hindu causes is
not revealed.
According to the latest reports, out of tens of thousands of temples
that have abnormally been rendered dysfunctional, only a few hundreds
are currently fully operational. As if that is not enough, under the
Kerala Land Reforms Act, 13,000 acres of Guruvayoor's land has been
reduced to 230 acres amounting to 98 per cent land loot. The revenue
of this Hindu entity is subject to misuse, even loot by the state
authorities. In order to appease the officially inspired Christian
protesters and promote their electoral base the `secularist'
politicians unilaterally abandoned the construction of railway line
from Kottayam to Erumeli to Hindu Hill shrine.
<i>(The writer can be contacted at Hindu Jagaran Forum (USA), e-mail
krishna.kb@verizon. net)</i>
By Jagan Kaul & Krishan Bhatnagar
Government control of Hindu religious infrastructure is the instrument
of decimating Hindu religion and culture. Hereunder are the examples
of the abusive control by states in South India that are virtually
engaged in demolishing the Hindu religious infrastructure. The
abundance of available evidence has proved beyond any doubt that under
government control, the Hindu temples have not only been exploited
injuriously but are also being driven to their ultimate extinction.
Nationwide, the famous temples of Jagannath Puri, Tirupati, Kashi
Vishwanath, Vaishno Devi, Shirdi, Guruvayoor, Chamunda Devi,
Dattapeeth, Kali Mandir of Patiala, Amarnath, Badrinath, Kedarnath,
etc. have already been taken under the government control.
Andhra Pradesh: AP government's continuing blitzkrieg against Hinduism
with massive sale of temple lands seems a policy of looting temples
for bringing down Hinduism.
Andhra Pradesh government is going all out for controlling the entire
spectrum of Hindu religious institutions. The Endowment Minister Shri
Diwakar Reddy announced on March 12, 2007 that AP government plans to
take over all temples, mutts and religious trusts in the state.
Furthermore, the government is planning to amend the AP Endowments Act
to enable the endowments commissioner to oversee the day-to-day
administration of mutts.
Injurious Governance: As per recent information there are more than
1,84,000 temples under government control, which is taking away all
the donations given by devotees in the form of cash, clothes,
jewellery or in any other form. In return only 18 per cent of the
revenue is given back for the maintenance of temples and to pay
salaries of priests. More than 40,000 priests are earning salary below
Rs. 500 per month and over 3,000 priest earns 400 for the whole year.
The major chunk of money is used by government for various schemes
under Indira Yojna, Rajiv Yojna, etc, which in no way help either the
Hindu community or Hindu temples.
In 2004, the AP government engineered the entry of JRG Wealth
Management Limited, an organisation owned by Christians, into the
decision-making and procurement process of prasadam materials for use
in Tirupati temple. Furthermore, the criminal destruction of
centuries-old historic Mandapam at TTD with official participation has
been universally condemned by all Hindu ranks and has generated
enormous resentment. The fact that even with huge battalions of staff
for oversight, the government could not protect the temple lands
simply proves incompetence and indifference of the authorities in
performing their responsibilities. Such an irresponsible establishment
cannot and must not be trusted to handle these centuries-old estates
and temples belonging to Hindu community.
Unwarranted and Illegal Actions: Against the spirit of the law, strong
opposition and wishes of the Hindu community the AP government wants
to: a) take away Rs 500 crore from TTD (Tirupathi Tirumala
Devasthanam) supposedly for irrigation projects on top of Rs. 1,500
crore it already owes to them; b) build a ropeway at TTD for turning
the sacred shrine into a tourist attraction thus commercializing and
desecrating the deeply revered shrine and vitiating its religious
sanctity; and c) to take over the 500-year-old Chilkur Balaji temple
so efficiently run by the pujaris and locals. These highly
provocative, unsettling and expeditious measures amongst many others
are being taken without any public debate or the approval of the Hindu
community, who are the real owners.
TIRUPATHI (AP)
The world famous Tirupathi Tirumala Temple is under complete control
of the ruling government of Andhra Pradesh. The temple receives an
annual income of Rs three thousand one hundred crore in the form of
direct cash collected from (a) Hundi collections (b) Donations towards
annadanam scheme © Large amount of donations collected from devotees
(d) Thula Bharam (e) Renting out 12,000 cottages to devotees on daily
basis (f) Sale of prasadam (including ladoos) (g) Leasing of premises
to commercial establishments including shops and hotels on the hills
(h) Profit from export of tonsured hairs of devotees (i) Profits from
TTD publications (j) Income generated from sale of Sewa Tickets (k)
Television rights
Apart from this, the TTD also generates income in the form of
collecting and pledging the same for government schemes.
In the financial year 2005-06, the TTD collected 2,400 kilograms of
gold, 2,33,000 kgs of silver and 543 kgs of other precious stones
including diamonds, rubies etc. from devotees.
SIMACHALAM (AP)
Situated 15 kilometres from the port city of Vishakhapatnam,
Simachalam is the ancient temple of Narasimha Swamy. Very recently the
temple has come under the siege of Christian missionaries, who have
illegally occupied over 300 acres of temple land with the help of
Christian land mafias and local Congress leaders. The devotees are
restricted at the foothills by the Christians who abuse our God as
demons and physically try to stop Hindus by luring them to provide
them basic day-to-day needs. On many occasions the devotees have
complained to the local administration, who are watching all this
helplessly. In a span of 20 months, four churches and three convent
schools have come up in the vicinity of the foothills and a small
temple of Hanuman has also been demolished overnight.
BHADRACHALAM (AP)
Bhadrachalam is a famous temple dedicated to Sri Ramchandra and
situated on the banks of the sacred river Godavari. Today this temple
is also under the siege of Christian missionaries who have influenced
the government to donate 884 acres out of 1289 acres of the temple
land for their activities. The temple which had a passage of eight
entrances has been left with a narrow passage for the devotees to
enter the temple.
ARASAVALLI (AP)
At Arasavalli, which is practically the same as Srikakulam, the
headquarters of the northernmost district of Andhra, there is a temple
of Lord Surya. Temples dedicated to the worship of Lord Surya are rare
in our country.
Seventh Day Adventist Church has constructed a church right in front
of both the entrances. The number of devotees visiting the ancient
temple has come down by 85 per cent in just one year.
SRISAILAM (AP)
Srisailam is situated in the thick and inaccessible forests of the
Nallamalai hills, in the northeastern portion of the Nandikotkur taluk
of Kurnool District. It lies on a straight line west of Vijayawada. It
is 73 miles north of Nandyal railway station.
Puranas have described this abode of Mahadev as Pranta Jyotirlinga
which is surrounded by mountains. The Endowment Department has sold
over 1,600 acres of temple land surrounding the temple to various
Christian organisations including Tribal Gospel.
MANGALAGIRI (AP)
Mangalagiri is situated on the Bezwada-Guntur road and is about eight
miles by road from Vijayawada. On the top of the Mangalagiri hill
there is a famous temple called the Panakala Nrusimhaswamy temple,
which has been attracting pilgrims for a very long time, and from all
parts of the country. The nearest railway station is Mangalagiri on
the Guntur-Vijayawada line but to visit the temple, the better course
would be to get down either at Vijayawada or at Guntur and take a bus.
This anicent temple, which has the largest Gopuramâapproximatel y 14
floors, constructed by King Yudhishthra, has been under the attack
from Christian Missionaries. Due to poverty over 35 per cent of the
population are forced to convert to Christianity and others are
coerced to convert. Hindus are forced to visit the temple between 10
A.M and 1 P.M because of fear of attack from Christians who are
residing in large number at the foothills.
AHOBILAM (AP)
Ahobilam is located in Karnool District of Andhra Pradesh in the hills
of the eastern ghats, about 400 km northwest of Chennai. The temple
consists of nine shrines to Lord Narasimha located around a 35-km
circle in dense forest.
Not many know, Ahobilam is the same place where Lord Narasimha had
taken incarnation and had killed the demon Hiranayakashyap. Lot of
evidence are available even today - e.g.: (a) Place where Lord
Narasimha appeared, (b) Cave school of Prahalad, © Vascul (door
entrance) on which Lord killed the demon; (d) Palace remains of demon
Hiranayakashyap.
Unfortunately, no government of Andhra Pradesh took any interest to
develop or provide facilities to the oldest temple on this earth.
Poojas and aartis are conducted in only three temples daily and
annually once for the remaining nine temples which are in thick forest.
The negligence on the part of the government is helping Christian
missionaries to illegally occupy Temple land and they have slowly
taken up the task to destroy the ancient remains of Hindu temples.
In Tamil Nadu, H.H. Shankara-charya, whose status is not less than
that of the Pope for Hindus, was arrested on Diwali night. He was
humiliated, put in jail without bail and treated like a common
criminal. Such a barbaric action against the most revered leader of
the highly civilized and non-violent faith was tantamount to a serious
assault on Hindu religion and psyche. It is over two years now and
neither the case against him has been proven nor has he been exonerated.
The statue of E V Ramasamy Naicker - Periyar for the devotees of
Dravidianism has been allowed to be installed in front of the
Rajagopuram of Srirangam temple. He was a known Hindu-baiter and will
obviously hurt the sentiments of many. He was a man who made a life
out of mocking the Hindu sensibilities and sentiments. But he did that
in his individual capacity. By installing his statue, where Hindus
congregate in large numbers, the government seems to have given
institutionalised legitimacy to his acts.
In Kerala: The government hastily promulgated an ordinance on February
4, 2007 to disband the Travancore and Cochin Autonomous Devaswom
Boards and usurped its authority. The timing, intent and integrity of
the said ordinance was extremely suspicious and questionable
particularly in view of the impending session of the state Assembly
and the existence of a three man commission appointed by the High
Court for investigating the allegations of corruption.
In the current fiscal year, secular Kerala's treasury was filled with
Rs 268 crore solely by the revenue from temples under Travancore
Devaswom Board, Cochin Devaswom Board and Guruvayur Devaswom. How much
of the money has been used for temple maintenance and Hindu causes is
not revealed.
According to the latest reports, out of tens of thousands of temples
that have abnormally been rendered dysfunctional, only a few hundreds
are currently fully operational. As if that is not enough, under the
Kerala Land Reforms Act, 13,000 acres of Guruvayoor's land has been
reduced to 230 acres amounting to 98 per cent land loot. The revenue
of this Hindu entity is subject to misuse, even loot by the state
authorities. In order to appease the officially inspired Christian
protesters and promote their electoral base the `secularist'
politicians unilaterally abandoned the construction of railway line
from Kottayam to Erumeli to Hindu Hill shrine.
<i>(The writer can be contacted at Hindu Jagaran Forum (USA), e-mail
krishna.kb@verizon. net)</i>