Indian Court Orders State To Ensure Hindu Dalits’ Temple Entry
Dalit women in India. Photo Credit: Swasti Desai, Wikipedia Commons
By UCA News
The High Court of southern Tamil Nadu has ordered the state government to ensure that socially poor Dalit people can enter Hindu temples, following a complaint against a temple violating Dalits’ right to worship.
The Madras High Court on July 17 also ordered the accused temple administration to permit Dalit Hindus–who are outside the four-tier Hindu caste system and formerly considered untouchable–to offer prayers in the temple.
The state government must ensure that “no law-and-order problem is created” in allowing the Dalit people to enter the temple, the court said, adding that denying them entry violates a state law–the Tamil Nadu Temple Entry Authorization Act, 1947.
The law makes it clear that “every Hindu, irrespective of the caste or sect to which he belongs, shall be entitled to enter any Hindu temple and offer worship therein… irrespective of the caste or community of the devotees,” said the state’s top court.
The court order was issued in response to a complaint filed by Venkatesan, who goes by one name, seeking court direction to allow his community members to enter the Arulmigu Puthukudi Ayyanar Temple in Ariyalur district and participate in ritual worship, including the temple’s car festival.
Venkatesan’s Hindu Dalit community, living near the temple, is traditionally barred from entering the temple and taking part in its festival, scheduled this year from July 16 to 31.
The court asked the head of the district police to ensure that “all classes of Hindus are permitted to enter the temple and participate in the festival.”
Church people in the state welcomed the order as progressive and aimed at eliminating caste discrimination, still prevalent in Indian society.
“The judgment is commendable not only for its legal soundness but also for its moral clarity. It calls attention to the spirit of a secular and inclusive India,” said Jesuit Father A. Santhanam, practicing law in the state, including in High Court.
“The decision is a judicial reminder that the rule of law must be an active agent in dismantling centuries-old oppressive practices,” the priest told UCA News on July 18.
The court has also made it clear, “access to spiritual spaces must be governed by law and justice, not prejudice or tradition”, he added.
He said socio-political leaders, who often present themselves as champions of Hindu interests, stay silent or evasive when it comes to caste-based discrimination to avoid offending their own caste members.
Mary John, president of the Dalit Christian Liberation Movement, termed the verdict a “very important and necessary order to wipe out the caste discrimination from religious worship places”.
He told UCA News on July 17 that such discrimination can be eliminated “only when the state strictly implements the law in letter and spirit.
Ganapragasam Mathew, leader of a Dalit Christian Coalition in Tamil Nadu, said that various forms of discrimination against Dalit people persist within Christian churches.
They include separate seating arrangements for Dalits in churches, segregating them in cemeteries, and excluding them from church festivals.
UCA News
The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News, UCAN) is the leading independent Catholic news source in Asia. A network of journalists and editors that spans East, South and Southeast Asia, UCA News has for four decades aimed to provide the most accurate and up-to-date news, feature, commentary and analysis, and multimedia content on social, political and religious developments that relate or are of interest to the Catholic Church in Asia.
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