Dalit Youths Beaten for Entering Temple in TamilNadu Village

Villupuram: As the Vaikom Satyagrah of Kerala celebrates its 100th year, the Dalits in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu are still struggling to enter the temple of their village.

According to media reports, an activist Kathiravan tried to enter the Shri Dharmaraja Draupati Amman temple on the ninth day of the annual festival in Tamil Nadu along with his brother but was brutally beaten.

The Mooknayak spoke with Kathir, who runs an NGO named Evidence . He said, “I spoke to the victim who was assaulted by dominant caste people on Friday for trying to enter the temple. He told me that the police have still not registered an FIR or arrested the accused."

Hindus rigid in their opposition to temple entry

In another incident, Dalit families in Melpathi village were restricted from entering the temple, which is administered by the state government’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department. Interestingly, these Dalits make regular donations to the temple and were allowed entry when the district collector visited the village six months ago on the occasion of the re-instatement of the deity Dharmaraja.

Local media reports suggest that a peace meeting was held between representatives from both sides at an office in Villupuram on Saturday. However, the meeting failed to resolve the issue as the caste Hindu representatives were adamant on their stance of not allowing the Dalits inside the temple.

Recent breakthroughs

There have been some positive developments recently regarding temple entry for Dalits. In December 2022, when Dalit residents of Tamil Nadu were surprised to find excrement in their water tank, various authorities, including several cabinet ministers, visited them. When Collector Kavitha Ramu visited the village, she discovered a wider practice of untouchability in the form of the ‘two-tumbler system' and temple entry. Ramu immediately took action, facilitating the entry of Dalits inside the village temple and arresting the owner of the shop that enforced the two-tumbler system.

In another incident earlier this year, in January, members of the Dalit community in Thenmudiyanur village of Tiruvannamalai district entered the Mariyammam temple for the first time in 80 years when they discovered that the temple is administered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department of the state government. However, the entry could only be facilitated after around 300 police officers were deployed, as the caste Hindus continued to oppose the entry of Dalits into the temple.

The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department of the state government manages and controls the administration of temples within the state. The Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act XXII f 1959 governs 36,425 temples and 56 mutts or religious orders.

It is illegal to prevent anyone from entering the temples on the basis of caste, creed, or gender. However, the stranglehold of untouchability in rural areas of Tamil Nadu has prevented Dalits from accessing the temples, and they face massive resistance when they attempt to defy this tradition.