Memoranda for Submission to the Chief Ministers of the Two Telugu States.

Hinduism

Liberate The Temples From Government Administration & Control

Dt:  22/6/16

Liberate The Temples From Government Administration & Control

Dr T.H.Chowdary*

The most adverse discrimination  that Hindus are  put to  in the  South Indian states, especially  in the Telugu states  ( Andhra Pradesh & Telangana) from the time of the  British rule is keeping Hindus’ temples  under the control and management of governments while  the Churches of Christians and Mosques of Muslims are left entirely  free of government involvement so that they can  promote,  propagate and defend their religion  and in fact even agitate for special rights and  privileges and seek political patronage while  the Hindu  temples and therefore Hindus are subjected to discrimination. The following are some of the   highlights  of the adverse discrimination.    

·         The Executive Officers of  temples  and  Trust Boards  are appointed  in the  discretion of the  Chief Minister.  He could be a non-Hindu just as it happened several  times in Andhra Pradesh. The ruling party  is  nominating  its beneficiaries   to the  TTD and to the  Trust Boards  without  hardly any one of them being specially qualified to be a trustee of the  Hindu temple.

·         Non-Hindus in fact, those who have  converted to a proselytising religion but  are keeping that fact un-mentioned in the government records are  appointed as Executive Officers (EO). These are  colluding  with non- Hindus to alienate  properties, finances and  other assets  of   Hindus temples .

·         About 20% of employees of the Endowment Department are not Hindus. They are converts to other religions  but keeping  that un-recorded for government. These functionaries are also    colluding  in alienation of the  properties, assets and resources of the temples  for the benefits  of  proselytising  religions and converts to them.

·         While  the functionaries of the  Churches (Pastors and  Bishops etc) and Imams  (Moulvis, Mullas and Moulanas) are  free  to talk politics and also exhort their  flocks to  vote for certain parties  and candidates and  surely  against  persons who   are  devoted to  the promotion, propagation  and defence of  Hinduism,   the Archakas and Executives and other employees of the Endowment department and the  TTD are   prevented  from seeking  political  support for the  defence of   Hinduism and  Sanatan dharma from the  conversion enterprises of other religions.

·         A considerable  % of the   offerings ( cash and kind) that  Hindu devotees  are making to the temples  are   taken into a Common Good Fund. The Chief Minister  is allocating this for various  activities entirely  in his discretion. This Chief Minister  could be  ( in fact were Christians ) a non-Hindu as  they were several times in Andhra Pradesh handling Hindu devotees’ money  for  various purposes  in his discretion.

·         The trustees to several Boards including the   TTD  had been some times atheists,   anti-Hindus having Hindu  names   black marketers, black money holders but all  supporters of the ruling party, especially the Chief Minister.

·         While  the resources of the non-Hindu religions could be used and are being  used to run schools and  hospitals and seminaries, whereat  the non-Hindus are inveigled  and are indoctrinated for conversion, the few educational institutions supported by the  TTD and the Endowment Department are required to be secular as they are managed by governments. 

·         The greatest peril to which  Hindu dharma is exposed is  conversion  of its hardly informed wrongly educated and indigent  sections  of Hinduism. While Churches & Mosques are actively and aggressively engaged in reaping harvests of Hindus to their religion, the Trust Boards and  TTD are organising any effective defence or resistance to  aggressive conversion activity.   Christian through their Churches and  Muslims through their wakfs are  the largest holders of  land, all of which had been taken away  by the rulers - the British and  Muslims . The resources from those properties are used exclusively for the benefit of the people of those faith. There are innumerable  instance of Hindu  temple lands being  gifted away  very often  at throw away prices  for non-Hindu uses.

·         While the functionaries of other religions are paid well (even by “secular” government). The Archakas   in the temples are paid poorly.  Many of them are not provided housing  by using the  temple  resources. No wonder the  children of the Archakas do not want to  be in that profession and many a temples are getting depleted of Archakas, while their  counter parts are  quite well provided  by their religious  institutions .

2. While the  governments are  using  tax payers monies for subsidising  the pilgrimages  of Muslims & Christians, the Hindu devotees are having to pay for their   travel and buy tickets quite  often to see their gods and offer prayers.

3. Government is,  at the cost of   tax payers  building Urdu  Ghars, Shadi  Khanas,  Urdu  Academies and  Haj Houses and  Christians Ghars.  No such institutions and  buildings are built for Hindus from government funds.

4. It may be noted that  it is not  that these tempest  are have come under government control and management after independence in 1947.  They  went under control of governments when the  British were ruling India. They had every reason to be inimical to Hindus  as Hindus were  the main nationalist forces agitating for independence.

5.  To end the  adverse discrimination it is absolutely necessary that the Hindu temples are  liberated from government  control and administration.  Is it not hateful and insufferable that only temples with handsome  income are  taken over  by the government and the  rest are  left to fend for themselves ? Since many of the  latter  variety can’t afford Archakas  and the observance of  Hindu  rituals, they are getting  closed, non-functional.  Any temple  built by private effort gets to have  enough income  by way of Hindu  offerings, the government descends upon  it like a vulture and  takes it over .

6. Hindus and their  associations must launch a Temple Liberation Movement and  call upon political parties to support this demand in their  manifestos, by their legislators. Steps government should  be asked to immediately take are:

a)       Declare government’s intention to legislate disengagement of  government  from administration control and  management of temples  within three years and  invite Hindus to suggest to whom the   temples  should be handed over  and suggest what law should be legislated for a proper structure  of the  contemplated Hindu body which would  oversee the  functioning of  the  temples ( eg: The Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandhak Act)

b)      Till such a body emerges, the qualifications & selection of  persons to the  Trust Boards of temples  should  be not arbitrary but according to well publicised rules and  transparent . A note in this regard is at Annex.

c)      Government should direct the TTD and the Endowment Department to study and  implement the  programmes suggested in Annex-2; all aimed at

                                i.            defence of Hindu Dharma, education of Hindus in its fundamentals

                              ii.            its superiority over Abrahamic religions – Christianity ,Islam an d Marxism

                            iii.            Manava seva through vidya and vaidyam

                            iv.            Assisted pilgrimages of Dalits, Girijans and poor and

                              v.            Planting of Devalayas devoted to deities the vulnerable  Hindus request and enable and equip them to maintain  and functionalise the temples.

                            vi.            Dare the government to take over the  administration, management and  control of Churches and mosques to bring about  equal treatment of all religions.

  "If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

-Winston Churchill

First they came for the  Jews and I did not speak out, because I was not  a Jew

Then they came for the communists, I did not speak out because  I was not a communist

Then they  came  for the  Trade Unionists, I did  not speak out  because I was not a Trade Unionist

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me .

-German Lutheran Pastor,  Martin Niemoller

 Who perished in Auschewitz

END

Annex:1

Dt:  5/8/14

Open letter to the Chief Ministers of  Telangana & Andhra Pradesh

Who should be in the  TTD and other Trust Boards in the  Telugu States

Dr T.H.Chowdary*

As never before Hindu dharma is under attack and  aggression by  religions  of foreign  origin which have as their mission  the conversion of all  Hindus to their faiths.  Hindu dharma  has a universal  message- there is only one  God  who maybe called by any name, may be   conceived in any form, maybe  worshiped in any manner,  he has  no chosen  people  and no despised  people;  everyone  must  lead a moral and ethical  life in harmony with all of God’s creation and so  conduce to  social  good and  harmony.    It is   tolerant of all   sincerely held  faiths and  ways of worship and  beliefs. It exhorts that all should live in mutual respect and harmony and should strive together and not hate any one.  It is the  only belief system that is inclusive  of all and  is in conformity with nature which has  tremendous diversity and yet  obeys one universal  law of coexistence and evolution. 

2. It is therefore necessary that  the  Hindu dharma should be  preserved and protected  from  aggressions of those who are mutually opposed to one another and together  are opposed  to  Hindu dharma believing, asserting and  wishing to  impose their  religion on all the  world’s population.  While Hindu Dharma promotes peaceful, co-operative, co-existence, the foreign-origin religions are  divisive ( believers and  non-believer; saved and sinners).  The obligation imposed by their respective  Gods to  convert all others, is generative of intolerance, hatred and strife.   Every person born in Hindu Dharma families  must be made aware of the  fundamental difference between his Hindu Dharma on the one hand  and  the predatory religions on the other.  

3. The responsibility for   protecting the dharma, propagating it and instilling it  in people   rests with  the temple-  centric organisations. In A.P and Telengana   all the Hindu temples   which are most  popular with the  people,  are  controlled and managed by  governments  through  the  TTD Board and the Endowment departments. This is in glaring contrast to the places of worship  namely Churches & Mosques and wakfs of  Christians & Muslims respectively, scrupulously kept outside the  control and  management of the governments.  The government management disables the functionaries of the  Endowment  departments & the  TTD  from effective defense of the  Hindu dharma and   allows not such programs  and projects  they must undertake in order to keep people   within the  Hindu dharma .    Also the   Pujaris or Archakas are unequal for the task of  propounding and   defending  the Hindu dharma against the   criticisms and onslaughts  of foreign  origin religions . The  officials like Executive Officers  and other functionaries  in the   TTD as well as the Endowment  Department are government servants,  required  to be  “secular” unlike Pastors and Bishops and Arch Bishops in Christianity  and Imams, Maulvis and Mullahs and Mauzins in Islam, who are free and  are indeed tasked to publicly and  dutifully promote and propagate their  religions by canvassing political and  government support for their  religions and their people.  

4. That Hinduism and Hindus are being adversely discriminated is clear from a few facts like the government -owned  Christian  Minority Finance Corporation financing the  construction  of Churches and subsidising   Christians’  pilgrimages to Jerusalem;   governments  giving land and funds for  construction of Haj House and  subsiding Muslims pilgrimages (Rs.1000cr per year to Mecca), construction of Urdu Ghars and Shadi Khanas etc. In contrast, Hindus  have to pay for themselves  to go to  Tirumala ,  Amaranth, Manasarovar or Kasi and  worse still, they  have to buy  tickets to see their God.

5. The  above facts are mentioned   to bring out   the necessity of commitment and mission   into members of the  TTD Board and  Trustees of various  temples.  Their primary and immediate  task is to protect  Hindu dharma  from  subversion and aggression  of the predatory religions. It is therefore  necessary that people who are  aware of the  present danger and harm to Hindu dharma and who are determined to save it  shall be in the  TTD Board and in the  Boards of Trustees of  temples .

6. Who should not be  in the   Boards :

·         People in active  politics  or MLAs  and MPs  or those  party men who have not been given  any office of profit or prominence by the  ruling or any party should not be  in these Boards.     

·         People who don’t have  faith in Hindu dharma shall not be in these Boards.

·         People who are not aware of the  essentials of Hindu dharma and do not  practise it  and describe themselves as “secularists” and  atheists and money bags who are  after positions of power an d influence should not be in these Boards

7. Who should be in these Boards

·         Well informed, educated, knowledgeable persons,  determined  to protect the  Hindu dharma and to  promote it.

·         People who are known  to be philanthropists  and patronise Hindu institutions

·         People  well versed  in   Hindu literature, culture, history and life of the  Hindu peoples.

·         Persons who have knowledge of the  working of public institutions, handling public funds

·         Most importantly men of  high integrity,  character and  dedication

8. We request that the Chief Ministers of   Andhra Pradesh and Telengana  not to rush to nominating picked up people to the  TTD Board  and Trust Boards of various temples in  the state. It would be a good practice if  names of those whom the government wants  to nominate to these Boards, are publicised and public comments are invited;  they are  taken into consideration  and then only persons are nominated to the  Boards of TTD and Temples under the  Endowment Commissioner appointed . (915 words)

END

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