Dalits fume over fine on their women for entering temple in Karnataka The Scheduled Castes community at Sigaranahalli in Holenarsipur taluk is furious after the ‘upper caste’ people of the village imposed a penalty on four Dalit women for entering a temple. The women have refused to pay the penalty arguing that they too have rights to enter the temple as they contribute money to organise its festival. When The Hindu visited the village on Sunday, Thayamma, in her late 50s, came down heavily on the ‘upper castes’ for questioning her entry into the Sri Basaveshwara Temple, constructed in 2001. It was on August 31 that the four women entered the temple for a special puja held on behalf of Sri Basaveshwara Stree Shakti Sangha, a self-help group consisting of 20 members. “There were about nine women from the Vokkaliga community and four from Dalit families. Devaraja, a Vokkaliga, raised his voice opposing our entry into the temple. He said SCs are not allowed in the temple. I questioned him. He attempted to beat one of us,” said Thayamma, a former member of the Hariharpur Gram Panchayat. The next day, the ‘upper caste’ people held a meeting and resolved to impose a penalty of Rs. 1,000 on the self-help group, besides insisting that the sangha hold rituals meant for 'purification' of the temple, arguing that it had lost its 'sanctity' with the entry of the SC women. Community hall Sigaranahalli is about 2-km away from Haradanahalli, the native place of the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda. A few years ago, a community hall was built here by the Hassan Zilla Panchayat. Mr. Deve Gowda also contributed funds from his MP Local Area Development Fund. But now, the community hall has been converted into Vokkaliga Bhavan, restricting the entry of Dalits. Thayamma recalled that she was denied permission to organise her daughter’s marriage in the community hall in 2001. “They did not handover the keys of the hall, though they had earlier agreed to rent it out. It was a tough time for me. I had to organise the marriage outside my house,” she said. Padmamma, another woman in the Scheduled Castes colony, said last year a teenage boy, who had gone inside the community hall to have food at a function organised by the ‘upper caste’ people, was driven out mercilessly. “The hall was built using government funds. We Dalits do not have an alternative place to hold our programmes. We need the right to enter community hall,” she added. When The Hindu brought the issue to the notice of N.R. Purushottam, district social welfare officer, said restricting the entry of Dalits into a temple or a community hall amounts to violation of laws. “I will get details from the people concerned and take appropriate action,” he said. http://m.thehindu.com/news/national/...cle7622311.ece
Even as a brahmin I have to say this is ridiculous. Hopefully the Dalits will win this battle. Maybe they can sue the temple because caste is officially banned in India.
Cannot believe this Foreign & Communist Sponsored ANTI -Hindu national newspaper THE HINDU. They would have blown this news out of proportion to showcase the world as "THIS is Modi India". Off-late there are too many atrocity literature/article being published by these media crooks( likes of THE HINDU, TOI, Indian Express, NDTV etc) But at the same time i am against this caste system in Hindu system & i sincerely hope there will be no caste barrier in Hindu system one day.
I am also a Brahmin and I too condemn this ridiculous act. Caste is officially banned in India? When did that happen? If caste is officially banned, then why there's Reservation System still active and flourishing in govt. sector?
@Vishwarupa @DingDong Lets not ponder on the choice of media of OP or shoot the messenger. This kind of fucked up things still happen in rural areas though the frequency of such incidents are going down greatly. The turds who think that penalizing or banning someone from entering temple should have their ass handed to them. Harijan act is very difficult to shake off.
He meant to say caste based discrimination, if not conducted by the Govt. itself, is illegal on India. No individual or institution, except the Govt., is allowed to show bias based on caste or religion.
You know you can google some of this stuff yourself. Not only is it officially BANNED, it's right in the constitution. The reason given for the reservation system is officially a loop hole, something like "and those people traditionally disadvantaged by caste"
Honestly I'm not against the caste system in the slightest, just caste based discrimination. Caste based discrimination is a construct of Indian society not of Hinduism itself. Further the "caste" being discriminated against most of the time, isn't even a caste. Technically dalits are not a caste, but people without a caste. Usually the children of people who's ancestors were kicked out of their castes for crimes such a murder. There is absolutely nothing with recognizing a caste or appreciating your religion, history or your culture. Discrimination is wrong in every form, but most of what is called "caste based discrimination" is nothing more than what the west has in abundance and calls "class based discrimination". In almost every country of the world the very poor are discriminated against. To be fair since the definition of an "untouchable" is a person without a caste, technically most of my friends here in the USA, almost all goras are all untouchables but I treat them great.
Agreed brother i am also against caste system but these hypocrite media shows only one side of the story majority of the times. Why is media not showing the other part like you said frequency of such incidence is rare & going down greatly. anyways i am sure moving forward India will move away from castiesm.
Kick the lower backs of such Anti Hindu people. The so called 'upper caste' of the village are definitely the strong land owning community and not some poor Brahmin! These things do occur and I'm feeling elated that Dalit women are fighting back! Caste system which solidified during medieval times is the biggest bane for Hindus!
It is almost never Brahmins (or other Higher Caste) vs Dalits, always OBC vs Dalits. People who stopped Hindus from entering a Temple cannot be real Hindus. Sangh Parivar must take care of such people who are trying to hurt the interest of the Hindu community.
It seems you do not know too know too much about India. Dalits were people who lived outside the traditional caste system. It had nothing to do with crimes against the society. Dalits also include tribals. So did all tribes commit crimes against the society. The Dalits include people like mochis,sweepers,chamars(cobblers),tribals etc. The discrimination against them is due to the concept of pollution associated with their work. Generally, SC and the dalit term are synonymous.However not all SCs are dalits. A case in point would be that of Koch Rajbongshis of Bengal who ruled Cooch Behar. The Koch kingdom consisted of a group that is now classified as SCs. You should learn a bit more about dalits before commenting. A little learning is a dangerous thing. An untouchable is a person who had to do menial jobs. Also you should know that caste system is not banned in India. It is the discrimination against lower castes that is banned. The prevention of atrocities against SC/STs are not allowed as per the Indian Constitution. To help the disadvantaged Dalits who are usually very poor they are given reservations by the GOI. Also class system is not a proper analogy that can explain the caste system of India. During British rule everyone in India,including Brahmins were poor. Check out the links below. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poona_Pact @Mad Indian You might want to explain Sylex a few more things.
don't recall where, but had read some few weeks back that a group of villagers (in Haryana i guess) had converted to Islam en masse, due to injustice at the hands of the law regarding some old case (but that's a different thing that their caste(s) won't leave them even if they change lanes).
Dude I know nothing about castes and caste relations. I have no idea what you want me to explain. One thing I can say however is that this evil will happen till India is urbanised. Do you heat such stories in the towns or cities? We actually missed a great opportunity to get rid of it during our socialist era. Does not matter, now at least by rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, hopefully we can end castist evil in two decades
So much fail here I don't know where to begin. For starters try to work on being less pompous and arrogant. Especially when you are wrong on a great many things. 1. I didn't say all casteless were criminals, I said some of their ancestors were kicked out of their castes for crimes such as murder. Obviously it includes others like tribals, I just gave the example that most westerners are basically, technically untouchables too. 2. When you give the examples of mochis and cobblers, that's the current generation, who knows what their great great grand father did 100's of years ago. 3. I didn't mention the SC, your childish comments about learning and knowledge being a dangerous thing come across as some little kid who wants to impress his papa. 4. Discrimination based on caste is illegal under Article 15, but "India's constitution outlawed castes in 1950" as well. 5. Absolutely absurd to claim that everyone was poor under the British, obviously not true. I'm pretty sure there aren't a whole lot of millionaire untouchables driving around in their Mercedes being heavily discriminated against. Caste based discrimination in India is SIMILAR and not exactly the same as, CLASS based discrimination against the very poor in most nations. Dalits DO tend to be on average poorer than most other groups. 6. Your links are just general or minor point links and do not support your comments. In America if you claim the homeless are a caste, suddenly you can make a case for all sorts of caste based discrimination in America. Churches install sprinkler systems to chase them off from sitting in front of them, apartments in some places have different entrances for rent-controlled and full paying tenants, there all all sorts of rules to kick them out of public places for making the slightest mistake, here if they fall asleep even more a moment in a library, security promptly kicks them out of the building, it is made clear they are not welcome in many places. The problem is not with the caste system, it is with society. Nothing in Hinduism ever says "ban dalits from temples, don't let them sit next to you on a bus." If everyone dropped castes, most of these people would still be discriminated against for being the very poor.
Just 2 points. 1.Read the Constitution and please show which clause abolishes caste system. Only caste based discrimination has been outlawed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_India http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/welcome.html 2.Please go through my previous post again and again, till you understand it.
Article 17 of the Indian constitution bands Untouchability Article 18 Bans all titles not given by the government or an educational system, which ends all castes officially. -It's not that it's hard to understand, it's just that it has such little worth understanding.
What the hell is ST/SC??? They are human for god sake. Stop calling them backward in the first place. The head of the temple should be sacked.
