Chennai: The latest incident of discrimination against Dalits by caste Hindus has been reported in a tiny village in Nagapattinam district, where two communities are locked in a battle over conduct of rituals in Badra Kaliamman temple.
After accusations against each other, Dalits dropped a bombshell threatening to embrace Islam if discrimination against them continued.
A worried district administration intervened and persuaded them to drop their plans of conversion and arranged peace talks between the two communities.
Since differences persisted and Dalits have decided to move the Madras high court following failure of talks mediated by Handlooms Minister O.S. Manian, the district administration on Saturday temporarily put off the five-day festival.
It all started when Dalits of Pazhangkallimedu demanded they be allowed to conduct rituals inside the temple like members of any other community during the festival, but it was rejected by caste Hindus.
Dalits also demanded that they should be allowed to conduct rituals for one full day during the temple festival. Miffed at their demands not being met, they threatened to convert to Islam, but after much persuasion from district administration they withdrew their move and stuck to their demand.
As the controversy raged, the Tamil Nadu Tawheed Jamat and Hindu Makkal Katchi have launched barbs against each other. While the Jamaat says they never forced anyone to convert, Hindu Munnani leaders said only at the instigation of the Jamaat, Dalits issued the threat.
“Conversion is the pet project of the Hindutva forces. We never indulge in conversion. Even when villagers wanted to convert to Islam, we told them it is not possible just like that. We first gave them Quran and asked them to read it before they take any decision. The allegations against us are baseless,” Mohammad Yusuf of the Jamaat told Deccan Chronicle.
However, Arjun Sampath of Hindu Munnani blames VCK of instigating Dalits and asking them to make fresh demands about the temple festival. “The VCK is making it a prestige and ego issue without any logic. For long, people of the village are doing the rituals and now Dalits want the rituals to be conducted among caste lines. But we are not preventing anyone from entering the temple,” he said.
Hindu Makkal Katchi general secretary Rama Ravikumar participated in Saturday’s peace meeting and expressed the outfit’s opinion.
Aadi fest popular in 800-yr-old shrine
Badra Kaliamman Temple, which is at the centre of a controversy, is 800 years old and the Aadi festival is very famous.
The festival is conducted in the last week of Tamil month ‘Aadi’. The temple is under the control of Hindus Religious and Charitable Endowments department since 1976.
For the past few decades, the local temple administration has been conducting the first two days of the festivals and the locals would sponsor the next three days. Officials said there has been no bar on Dalits entering the temple.
