Dalit become prist in Bihar - October 8, 2007, India Today

[A new wave of reform is all set to change the religious order in a castiest Bihar with Dalits entering into priesthood - “We have Manusmriti that defines varna (caste system) but we also have a Constitution that ensures equal rights to all” ]

India Today
October 8, 2007

http://www.indiatoday.com/itoday/20071008/religion.html

The New Holy Order
By Farzand Ahmed

Depending on where you stand, it could be called divine intervention, or just another social gimmick. But in a state notorious for its caste wars and violence, it has the potential to change the old religious order. The latest trend, which can bridge the gap between the upper and the lower castes, is Dalitisation. And a beginning of sorts has been made by the Bihar State Board of Religious Trusts (BSBRT), led by its administrator Acharya Kishore Kunal, who recently made a Dalit, Janardan Manjhi, the chief priest of Ram Janaki temple at Paliganj, near Patna.

According to Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi—who attended the sangat-pangat (pray together and eat together) function on the occasion of Dalits being made pujaris in Hindu temples, which have from time immemorial been the fiefdom of the Brahmins, this campaign would help bridge the caste divide and create social harmony. This wasn’t the first time when a Dalit was chosen to head a prestigious temple. Manjhi is, in fact, fourth such Dalit to head a temple and his election was followed by a unique event in the state: the famous 300-year-old Khaki Baba Ram Janaki Thakurbari at Hilsa in Nalanda district came under the direct control of the Dalits with the help of bsbrt.

On August 10, the upper caste Hindus of the locality, with the support of Valmiki Das, a mahant, set up an all-Dalit Trust to break the Brahminical hold over society and religion. According to Kunal, a former IPS officer and a Sanskrit scholar and the chief campaigner for Dalitisation of temples in the state, a Paswan was elected as the head of the trust while its members belonged to Ravidas, Chamar, Rajak and other Dalit sub-castes.

These instances exemplify a shift in attitude in a castiest Bihar. That such a revolutionary step will ultimately lead to a revolution, is also evident from the fact that there hasn’t been any resistance from the local people, who not only enthusiastically participated in selecting and accepting Dalit priests, but also overwhelmingly attended the sangat-pangat, marking an end to untouchablility (at least at the local level). Now every week, all sections of people assemble at temples—headed by Dalits—for common prayers and a paath (recitation) of Hanuman Chalisa.

There are some parallels between the Dalitisation of religious centres in Bihar and an earlier movement in the 1920s, the Janeo Pahno Andolan (sacred thread movement). People belonging to lower castes weren’t allowed to wear janeo and in a show of defiance, the Yadavs had launched this movement. They even started using ‘Singh’ as part of their surname in a mark of protest but this didn’t last long as they faced stiff resistance from the upper castes, who feared this move would be used by the lower castes to climb the socio-economic ladder. There were clashes between the upper and the lower castes, which took a violent turn and eventually the movement was abandoned. But sociologists feel there’s a greater acceptance to the present move, which marks a noticeable change in the feudal mindset. Change in the attitudes of people might just change the face of society in Bihar, they believe.

Dalitisation is also being seen as a unique way of democratising trusts and temples as well as a cleansing drive to rid these religious bodies of goondas and land-grabbers. Last year, when Kunal was appointed the administrator of BSBRT, he had discovered that about 90 per cent of the temples were directly or indirectly under the control of criminals. He spent a year trying to bring them out of the clutches of musclemen. Having done that, he shifted his attention to the Dalitisation movement.

In fact, the process had started way back in the early ’80s when Kunal got involved with the Mahavir temple near Patna railway station. He first helped in the building of the temple through shramdan (voluntary labour). On June 30, 1993, as the secretary of Mahavir Mandir, he took a revolutionary step by installing a Dalit priest, Phalhari Suryavanshi Das from Ayodhya, as its head.

His move was accompanied by a change in political stance in the state—chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s social justice campaign targeting the exploitative nature of the Brahmins was at its peak then. The three highly respected priests—Ramchandra Paramahans, Mahant Avidhyanath of Baba Gorakhnath Dham and Mahant Avadh Kishore Das had put a seal of their approval by supervising the ceremony. Lalu had even gone a step ahead and declared senior Dalit leader Ramai Ram as ‘Shankaracharya’. This honour, bestowed on a Dalit leader, worked in Kunal’s favour and, in turn, Ram has now promised full support to his campaign. “I welcome and support his (Kunal’s) efforts as it will have a positive impact on the society,” he says.

However, Kunal’s move faced opposition from many quarters. Angered by the Dalitisation of religious places, Shankaracharya of Puri Nishchalan-and had refused to meet him during the annual Magh Mela in 2004. But Kunal was determined to prove through the vedas, puranas, scriptures and ancient historical text as per Hindu philosophy that Sudras or Dalits always occupied a respectable position in society.

After studying and researching the subject for 20 years, Kunal has now come out with the first volume of his book Dalit Deva Bhava. This 700-page tome, punctuated with excerpts from Sanskrit texts, breaks many a myth about the caste factor. Kunal also rejects the theory that Sudras had no right to hear or recite the puranas or the Gayatri Mantra. He proves that tradition was twisted by the Brahminical and feudal sections of society for their own convenience and gain control over Hindu society. “We are trying to create awareness that all restrictions have been imposed without any religious sanction,” says Kunal. However, he clarifies, “We don’t take a purohit’s work from a Dalit pujari if he is not well-versed with the Sanskrit language. But nobody is barred from performing the rituals.”

Kunal’s painstaking research also reveals that, contrary to popular belief, all famous temples in the country—Balaji at Tirupati, Jagannath at Puri, Lingaraj at Bhubaneswar and Ranganath at Srirangam in Tamil Nadu—had been associated with Dalits but changes in the social structure subsequently had led to a change in the religious hierarchy. “We have Manusmriti that defines varna (caste system) but we also have a Constitution that ensures equal rights to all,” he reiterates. Supporting Kunal’s research, anthropologist Dr Sachchindra Narayan says Dalit is not a caste in itself but it has often been used in political parlance without its scientific basis being understood. “These words are conveniently used by people for political gains, but society gets nothing in return. So what is happening is a much-needed and long-awaited part of the cycle of social change. And it is better if people take this change in their stride.”