Orissa: Temples in Orissa are taking sacredness a step too far. First they did not allow non-Hindus inside, then there was the time when a temple was closed, purified and pujas performed again when a couple of foreigners entered the premises.
Controversy resurfaced when a few Dalit women were assaulted and fined by the village Panchayat for entering a Jagannath temple.
The Dalit families in Keraragard village of Orissa, fail to understand why they have been denied entry into the local Jagannath temple for generations.
The upper caste people of the village allow them to sit at the entrance of the temples where they are given prasad at the end of prayers.
Last week, Sebati Muduli and a few other Dalit women decided to sneak into a temple to take a closer look at the idol. They dared to do this because no one was around.
However, as luck would have it, the temple priest caught them. The women were detained in the temple, assaulted by the priest and a few other upper class people and they had to pay a fine of Rs 1001.
The temple priest says that the money will be used to "cleanse and purify" the temple. The women were released only after the police intervened.
The fine and the assault has deeply shaken the Dalit women but what has hurt them more than that is the fact that they were jeered at and the term Dalit was used as an insult.
"The temple priest said how could you dare enter the temple being a Dalit. I want to ask him, does being a Dalit make us non-Hindu?" said Sebati Muduli.
When CNN-IBN spoke to the temple priest, Madan Mohan Rath, he said not allowing Dalits into the temple was an age-old custom and that this tradition must never be broken.
"Our forefathers set this custom and we are bound to follow it," he said.
The Collector in Kendrapara has ordered an enquiry into the incident but only after local reporters raised the issue. However, he refused to appear in front of the camera to comment on the matter.
The controversy about entry into temples has come up a lot recently. Just months ago, a Thai Princess and an American woman were not allowed to enter the famous Jagannath and Lingaraj temples in Orissa.
However, local authorities remain tightlipped and nobody wants to take a stand on the issue.
(With Prasant Swain and Aarti Nagraj in Orissa)
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