Please
forward this to ALL Hindus ,,,all over the world''
It's time we realize our
culture is being wiped away!!!
If you care forward
this....IF NOT Delete!!!!!
..
Why are we Hindus taking all this lying
down. Why is there an IAS officer as head of very temple. Can
they dare go to a Masjid or a church? Please see the article and decide
for yourself.
Foreign writer opens our eyes.
The Hindu Religious and Charitable
Endowment Act of 1951 allows State Governments and politicians to
take over thousands of Hindu Temples and maintain complete control over
them and their properties. It is claimed that they can sell the temple
assets and properties and use the money in any way they
choose.
A charge has been made not by any Temple
authority, but by a foreign writer, Stephen Knapp in a book (Crimes
Against India and the Need to Protect Ancient Vedic Tradition) published
in the United States that makes shocking reading.
Hundreds of temples in centuries past
have been built in India by devout rulers and the donations given to them
by devotees have been used for the benefit of the (other) people. If,
presently, money collected has ever been misused (and that word needs to
be defined),
it is for the devotees to protest and not
for any government to interfere. This letter is what has been
happening currently under an intrusive law.
It would seem, for instance, that under a
Temple Empowerment Act, about 43,000 temples in Andhra Pradesh have
come under government control and only 18 per cent of the revenue of
these temples have been returned for temple purposes, the remaining 82
per cent being used for purposes unstated.
Apparently even the world famous Tirumala
Tirupati Temple has not been spared. According to Knapp, the temple
collects over Rs 3,100 crores every year and the State Government has not
denied the charge that as much as 85 per cent of this is transferred to
the State Exchequer, much of which goes to causes that are not
connected with the Hindu community. Was it for that reason that
devotees make their offering to the temples? Another charge that has been
made is that the Andhra Government has also allowed the demolition of at
least ten temples for the construction of a golf course. Imagine the
outcry
writes Knapp, if ten mosques had been
demolished.
It would seem that in Karanataka, Rs. 79
crores were collected from about two lakh temples and from that, temples
received Rs seven crores for their maintenance, Muslim madrassahs and Haj
subsidy were given Rs. 59 crore and churches about Rs 13 crore. Very
generous of the government.
Because of this, Knapp writes, 25 per
cent of the two lakh temples or about 50,000 temples in Karnataka will be
closed down for lack of resources, and he adds: The only way the
government can continue to do this is because people have not stood up
enough to stop it.
Knapp then refers to Kerala where, he
says, funds from the Guruvayur Temple are diverted to other government
projects denying improvement to 45 Hindu temples. Land belonging to the
Ayyappa Temple, apparently has been grabbed and Church encroaches are
occupying huge areas of forest land, running into thousands of acres,
near Sabarimala.
A charge is made that the Communist state
government of Kerala wants to pass an Ordinance to disband the Travancore
& Cochin Autonomous Devaswom Boards (TCDBs) and take over their
limited independent authority of 1,800 Hindu temples. If what the author
says is true, even the Maharashtra Government wants to take over
some 450,000 temples in the state which would supply a huge amount
of revenue to correct the states bankrupt conditions
And to top it all, Knapp says that in
Orissa, the state government intends to sell over 70,000 acres of
endowment lands from the Jagannath Temple, the proceeds of which would
solve a huge financial crunch brought about by its own mismanagement of
temple assets.
Says Knapp: Why such occurrences are so
often not known is that the Indian media, especially the English
television and press, are often anti-Hindu in their approach, and thus
not inclined to give much coverage, and certainly no sympathy, for
anything that may affect the Hindu community. Therefore, such government
action that play against
the Hindu community go on without much or
any attention attracted to them.
Knapp obviously is on record. If the
facts produced by him are incorrect, it is up to the government to say
so. It is quite possible that some individuals might have set up temples
to deal with lucrative earnings. But that, surely, is none of the
governments business?
Instead of taking over all earnings, the
government surely can appoint local committees to look into temple
affairs so that the amount discovered is fairly used for the public
good?
Says Knapp: Nowhere in the free,
democratic world are the religious institutions managed, maligned
and controlled by the government, thus denying the religious freedom of
the people of the country. But it is happening in India. Government
officials have taken control of Hindu temples because they smell money in
them, they recognise the indifference of Hindus, they are aware of the
unlimited patience and tolerance of Hindus, they also know that it
is not in the blood of Hindus to go to the streets to demonstrate,
destroy property, threaten, loot, harm and kill
Many Hindus are sitting and watching the
demise of their culture. They need to express their views loud
and clear Knapp obviously does not know that should they do so, they
would be damned as communalists. But it is time some one asked
the Government to lay down all the facts on the table so that the
public would know what is happening behind
its back. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is
not secularism. And temples are not for looting, under any name. One
thought that Mohammad of Ghazni has long been dead.
HARD REALITIES.........
Hinduism remains the most attacked and
under siege of all the major world religions. This is in spite of the
fact that Hinduism is the most tolerant, pluralistic and synthetic of the
world's major religions.
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