Kerala – Stopping RSS Programme Indicates Another Attempt to Ban on RSS

The latest circular by Kerala Devaswome Board directing Hindu temples not to allow any RSS or any other Hindu organisation’s functions is patently anti-Hindu. Their claim that a temple is only for praying and no other activity is allowed shows the total ignorance of the board appointed by a Communist government that considers religion as opium of the masses, that is against anti-religion, especially anti-Hindu.


The claim that a Hindu temple should only be used for prayers and rituals goes against the hoary traditions of Hindu mandirs (the correct term is mandir) since time immemorial. They were centres of learning, pathashalas, centres for nurturing various art forms, industry and commerce. Go to any ancient living temple town and wonder how it has survived all the vagaries of recessions; they have not died despite 1000 of years of pillage. Islamist invaders, British and secularists after independence tried to destroy the strength and importance of temples by controlling them, misusing their funds, and stopping all the activities that made temples the centres of economy and culture. The secularists followed the British to control temples and delink them from society and social good. Thus, they were able to weaken Hindu dharma.

No Devaswome boards of any state in India can claim to protect temples or the sanctity of Hindu temples as they are the cause of their decay and misuse of the funds donated by devotees for furthering the cause of their dharma and sampradayas. I have a very large set of data, but a few examples here can suffice.

• Let us begin with Kerala – in 1980s the then CM K Karunakaran issued an order to Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple Board to deposit 10 crore rupees in the state treasury to overcome the financial crises of the state government. A 2007 report by Forum for Religious Freedom claimed that 24 crore rupees of the same temple were used for drinking water projects in ten nearby panchayats, which also included 40 churches and mosques. Was this the job of the secular government or a Hindu religious body?
  
  
• In Karnataka, the state government collected 79 crore rupees from two lakh temples. From that, 59 crores was given out to maintain madrassas and as Haj subsidy while Church received 13 crores, the balance princely sum was to be used for temple maintenance etc
  
  
• Thirumala Tirupati temple collects about 3100 crore rupees every year, of which 85% is transferred to the state treasury, most of which is not used for furthering the cause of Hindu dharma but for secular purposes.
  
  
• According to Stephen Knap in his book, Crimes Against India, in Andhra, 43000 temples come under government control. Only 18% of the revenue is returned to temples.
  
  
• Most of the boards charge management charges to the temples ranging around 15% of the revenue generated. In the all the temples, the priests get a pittance. Infact, a priest was prosecuted for accepting dakshina from a devotee. On the other hand, priests in Srirangam temple are not paid a monthly salary but they have to make do with offerings given by devotees. However, the employees on board payroll, including drivers and sweepers get 8000 to 20000 per month as salary.
  
  
• Lakhs of acres of temple lands have been sold by every state government-owned board and money generally does not come back to the temple. Lakhs of acres of land has been encroached upon.

Then, how are these boards serving the cause of Hindus and Hindu dharma? Do they have any moral right to preach what is our religion and how temple is to be used?

The supporters of the board, and a member of the board is reported to have said that RSS gives weapons training to its members. Which weapons? To the best of my knowledge, being an RSS swayamsevak for nearly 6 decades, the training is in martial arts and bamboo stick. These are given to instil discipline and courage. If this is the yardstick, they should ban Kalarippayattu and all other martial art training centres.

They basically wish to disarm Hindus, who were forcibly disarmed by the British. They are following the British tricks. They wish to weaken the martial spirit of the community. The secularists and their cohorts sitting in temple boards criticise Hindus for carrying arms in festivals, forgetting that all Hindu gods carry arms. So, next logical step would be to remove the arms that murtis carry in temples! Yes, it is possible. However, they have never objected to heavily armed processions of so-called frightened minorities.

They wish to disarm RSS that is the first line of defence for the Hindu society. If the successive state governments have failed to provide security to Hindu society, right from 1947 when millions got slaughtered, where does a Hindu go? Should it not seek to strengthen itself against the attacks that he/she witnesses daily around him/her? By weakening the RSS, they are knowingly or unknowingly they exposing disarmed Hindus to violent ideologies of Jihadis and Communists.

The straws in the air tell me that these are trial balloons to ultimately attempt a ban on RSS. Kerala Devaswom Board action is a step towards that direction. Karnataka has begun the game with proposal to ban Bajrang Dal. There are signs that the game will be upped to attempt a ban on RSS. Many other Congress and secular governments may also try to do the same. According to inside information they had thought of banning RSS when they banned SIMI in 2005 as a balancing act, but they didn’t have any evidence that could stand UAPA court scrutiny. They tried their best to create the bogey of saffron terror, with ultimate aim to strike at the RSS. That failed too.

RSS has faced such difficulties since 1948. All attempts have failed. All the searches in its premises since 1948 and other two bans have produced not a shred of evidence to suppress and crush RSS. RSS is on a mission to help the renaissance to rebuild Bharat in a positive constructive manner. This attempt to stop it will fail too.