Caste realities shackle TN’s temple priest diversity push

“At first, the only work I was given was to buy pooja items for the temple and household items for the main priest’s home,” the 40-year-old said, requesting anonymity. After a few months, he refused to do anything else other than what he was appointed to do. “And then the mistreatment escalated,” he alleged.

“I keep warning the chief priests,” said Arun Pandian, the executive officer at a temple in Trichy, whose non-brahmin priests alleged caste-based discrimination at the hands of chief priests. “They were interfering in the shrines that have been assigned to the two non-Brahmin priests. They keep dominating the non-Brahmin priests,” he added.

The OBC priest hails from the Idaiyar community, who are primarily associated with herding and agriculture in Tamil Nadu. He was the first from his family to become a temple priest. “I had no one to support me. I was frightened and just stayed inside the temple the whole night and I cried. I thought they might harm me if I left the temple premises. The next morning my uncle and his friends picked me up in a two-wheeler and took me home,” he said.

He isn’t the only one. In 2021, the DMK government appointed 24 men to various temples in the state – the administration’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department controls more than 46,000 Hindu temple shrines in Tamil Nadu – as part of its initiative to bring non-Brahmin priests into the mainstream. But now, many of them say they’re falling victim to the same caste discrimination that their inclusion was supposed to exorcise.

“All 24 of them have faced caste discrimination inside the temples in some form or the other to varying degrees. Their dignity is attacked and they feel ashamed,” said V Ranganathan, president of the Tamil Nadu Association for Trained Archakas, a movement founded in 2009 to help priests fight caste discrimination.

Law amended for reform

Rooted in the anti-caste movement spearheaded by social reformer EV Ramasamy, or Periyar, the then DMK government headed by M Karunanidhi (MK Stalin’s father), in December 1970, unanimously adopted an amendment to the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959, to make way for the appointment of priests from any caste. The principle of hereditary appointments simply put as next in line of succession was abolished. It was enforced in January 1971 with the assent of the governor. Aggrieved parties challenged it in the Supreme Court in what is known as the Seshammal vs State of Tamil Nadu case. The top court upheld the amendments as valid and secular but also held that priests should be appointed according to the norms of respective temples.

In 2006 May, Karunanidhi, who was once again the CM, issued a government order allowing individuals from any caste to become priests provided they had necessary training about temple rituals and practices. “Any person who is a Hindu and possessing the requisite qualification and training can be appointed as archaka (priest) in Hindu temples,” the government order said.

In 2007, the DMK government opened schools with a one-year course to become temple priests, which was open to people from all castes. The 24 people mentioned above finished their studies in 2008-09.

But in 2011, the DMK lost the assembly elections and the AIADMK governed the state from 2011 to 2021. In 2015, in the Adi Saiva Sivachariyargal Nala Sangam Vs Tamil Nadu case in the Supreme Court, a bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi and NV Ramana did not strike down the order but also observed that the appointment of priests as per the rules prescribed by the age-old Agamas (treatises) is not a violation of the right to equality. The verdict came during the regime of J Jayalalithaa who then appointed two non-Brahmin priests in 2018 and 2020 after their training. Following the judgment, Kerala also appointed 36 non-Brahmins as priests in 2017.

“When we approached Jayalalithaa’s government to appoint more priests, they said it is a scheme of Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) so they did not show any interest,” says Ranganathan. “The two appointments made during the AIADMK’s regime was inadvertent and they were appointed in non-agama temples. The two continue to work in temples.”

After the DMK formed the government in 2021, chief minister MK Stalin restarted the Archakar Payirchi Palli (priest training schools). No fresh case was filed after 2015.

Six schools were revived, and three new were opened in 2022. In all, 382 students are currently enrolled in the nine institutions. The 24 priests were appointed on August 14, 2021, when the DMK government completed 100 days in office.

But the induction of subsequent batches were thwarted by a pleas filed by eight petitioners including by the Adi Saiva Sivachariyargal Nala Sangam (a petitioner in the 2015 case). The petitions argued that the state government was interfering with the hereditary scheme of appointing archakas in agama temples by allowing those from other castes to become priests.

In June 2023, the Madras high court held that caste will have no role in the appointment of priests, where the only requirement is for the person is to be well-versed, properly trained and qualified to perform the pooja, as per the requirement. “At the risk of repetition, it is made abundantly clear that the pedigree based on caste will have no role to play in the appointment of archaka if the person otherwise satisfies the requirements,” justice Anand Venkatesh had said while disposing of a case arguing for the hereditary rights of priests.

In 2023, the top court ruled that the Tamil Nadu government could not make changes to the hereditary process of appointing priests without further court orders. The court directed the state to maintain status quo on the appointment of priests.

Widespread discrimination

The legal tangle has ensured that the 24 priests are under intense public scrutiny. The priests from lower caste backgrounds, including OBCs and Dalits, were appointed all across Tamil Nadu including Kumbakonam, Trichy, Coimbatore and Virudhunagar.

The priests HT spoke to said they have been facing discrimination in varying degrees in the last four years since their appointment, alleging they are sidelined and not allowed to do rituals inside the sanctum sanctorum. Instead, they were handed menial tasks like cleaning the temple premises and were often insulted in front of devotees. There were also allegations of irregular pay. “The main priests even call their relatives to help with abhishekams (pouring liquids as a ritual for the deity) but they would not include us,” said one non-Brahmin priest.

Thirty-four-year-old K Kannabiran, from the Yadava community (an OBC community), who was among the 24 non-Brahmin priests, quit three months after he was appointed to the Srivilliputhur’s Sethunarayana Perumal temple in Virudhunagar district after facing alleged caste discrimination.

“Initially, my work was confined to sweeping the temple and washing vessels. I was not even allowed to entire the sanctum sanctorum, where I was appointed to do rituals,” said Kannabiran.

He went back to working in his father’s fields until in April 2022, when HR&CE minister Sekar Babu called and convinced him to return. His salary was increased to ₹14,000 from ₹2,000 per month.

“The discrimination has reduced but not gone away. They have stopped asking me to clean the temple. They now ask me to come to the temple at 3am and stay back until midnight. My salary has increased but they do not pay on time,” he added.

On February 17, two of the 24 priests wrote to the chief minister’s office about the circumstances. S Prabhu and Jayabal (who goes by one name) said that they faced caste-based discrimination by Sivachariars at the Arulmigu Subramaniaswamy temple in Trichy.

“We were sidelined from rituals held before the temple consecration which was on February 19,” Jayabal said. He added that in the past four years, they were allowed to serve only at the secondary shrines (Vinayaka and Navagraha) even though their appointments were for them to perform puja at the main shrine of Lord Murugan.

“We haven’t received a response from the state government yet,” Jayabal said. HT has seen a copy of the letter.

They specifically complained that they were kept away from performing the kumbasbhishekam (consecration ceremony) which is usually attended by a sea of devotees and requested that they be allowed.

HR&CE minister Sekar Babu intervened and solved this specific issue. “At the Thirukudamuzhuku festival... Under the Anaithu Sathiyinarum Archakar Agalam scheme (all castes can become priests, they performed Yagasalai Pooja and Gopuram Kalasams,” Babu posted on X.

A second priest, also belonging to the OBC community and working in Kumbakonam, alleged a different kind of discrimination. “I’m allowed to perform poojas but the temple management withholds my salary regularly for a couple of months and sometimes even five months,” he said.“The administration would tell me that there is no money in the temple but everyone else would get their due,” he said, requesting anonymity.

The HR&CE department intervened to finally get him paid regularly, he added.

Though several oral complaints have been made to the minister and officials of the HR&CE, the letter from Prabhu and Jayabal was the first written complaint.

HR&CE minister Sekar Babu was not available for a comment. A senior official in the department said that the department sought zone-wise reports from senior officials on the issue. “Once we receive the reports, we will start taking steps to address it,” the official said.

In the Trichy temple, where Prabhu and Jayabal complained, acts of discrimination continue despite the government’s intervention, say temple officials. “I keep warning the chief priests,” said Arun Pandian, the temple’s executive officer.

“They were interfering in the shrines that have been assigned to the two non-Brahmin priests. They keep dominating the non-Brahmin priests and we keep warning and correcting them,” he added.

Ranganathan said the HR&CE department should draft rules so that other priests who discriminate against non-Brahmin priests face consequences. “They should form a panel headed by a retired IAS officer to find solutions,” he said.

The OBC priest from Tindivanam said he waited for 13 years to get the job, but the discrimination made him think about quitting many times. But now, he says he has steeled himself. “This is a revolution and I am not going to leave,” he said.