Sudipto Mondal/The Hindu

Mangalore, Apr 21: The Babbu Swami temple in the Sunkada Katte Dalit colony here was built with the 18 percent fund for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes by the Mangalore City Corporation. But, the Dalits from the Mundala Scheduled caste, in whose name the temple was built, have been sidelined there, and those running the temple are from the dominant Bunt caste.

“We are made to stand outside and watch the festivities while the dominant caste people perform all the important tasks, as though the temple is part of their fiefdom,” said Satish, who belongs to the Mundala community.

Traditionally, however, people from the Mundala caste alone can perform the rituals for the sitting deity, Babbu Swami. “The dhani (feudal lord) of the temple hires the services of another Mundala from Bajpe, which is more than 30 km away from the Sunkada Katte Dalit colony, but avoids giving the task to one of us,” Mr. Satish said and added that the temple’s custodians used to hire outsiders because they feared that the locals would take over the temple, if they were allowed to perform the rituals.

During visits to several such temples in Dalit colonies on Monday, it was found that the custodians of the temples were from dominant and the erstwhile feudal castes such as Bunts, Billavas, and Brahmins.

The Satya Saramani temple in Viveknagar is one of the few temples where the priest and the custodian is a Dalit, from the Adi-Dravidar Scheduled Caste. “But, once a year, a Brahmin priest comes here to cleanse the temple,” complained a resident there. He alleged that this custom was new and some people “brainwashed” the locals into calling the Brahmin once a year.

Political ploy

Rama Kotiyan (80), an erudite Dalit historian and Ambedkar follower, said: “Everybody knows that our people are not allowed into temples.” According to him, temples were built in Dalit colonies to give the residents a sense of pride. “It was a way of telling Dalits that they too can have their own temples where they can run the entire process. It is an attempt at restoring their dignity,” he said and added that the exclusion of Dalits from mainsteam was being perpetuated in these temples.

Mr. Kotiyan was a Congress councillor in the corporation between 1984 and 1989, and was a strong advocate of funding temples in Dalit colonies.

But, now a disgruntled Congressman, Mr. Kotiyan repented for having promoted the idea of temples. “What I did not realise then was that the Congress promoted these temples so that they could spread their party’s ideology inside the temple and garner votes,” he said.

Mr. Kotiyan said that the caste Hindus were also affiliated to political parties. “They protect the temple’s turf for their party. Their fear is that if Dalits, who are the rightful custodians, took over the temple, they might de-politicise it,” he said.

Many temples built in the Congress era are being used by Hindutva organisations aligned with the BJP. “Politicians are the same in any party. They use religion to gain entry into people’s hearts. Yesterday it was Congress, today it is the BJP,” said S.P. Ananda, president of the district unit of the Dalit Sanghrsha Samiti.

Both Mr. Ananda and Mr. Kotiyan complained that huge funds had been spent on these structures. “The same money could have been spent on infrastructure in these colonies. “Neither has our dignity been restored nor has there been any development in our colonies,” they said.