[IMC-Editorial] [India Thinkers Net] The RAM's who cannot enter a temple.

[India Thinkers Net at Zinester.com]

They are ‘RAMs’, but not allowed to enter temple 
 
>From J P Yadav 

DH News Service DHOBDIHA-HARSENI (Bihar), Oct 18

They are “Rams”, but not allowed to step inside their own village temple. For Dukhan Ram, Samudree Devi and other “chamar” caste members of the Dalit community in Dhobdiha and Harseni village in Nalanda district, construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya holds no meaning.

“What will a Ram temple at Ayodhya do for us, when we are kept out of our own village temple. We have been named as “Ram”, but kept away from the Lord”, remarked Mithu Ram, when informed about the Ayodhya agitation by the VHP rocking the country.

Dhobdiha and Harseni are not the only examples in a state where the “messiah of social justice”, Laloo Prasad Yadav, rules. Entry for Dalits, particularly the “chamars” is banned in hundreds of village temples across Bihar. The tradition continues and the outside world knows only when these “untouchables” dare to defy the age old system in some villages.

Interestingly, not only forward castes, even Laloo’s “Yadavs” as well as some other intermediary castes join hands here to keep the Dalits away from the temples.

During the Durga puja recently, Ramlal Ram of Baheri village in Kaimur district was shot dead by Brahmins of the village when he dared to offer puja to the village deity. Investigations have revealed that a villager working with the Bihar police was responsible for killing the Dalit. He, however, is yet to be arrested. 

In Dhobdiha and Harseni the oppressors are the intermediary Yadav caste. In Novemebr 1996, some educated Dalit youths wanted their parents to be allowed to offer puja inside the temple on Durga puja day. When the Yadavs got wind of this desire, the threat from them was loud and clear – “we will break their legs with lathis”. The youths petitioned the District Magistrate. Policemen were sent and the “chamars” were asked to enter the temple. Waving their “lathis”, the Yadavs replied - “the policemen will save you today, but who will come tomorrow”.

The “chamars” were naturally scared and asked the administration to reach an agreement with the Yadavs that they will allow them to enter the temple. Yadavs said it was simply not possible. The “chamars” succumbed and a pact was signed which said that the old system where they worshipped the deity from outside the temple will continue. 

“The Yadavs say that we engage in the dirty business of working as mid-wives and our men folk skin dead animals, so we are impure and thereby our touch will enrage the deity. But when I told them that their children too are impure if I become so after delivering them, then they threatened to kill me”, stated Samudree Devi, who has annoyed the Yadavs with her logical arguments. Now the “chamars” have been forced to establish their deities in their own locality.

All castes among the Dalits here have remained with the Yadavs in the political arena. They have voted according to their will for Laloo Yadav in election after election and now are obeying their orders to remain away from the temple. “We are poor and depend on them for our living. How can we fight them ?”, asks out Birju Das. 

Upendra Yadav of Dhobdiha says that they share a very good relationship with the Dalits of the village. Others can enter temples, but the “chamars” cannot at any cost. “Our forefathers had banned them since their touch will enrage the deity and tragedy will strike our village. Can we invite calamity ?”, questioned an elderly Jadu Yadav. 

Kameshwar Chaupal, a Dalit leader of the BJP from the state was the one who had laid the first brick during the “shilanyaas” at Ayodhya. But he too looked helpless over the fate of Dalits in his state. Leader of the Opposition of the BJP recently declared to identify all those temples where Dalits were not allowed and ensure their entry in his presence. When he approached one such village, forward caste members asked him to keep away since they were his party’s voters. On this count Laloo Yadav too chooses to keep away and keep his vote bank intact.


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