FW: Evangelists want a church in Tirumala

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Tue, 2 Aug 2005 15:05:35 EDT

Evangelists want a church in Tirumala

Evangelists want a church in Tirumala

By Sandhya Jain

 

Evangelists are targetting the sacred most site of Tirumala and in a direct

affront to the Hindu community, which has for centuries regarded all seven hills

as holy. They have started gathering on the slopes in groups for public prayers.

Even though an officer of the State-controlled Tirumala Tirupati Devasathanam

(TTD) which manages the world famous Venkateshwara temple has denied that a

missionary society has submitted a proposal to build a church on the hills,

there is widespread disbelief on account of the known biases of Chief Minister,

Y. Samuel Rajasekhar Reddy. The denials by TTD special officer A.V. Dharma Reddy

follow reports in leading Telugu newspapers such as Eenadu and television

channels like ETV, Teja TV, Gemini TV and Sun TV. Former Chief Minister Chandra

Babu Naidu, who was reportedly tipped off by informed sources in the

Secretariat, has strongly condemned the move, as has the state BJP.

 

What lends credence to Hindu fears is the despicable statement by the Government

official that the TTD temple owns only 10.33 sq. miles of land on the hills, and

this land is administered by the mandir trust. This is a transparent ploy to

deny the sacred character of all seven hills in their entirety, and restrict the

sacred site of the Hindu community to the formal boundary of the extant of

temple of Lord Venkateshwara.

 

Should it happen, it will be a desecration at par with that of the Mylapore

Shiva temple in Chennai. Hitherto, there has never been any question of a

structure other than the shrine of Lord Venkateshwara on these hills, and it

bears remembering that it is the hills that are holy and not merely the mandir

which adorns them.

 

Clearly we are witnessing the development of a major assault upon one of the

most venerated sites of the Hindu community. Should it happen, it will be a

desecration at par with that of the Mylapore Shiva temple in Chennai. Hitherto,

there has never been any question of a structure other than the shrine of Lord

Venkateshwara on these hills, and it bears remembering that it is the hills that

are holy and not merely the mandir which adorns them. For instance, a temple

along a busy thoroughfare would be holy, but the adjacent land would not be

deemed sacred.

 

Thus, the attempt to limit the sacredness of Tirumala to the boundary of the

temple, i.e. 10.33 sq. miles, is suspicious and suggests that the State

Government may be preparing the ground for handing over land to a church body on

one of the slopes. This is consistent with the systematic defilement of Hindu

institutions since the UPA became ascendant in national life, as witnessed in

the harassment of the Kanchi Shankaracharya and Bal Shankaracharya, and attempts

to take over prominent Hindu temples.

 

What lends urgency to Hindu fears is the fact that six large churches have

already sprung up on the road to Tirumala (Bye-pass road and new Bye-pass road)

that leads to Alipiri, the foot of the hills. It is therefore imperative that

the State Government recognize the entire seven hills as the sacred abode of

Shri Venkateshwara, and ensure that no structure of any other religion is

allowed to come up there. Hindu activists in the region point out that when

Sonia Gandhi violated the rules and entered the sanctum sanctorum of Tirumala

Tirupati Devasathanam some years ago, without signing the mandatory declaration

for practitioners of other religions; she was facilitated in this outrage by the

then TTD executive officer Ajay Kallam. The activists point out that according

to the local bush telegraph, Ajay Kallam and some of his family members

converted to Christianity some time ago, and this fact may have some bearing on

some of their public actions. For instance, Mr. Kallam sought to auction hundred

acres of land belonging to the Hathi Ramji Matham (Tirumala) a year ago, and it

was only with difficulty that the auction was eventually cancelled. The point

being made is that it is a terrible sacrilege that State control of Hindu holy

sites enables non-Hindus to seize control of major temples and run them

according to an undisclosed agenda. Non-believers have infiltrated critical

areas of these institutions. It is already a matter of considerable concern that

the enormous revenues of Hindu temples in south India are being misused to fund

the Haj subsidy and renovate churches, while temples and priests remain starved

of basic funds. Now more than ever before there is need to expedite the return

of the temples to the community.

 

According to field activists, an official scrutiny of lands and properties

acquired by evangelical organizations may shed interesting light upon a

phenomenon best dubbed as âEUR~colonization through land ownership.âEUR The

value of the properties and the costs of the gigantic bureaucracies associated

with them would be an eye-opener. It is instructive, for instance, to drive

through the Coromandel Coast from Vishakapatnam to Toottukkudi, and observe the

plethora of churches proliferating along the route; most are new constructions.

A journey to Guntur and Eluru may be similarly instructive.

 

The Andhra Pradesh Government is a wholly unsuitable custodian of Tirupathi and

must be made to surrender control of this holy shrine. Some time ago it condoned

the demolition of the 550-year old Thousand Pillar Temple for no good reason. A

Government that lacks the sense of the sacrality of the seven hills which have

been regarded as a tirthasthanam and devasthanam from time immemorial cannot be

allowed to preside over its destiny.