Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on the Plight of the Dalits

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hindustantimes.com

 

INDIA, February 16, 2007: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar addresses the plight of the Dalits in India. Some of the highlights expressed by Ravi Shankar are, "Dalits allowed inside temples in Bhilwara and Jagannath Temple in Orissa is a welcome development. Places of worship should be open to all communities and religions. Moving away from Hinduism and converting to other religions has not helped the Dalits in their war against the oppressive caste system. Laws have failed to change the attitude of people, and contemporary religious leaders have done precious little to remove the prejudices and bring about reconciliation. Historically many of the revered rishis were Dalits. The greatest of epics, the Ramayana, was written by a Dalit. As Maharishi Dayanand, Sri Aurobindo and many others have rightly pointed out, religious practices have drifted away from their philosophy. " Shankar also points out that progress has also been made elsewhere. For example every morning the first puja of the day in the Tirupati temple is offered by the scheduled caste Banjara community. It would be good to start this practice in other temples where there is discrimination. However Shankar concludes, "Both Dalit and upper caste Hindus have to change. We need to fight for our heritage in the same way we fight for rights to our property. You fight for your property because you value it. When you don't value your heritage and culture, you simply discard it."