Mainstream, VOL LIII, No 16, April 11, 2015

THE LAST DEVADASI: DOES HER DEATH BRINGS DOWN CURTAIN ON A DISGRACEFUL TEMPLE CUSTOM?

Sunday 12 April 2015, by A K Biswas

Devadasi, though described as a female slave of the gods, used with reference to women dedicated to the temple, was actually a temple prostitute. Many parts of India boasted of these women who were an integral part of Hindu shrines. And she pandered to the carnal desires of the priests, besides the rich and wealthy visitors, who undertook the journey to those places under the religious pretext. These women were a source of attraction which enhanced the reputation of many temples. The Jagannath Temple, Puri, Somnath Temple, Gujarat, various shrines in Tamil Nadu, to mention a few, had these unhappy women to serve the priests and visitors. The system has slowly faded away partially.

A report from Puri, Orissa suggests that the last devadasi, Sashimani, attached to the Jagannath temple, has died at 92, drawing a curtain on the disgraceful institution. Sadly, the report, though it appeared in a national daily with large circulation, seeks to mislead readers that the devadasi system was introduced in Puri’s Jagannath Temple in 1955. The report presented her as the ‘human wife’ of Lord Jagannath.1

It is shameful that truth has been sacrificed for vested interest. Francois Bernier (September 25, 1620-September 22, 1688) was a French physician and traveller. His account of travels in Mughal India is considered as a very valuable source material for the history of the country. He was the personal physician to Prince Dara Shikoh, the elder son of Shah Jahan, and after Dara Shikoh’s fall was attached to the court of Emperor Aurangzeb for around 12 years during his stay in India. He had visited Puri. His account discloses that every year prior to the ratha jatra in Puri, Jagannath took a new, young wife. She used to be deflowered on the first night for consummating the marriage by one of the temple priests intruding inside a room where she was sheltered.

A century ago Puri’s devadasis dominated debates of the Governor’s Legislative Council in the colonial era.

 In March 1912, Bal Krishna Sahay, representing the Chotanagpur Division in the Bengal Legislative Council, raised the “custom of dedicating female children to the temple of Jagannath in Puri who, when grown up, lead immoral life”. He demanded government intervention “to abolish the immoral custom”. The government’s response was classic. The government, the Council was told, “would view with favour and lend its support to any organised attempt made by Hindu society at large to eradicate the evils which have grown up around the system at Puri”. The British rulers flatly refused to initiate “reforms on its own motion in a matter so closely connected with religious observance”.2

In a dispatch to The New York Tribune, August 8, 1853, Karl Marx had charged the British saying: “Did they not, in order, to make money out of the pilgrims streaming to the temples of Orissa and Bengal, take up the trade in murder and prostitution perpetrated in the temple of Juggernaut?”3 It was not an insinuation. It was an admonition-based statement of facts, though he sounded highly abrasive against a shrine sacred to Hindus. After 74 years, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in 1927 precisely made, in no mellifluous voice, the same point. “There are, I am sorry to say, many temples in our midst in the country, which are no better than brothels.”4 The Hindu, September 15, 1927, quoted him as saying: “In calling them devadasis we insult the God Himself under the sacred name of religion and we commit double crime in that we use these sisters of ours to serve our lust...........”

Karl Marx was not alone or without company in exposing the temple vices. In the 19th century, a thriving brothel had grown around the Tarakeswar Temple in Hooghly district (West Bengal). The prosperous shrine’s mahant, Madhav Chandra Giri, had the notoriety of kidnapping, seducing or inducing or procuring innocent women for illicit relations with him by deploying his musclemen. “Afterwards these women could not return to their families: their only sanctuary lay in the growing brothels of Tarakeswar. Newspapers in 1873 were full of lurid description of the temple pandas of Puri and Tarakeswar......... Tarakeswar has been a place for illicit assignation,” says Tanika Sarkar.5 The census report of 1871 shows that this district had second largest number of prostitutes, next only to 24-Parganas, in Assam, Bihar and Orissa, besides Bengal!6 What a contribution of a solitary priest to the womanhood of Bengal!

Rich and wealthy landlords of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa flocked to Puri under the pretext of pilgrimage with desire not so pious indeed. Some of the zamindars levied illegal imposts or abwabs for example, hatbhara mahaprasad, barunisnan to defray expenses for their prolonged visits to Puri. John Beams, the highly esteemed District Collector of Balasore, Orissa, reported this to the Bengal Government in 1871. Many of the zamindars from Calcutta spent lakhs of rupees on their visit to Puri, spanning over two-to-three months.

Temples Cesspool of Syphilis?

An Imported Disease in Sanctum Sanctoram

Syphilis is not a native disease of India. It came from abroad. In fact the vicious disease was unknown to India before 1494. The discovery of America that year by Columbus is a watershed in public health globally, not to speak of many countries of Europe besides India, China, Japan, etc. In his Unhappy India (1927), the stalwart of the freedom struggle, Lala Lajpat Rai, laboured painstakingly to trace out the source of advent of syphilis in India. Quoting a contemporary medical authority Dr Awan Bloch, the Lala noted that “Syphilis was first introduced into Spain in 1494 and 1495 by the crew of Columbus who brought from Central America, and more especially from the island Hyati, from Spain it was carried by the army of Charles VII to Italy, where it assumed an epidemic form; and after the army was disbanded the disease was transported by the soldiers to the other countries of Europe and was also soon taken by the Portuguese to the Far East, to India, China and Japan”.7 In his seminal work, Prof Gilbert Slater, Department of Economics, Madras University, showed how priests of twelve great temples stacked with devadasis in Kumbakonam, a town 300 km south of Madras, critically infected their wives back home with syphilis.8

Syphilis did not make its appearance in South India but invaded the inmates of households of the priests. This underlines that this shameful disease had found its patrons in the elite class hailing from the upper social layers having access to the houses of gods. The doors of the Hindu shrines are still closed for people from the lower social strata across the country.

The Hindu temples were patronised by a strange class of people for access to the prostitutes, an euphemism for devadasis inside them. This is though an interesting, but little discussed, chapter of cultural history. Here underlies the mystery how the Britishers got access to the temple and prostitutes. William Ward, a Serampore missionary, had focused on this little known aspect. The English officials got foothold in Hindu temples with superb manoeuvre quite early in the day. “In Conjee-varam, the Shiva Temple was in ruins and the people did not care to repair. An English official induced the Company to carry out repairs and himself gave a gift to the temple.” 9 This surprise, nay, unpredictable munificence must have earned loudest admiration for the Company, yielding access for its official to the sanctum sanctorum of the Hindu shrines. This action threw open doors to them for intercourse with the devadasis. In the early days of the Company, their officials did not accompany their wives to India. Infecting the women in the shrine with syphilis was just the natural consequence! The temple priests and British officials shared the same women. So the priests carried the disease home and infected their women. The moral pretension of some of the priests is skyrocketing.

In 1803, the priests of the Jagannath temple handed over its management to the British after Orissa was conquered. As per the terms of transfer, salaries of the priests and others, including devadasis, dependent on the shrine were paid out of the temple coffers by the Company till 1841 when the Company withdrew from management of the Hindu shrine. The pilgrims resorting to Puri were subjected to entry tax varying from Rs 2 to Rs 10 per head. A Bengali journal in 1831 disclosed that in 17 years the revenue officials responsible for collection had grossed a sum of Rs 992,050 at Rs 58,355 per annum from the pilgrims.10

On December 16, 1997, Sashimoni and Parashmoni, both devadasis, called maharis in the Oriya language, gave public performance in Calcutta under the auspices of the Odissi Vision and Movement Centre. A media report quoted them as claiming: “We were born into high class Kayasth families from where maharis adopted us with the intention of training us like them.”11

Does the death of the last devadasi herald the end of sexual exploitation of women under the pretext of divinity? Does it as well usher a new era of reforms in the shrine of Lord Jagannath? A year back, an accomplished Odissi dancer, an Italian national, was assaulted by pandas who refused her permission to ascend to the rath (wooden chariot) while it was drawn on the streets on the day of puja. She did not pay the bribes they demanded. The Thai princess, few years ago, was denied entry into the temple of Jagannath because she was a Buddhist whereas every year scores of Scheduled Castes meet the same fate on the ground of untouchability. Will the temple authorities (readpandas) show liberal proclivity hereafter? I see no such possibility. Temple orthodoxy will be the last of the vices to abate from the soil of India. Till then the practice of untouchability will perpetuate.

Yogini, counterpart of Devadasi

The saga of exploitation under the name of gods does not end here and now. The vice survives in much worse shape and ramification in some South Indian States. Theyoginis, patronised there, involve the other side of ‘the same ritualistic sexual exploitation’. Young Scheduled Caste girls serve as prostitutes for dominant community members. In 2007, the Anti-Slavery International published a study on the practice of the ritual of sexual slavery or forced religious ‘marriage’. It found that 93 per cent ofyoginis or devadasis were from the Scheduled Castes and seven per cent from the Scheduled Tribes. Subjugating Dalit women as prostitutes and tying prosti-tution to bondage by dominant castes seeks to enforce their social status and economic superiority. Girls who become devadasis and yoginis are prohibited from marrying and are stigmatised by the community. The children of yoginis suffer from discrimination because nobody acknowledges their parenthood.

In India discrimination is integral to social reality. It matters little to the elite class and rulers. So the yoginis may have to go a long way for emancipation. Threats of divine displeasure against discontinuance of the yogini system and vested interest of the powerful dominant castes may perpetuate the evil, how long nobody can predict.

3.3 billion people financially included, says World Bank

The latest Global Findex report points out that South Asia has the largest gender gap when it comes to financial inclusion

In the past three years, nearly 700 million adults became part of financial inclusion services around the world, according to a World Bank report. This reduced the number of unbanked individuals to 2 billion from 5.3 billion.

Financial inclusion is measured by Global Findex, a World Bank agency, as having an account that allows adults to store money and make or receive electronic payments. It is critical to ending global poverty.

The findings were published in the latest edition of the agency’s publication.

“Access to financial services can serve as a bridge out of poverty. We have set a hugely ambitious goal —universal financial access by 2020—and now we have evidence that we’re making major progress,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim.

The report says that around 700 million people either became account holders in banks or other financial institutions or had access to mobile money service providers or both between 2011 and 2014.

However, the report did not take into account India’s effort to financially include 130 million people last year. The country’s effort started in August 2014 and went on till January 26, 2015. It will be considered in the next report.

When asked about target 2020 for achieving financial access for all, Kim said, “This effort will require many partners—credit card companies, banks, microcredit institutions, the United Nations, foundations and community leaders. But we can do it, and the payoff will be millions of people lifted out of poverty.”

According to the report, the percentage of adults having an account increased from 51 per cent to 62 per cent between 2011 and 2014. This trend was driven by an 11 percentage point rise in account ownership in developing countries and the role of technology.

Mobile money accounts in sub-Saharan Africa also played an important role. This helped in rapid expansion of financial services. The World Bank data also show opportunities for boosting financial inclusion among women and the poor.

The report lays emphasis on the importance of financial inclusion, stating that broader access to and participation in the financial system, can actually boost jobs, increase investments in education sector and directly help the poor manage risk and absorb financial shocks.

Gender gap in South Asia
The report does not paint a rosy picture of South Asia as the region witnessed the largest ever gender gap in financial inclusion. Around 37 per cent women in this part of the world hold bank accounts as compared to 55 per cent men. With 18 percentage point gap between genders, it is the highest gap in the world.

The global gender gap has consistently stayed at 7 per cent. In 2011, 47 per cent women and 54 per cent men had accounts and in 2014, 58 per cent women had accounts as compared to 65 per cent men.

More than half of the adults in 40 per cent of the poorest households in developing countries were still without bank accounts in 2014.

The Findex report says there is still lot to be done to expand financial inclusion among women and the poor.

Educate girls to eradicate social evils”

The state government has started the initiative to give free sanitary napkins to school girls, which will cost the state exchequer Rs 35-40 crore annually”, said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at a recent media workshop on ‘Health, Women and Development’.

He informed that several self-help groups are now engaged in making quality sanity napkins to cater to school girls’ needs and said the government intends to set up about 10 lakh self-help groups of which about three lakh groups have already come up.

The Bihar CM termed self-help groups “a silent revolution” towards women empowerment. He said the government has adopted women empowerment policy after having started a host of women-centric schemes and giving 50 per cent reservation to women. Stressing on education for girls, Kumar said a survey said if a girl was educated till Class XII, it would automatically address social problems such as child marriage, foeticide, high fertility rate and gender disparity.

“The government had started a school uniform scheme and followed it up with bicycle scheme for girls. Now we plan to open at least one Class XII school in every village in the next three years,” he said.

“It is good that people’s expectations from the government have gone high and we are ready to face criticism and know our shortcomings,” the Chief Minister added.

Kumar further said, “If one would ask him to choose a picture of Bihar’s progress, he would go for a girl cycling her way to school. Reflect on it and you will realise its stand. It’s not only increased school attendance and enrolment but most importantly changed mentality towards girls.”

Govt to set up 1K crore fund to cover default repayment 

In case of default of education loan repayment, central government is planning to create 1000 crore credit guarantee fund that banks can draw in case of defaults. The move will encourage the banks to lend loan to students.

The proposal of giving funds to banks came after the government asked banks to give education loans to the students. The government believes that no child should miss out on an opportunity to pursue studies due to lack of financial resources. According to the RBI data, the banks outstanding totaled Rs.63500 crore till February 20, 2015.

The Finance Ministry has also proposed to give loan for skill development courses and extension of the education loan tenure which is 5-7 years at present. The Indian Bank Association has listed 1100 accredited education institutes for banks to extend education loans. The list does not include skill development training institutions.

78% Indian teachers support mobile devices in class 

Nearly 78% of Indian teachers support the idea of incorporating mobile technology in the education system as it will have a positive effect on students, found a recent study by Adobe. “The challenge is to provide support to enable greater mobile adoption,” said Kulmeet Bawa, Director Enterprise (South Asia), Adobe.

The survey, titled Transforming Education with Mobile and Digital Technology, was conducted among school teachers in 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific Region. India constituted 22% of the study sample. While 83% teachers said accessibility to digital facilities while making lesson plans will help students comprehend concepts better, 86% felt institutes need better infrastructure to use the digital facilities.

Vedanta - For Soothing the Soul

ARUNA SRINIVASAN





My dear son, Whenever we celebrate festivals at home, we run into arguments. You and your brother rebel whenever we ask you to join us in the puja. You say you don't believe in rituals; that you can't relate to those gods framed and arranged neatly in the puja room.But the prayers are significant for me. They may be ritualistic, but they have the same effect on my mind as yoga and exercise have on the body , maintaining the equilibrium. If exercise keeps physical balance, my faith takes care of my inner balance.
Let me tell you a story . Saligramam -that tiny black pebble-like stone reverentially kept in the wooden box in the puja room -was given to me when I mar ried Appa. Sa ligramam is a fossil found in Himalayan riverbeds and is believed to manifest Vishnu.Saligramam is usually handed down from one generation to another like a heirloom.
When I went to Bombay carrying this small sacred stone in my suitcase 25 years ago to live with your Dad, neighbours advised me, “You have to be pious and maintain a strict code of conduct.“ I told myself, God is my friend.
My parents have given this sacred symbol to me so that He will always remain with me, ritual or no ritual. You once said that you eat chocolate when you are depressed.I turn to prayer. Happiness, satisfaction or sorrow, I share it with Him. So, dear son, when chocolates don't help, perhaps you can try a prayer.
Amma

Mainstream, VOL LIII, No 16, April 11, 2015

UNION BUDGET 2015-16: INJUSTICE TO DALITS AND ADIVASIS

Sunday 12 April 2015, by Bharat Dogra

In order to reduce and remove the many-sided disadvantages and problems faced by Dalits and adivasis, sub-plans for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been introduced to ensure adequate and justice-based availability of funds for these communities.

Summarising the basic idea and rationale for this, the Planning Commission says: “the persistence of socio-economic backwardness of the SCs and STs in spite of the development efforts had warranted a special and focused strategy, interalia to enable them to share the benefits of overall economic growth in a more equitable manner. This has been sought to be achieved through the Special Component Plan (SCP) for Scheduled Castes, now known as Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan (SCSP) and the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) for Scheduled Tribes. The prime objective of the SCSP is to channelise funds and benefits through identified schemes, for which the States/ UTs and Union Ministries have to earmark funds in proportion to the SC population in the State/ UTs and the country respectively.

The Twelfth Plan document has stated: “Based on the experience of implementing the SCSP/ TSP by the Central Ministries/ departments, the guidelines issued by the Planning Commission will be reviewed to remove any shortcomings, so as to ensure that at least 16.2 per cent of the Central Plan outlay is earmarked under the Schemes/ Programmes that benefit the SC community demonstratively, and 8.2 per cent of the Central Plan outlay is earmarked under the Schemes/Programmes that benefit the ST community demonstratively.”

The Union Budget (2015-16) has allocated Rs 30,851 crores for SCSP and Rs 19,980 crores for TSP. This falls much short of the officially accepted requirement of allocations in proportion to population share.

As the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) and Dalit Arthik Aadhar Andolan (DAAA) says, “However, as per the SCSP/TSP Guidelines, the SCs should be allocated 16.6 per cent of the Plan Outlay, which amounts to Rs 77,236 crores towards SCSP and the STs should be allocated 8.6 per cent of the Plan Outlay, which amounts to Rs 40,014 crores towards TSP. Dalits, therefore, have been denied a total of 61 per cent of the due amount under the SCSP, and 53 per cent has been denied to Adivasis under TSP.”

Further the allocation for schemes meant specifically for SC and ST women is shockingly low. As the NCDHR-DAAR review says, “Out of the total allocation of Rs 30,850 crores under the SCSP, the allocation for women specific schemes is a meagre sum of Rs 73 crores—which amounts to 0.23 per cent only! Are Dalit and Adivasi women not in the gamut of ‘Sabka Vikas’? The scenario is much the same when one looks at the Budget allocation under TSP — a paltry sum of Rs 40 crores i.e. 0.20 per cent only! The only small streak of hope is the allocation of Rs 50 crores for SC Girls’ Hostel.”

Further this statement says: “None can deny the truth that Dalits and Adivasis have been the backbone of economic growth through their sheer contribution to agriculture and infras-tructure development in this country. However, it is for all to see that they are paid far below the minimum wage; their health indicators such as infant and maternal mortality rates and the rate of anaemia is very high when compared to the non-SC/ST population.”

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had prom-ised to make the economy fairer for Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalised sections, unfortunately, his words have not translated into action,” says NCDHR General Secretary Paul Divakar.

As per the estimates provided in the NCDHR-DAAA statement, the funds for SCSP fell short by Rs 46,000 crores and the funds for TSP fell short by Rs 20,000 crores, a total shortage of Rs 66,000 crores under the two heads, if the actual allocations are compared with the requirement of allocation on the basis of population share.

If we compare with previous year’s allocations, then there is a reduction from Rs 43,208 crores (in the 2014-15 Budget) to Rs 30,851 crores (in the 2015-16 Budget) regarding SCSP. Also there is a reduction from Rs 26,715 crores for TSP in 2014-15 to Rs 19,980 crores in the 2015-16 Budget.

The reduced allocation is partly on the basis of the expectation that the higher funds available to the State governments will be used to make up for the reduced allocations in the Central Budget. However, there is no guarantee that this expectation will be fulfilled.

It is also disturbing to see that the Revised Estimates (RE) for 2014-15 in the case of some crucial schemes have been found to be lower than the original Budget Estimates (BE) for this year (2015-16). Thus the allocations for the self-employment scheme of liberation and rehabilitation of manual scavengers has been reduced greatly in the revised schemes, as also for the scheme of proper marketing and minimum support price for minor forest produce.

Keeping in view the large scale and many sided deprivation suffered by these communities, it is not difficult to see what a great difference the proper allocations and expenditures as per the norms of SCSP and TSP can make to Dalits and adivasis, including women and children in these communities. If properly spent, these additional funds can help to reduce the high rates of child malnutrition and mortality. Lives of lakhs of children can be saved. Literacy rates can be increased and drop-out rates can be reduced among children. Similarly, maternal mortality can be reduced significantly and many women can be saved from degrading and risky work. Improvement of water and sanitation in Dalit and adivasi bastis can improve health and provide many-sided relief, particularly to women. New promising non-traditional occu-pations can be opened up for youths. Land rights of Dalits and adivasis can be better protected and small scale irrigation can help to improve their food security and livelihood. Keeping in view this many-sided potential of ensuring proper implementation of SCSP and TSP this task deserves the broadbased support of all social forces that stand for justice and equality.

Bharat Dogra is a free-lance journalist who has been involved with several social initiatives and movements.