Freeing Hindu Temples: How and Why Did Temples Come Under Government Control?

INDIA, September 28, 2024 (MSN): The calls to end the involvement of the government in the administration and control of Hindu temples in India have gained momentum in the past few weeks. The controversy over Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s allegation that the prasad served to devotees at the Tirupati temple contained animal fat has led to questions being raised against the temple management as well as the erstwhile YSRCP government under CM Jagan Mohan Reddy. Groups including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have launched a nationwide campaign to end government control over temples while pointing to similar controversies at other Hindu places of worship located in states that exercise control over the temple’s functioning, income and expenditure. Unlike Muslims and Christians who manage their own places of worship through community-run boards and trusts, places of worship belonging to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists see significant involvement of the government in their management. Through boards and trusts comprising government officials as representatives in several states, the government ensures considerable say in the affairs of temples.

A majority of the three million-plus places of worship in India are Hindu temples which received significant donations in the form of land as well as wealth to these temples and were seen as centers of culture and economic development. When the British arrived in India, they saw this potential for massive wealth and a ground for government oversight. From 1810 to 1817, they enacted a series of laws in the presidencies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay that gave them the right to interfere in temple administration. However, opposition from within the British establishment as a Christian government was seen to be running Hindu temples, led to the enactment of the Religious Endowments Act of 1863 to hand over control of temples to committees appointed under the Act. Yet, judicial jurisdiction over temple administration — the extension of the Civil Procedure Code and the Official Trustees Act to temples and the Charitable and Religious Trusts Act of 1920 — helped the government retain considerable influence.

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