{"id":30940,"date":"2018-10-27T11:31:02","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T06:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=30940"},"modified":"2018-10-27T11:31:02","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T06:01:02","slug":"into-priesthood-on-training-dalits-to-become-priests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/into-priesthood-on-training-dalits-to-become-priests\/","title":{"rendered":"Into priesthood: on training Dalits to become priests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/into-priesthood\/article22870150.ece\"><b>Into priesthood: on training Dalits to become priests<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the independent trust which manages the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, had taken a unique decision to train Dalit and tribal youth in the procedures of performing temple rituals and practices. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is in this context we need to understand whether training Dalits to become priests would really break down caste hierarchy or create another layer of stratification<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>A Reformative and revolutionary Step:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to many, this is indeed a step towards smudging social boundaries<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to many progressive Hindus, the programme represents an inclusive, perhaps disruptive, social engineering that could bring marginalised communities, previously barred from entering temples for fear of \u201cimpurity\u201d, into the mainstream. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Does this really break caste hierarchy?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the critics, this mode of training and appointing Dalits as priests would not change the basic structure of Hinduism or the doctrine of temple rituals<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is an unintentional creation of another social layer or a \u201csanskritised class of purity\u201d <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It further signifies that a Dalit gives up his cultural and religious past to embrace the Brahmin way of life.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This reinforces the superiority of the Brahmin and further entrenches the lower castes in their religious, ritual, social lowness.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Additional information:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Supreme Court Judgement:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court in 2015 held that caste and birth should not determine induction of priests in temples.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rather, domain knowledge, traditional codes of practice and the Constitution\u2019s guarantee of equality before law should be applied.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Into priesthood: on training Dalits to become priests Context: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the independent trust which manages the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, had taken a unique decision to train Dalit and tribal youth in the procedures of performing temple rituals and practices. \u00a0 It is in this context we need to&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/into-priesthood-on-training-dalits-to-become-priests\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Into priesthood: on training Dalits to become priests<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704895668},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}