Throw open temple doors

In this context, one felt embarrassed recently when the Sri Lankan President had to call up the chief minister of Kerala to clarify that his wife is a Buddhist and not a Christian. This was necessitated when newspapers reported that the priests at Guruvayur temple had taken the stand that if the wife of the president who had prayed at the temple on a visit to India, was a Christian, they would perform a purifying ceremony because temple authorities do not allow admission to non-Hindus.

I am shocked that neither the state government nor the central government has spoken up against this embarrassing and unacceptable stand of the temple authorities. It is one thing to ask visitors to observe decorum as determined by the temple authorities. But that does not mean that purely secular practices like a visit to the temple can be prohibited on the ground of the visitors’ religion.

The Supreme Court has clarified that what is protected under Articles 25(1) and 26(b) of the Constitution are religious practices. If the practice in question is secular, like a visit to the temple outside the sanctorium sanctum, it cannot be urged that Article 25(1) or Article 26(b) has been contravened. Therefore, whenever a claim is made on behalf of the denomination that the fundamental right guaranteed to it to manage its own affairs in matters of religion is contravened, what has to be determined is whether the practice is a religious practice and if so, only then the protection guaranteed by Articles 25(1) and Article 26(b) will arise. But if an obviously secular practice is deemed to be a religious practice by the temple authorities, the claim has to be firmly rejected.

It has invariably been held by the Supreme Court that the right to manage the properties of the temple is a purely secular matter and it cannot be regarded as a religious practice so as to fall under Article 25(1). I am accepting that there could be no such thing as an unregulated right of entry in a public temple or any other religious institution. It is a traditional custom, universally observed, not to allow access to any outsider to the particularly sacred parts of a temple, for example, the place where the deity is located. There are also fixed hours of worship and rest for the idol when no disturbance by any member of the public is allowed. But all this does not, under our Constitution, permit an embargo on a visit by non-Hindus to the temple while observing these formalities.

The Guruvayur temple is managed under the Religious Endowment Act and its managing committee is headed by public officials. There is no denying that members of the public are entitled to an entry in the temple and to take part in offering service and taking darshan. It is also well known that the state government spends public funds (and rightly so) for maintaining and improving the access to the temple and other expenses connected with its security and upkeep. This contribution of the government is a public welfare measure, notwithstanding the secular character of our nation.

I am pointing this out not out of any desire to hurt the devotees, nor am I trying to belittle the faith of the priests of the temple. All that I am saying is that the secular character of our nation gives fundamental rights to all citizens of whatever religion to have access to all places of worship of all religions subject to legally permitted parameters.

How can a Hindu justify denying entry to non-Hindus while at the same time taking pride in the catholicity and expanse of Hinduism? Swami Vivekanand was so disturbed over a century ago at the exclusiveness of the caste system in Hindu society that he openly proclaimed ‘‘No man, no nation, my son, can hate others and live; India’s doom was sealed the very day they invented the word malecha and stopped from communion with others’’. He said that the piety of the Hindus on the banks of the Ganga was no different from the piety of Muslims offering namaz in the mosque.

In all humility and reverence, I appeal to the state of Kerala and the priestly management to throw open the temple doors to people of all faiths.

The writer is a retired chief justice of the Delhi High Court