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Caste is alive in India, and kicking
even ministers
WSN Network
 ORISSA:
Days before
India celebrated its Republic Day and days after a serving Supreme
Court judge wrote a series of articles claiming the caste system was
almost gone in India now and the country was a picture of secularism
and equalitarian life, casteist India chose to unveil the truth at
the abode of its god.
A purification ritual was performed in a Hindu temple in
Orissa last Wednesday after a Dalit minister visited the place of
worship. Women and Child Welfare Minister Pramila Mallick entered
the sanctum sanctorum of the Akhandalamani temple, a highly revered
shrine of Hindu lord Shiva at Aradi village in Bhadrak district.
Temple chief priest
Gokulananda Panda said they performed the purification ritual
because Dalits were not allowed to enter the sanctum sanctorum. The
priests closed the temple for over an hour and washed it soon after
the minister left, Panda said. Mallik confirmed she had visited the
temple along with her family. Dalits in Orissa are barred from
entering many Hindu temples. In November 2004, villagers beat up
four Dalit women for entering an 18th century Jagannath temple at
Keradagarh village in the coastal district of Kendrapada.
28 January 2009
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