JOIN USPejawar seer urged to have food with Dalits at Mutt
K S Shivaramu, Karnataka Rajya Hindulida Vargagala Jagrithi Vedike State president, has urged Pejawar Mutt pontiff Vishweshatheertha Swami to have ‘Sahapankti Bhojana’ with sanitation workers, during Paryaya celebrations on January 18.
Briefing mediapersons here on Saturday, he said that if the seer is committed to the upliftment of the underprivileged, then he should invite the sanitation workers (pourakarmikas) for the ‘Sahapankti Bhojana’ – where members of the upper castes have food with Dalits.
He said that the modified version of Made Snana, known as ‘Ede Snana’ should also be banned at all the Subrahmanya temples in the State. Under the modified version, devotees will no longer be allowed to roll over plantain leaves with leftovers of food consumed by Brahmins.
Instead, the food offered to the deity will be directly brought from the sanctum sanctorum of the temple to the outer yard in the form of ‘prasadam’ and it will be placed on the plantain leaves for the devotees to roll over them.
Opposing the ‘Ede Snana’ and ‘Panktibheda’ (discrimination based on caste while serving food at temples) and demanding the implementation of the anti-superstition Bill, the Vedike will organise a protest rally, at Mysuru on December 15 at 10.30 am.
The Dalita Hakkugala Horata Samithi and other like-minded organisations will organise a protest rally in all the district and taluk headquarters on the occasion.
He said, “The rituals of Made Snana, Ede Snana, and Panktibheda were started in the name of culture and tradition is an inhuman act. There is a need to introspect on such ritual and its relevance in the modern society.”
Shivaramu said that such rituals are unconstitutional. “There is a need to develop scientific temperament, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform among fellow beings. If the government fails to ban Ede Snana, then all the intellectual citizens should raise their voice once against such inhuman practice in the society,” he insisted.
He called upon the upper class people to pave a way for change by banning both Ede Snana and Made Snana. The educated and progressive youth from the upper classes should question the relevance of such ritual and put an end to such an inhuman act. By banning Ede Snana along with Made Snana, Pejawar seer should uphold the principles of equality and humanitarian values, Shivaramu added.
Stating that filing of PIL opposing Made Snana was a wrong step by the protesters, he said that such rituals should have been stopped by way of protest.