Kerala's Sivagiri Mutt to push ahead with stir to abolish practice of removing shirts in temples

Guru Dharama Prachara Sabha, which is associated with the Sivagiri Mutt in Thiruvananthapuram, is staging a rally and prayer to the Travancore Devaswom Board office in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday demanding that the shirt removal practice should be abolished at the temples under the Devaswom board.

Thiruvananthapuram: Ignoring the protest by some Hindu outfits in Kerala, the outfits associated with social reformer Sree Narayana Guru are taking forward the demand to abolish the practice of asking men to remove shirts while entering temples.

Guru Dharama Prachara Sabha, which is associated with the Sivagiri Mutt in Thiruvananthapuram, is staging a rally and prayer to the Travancore Devaswom Board office in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday demanding that the practice of removing shirts should be abolished at the temples under the Devaswom board.

Various other demands like doing away with the practice of appointing only members from the upper caste Malayala Brahmana community as 'Melshanthi' (Chief priest) at the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple will also be raised during the demonstration.

Sivagiri mutt head Swami Satchidananda, who had recently raised the demand for reforming the dress code, will inaugurate the demonstration.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had earlier backed Swami Satchidananda on the matter. But various Hindu outfits like the Nair Service Society (NSS) that represents the Hindu Nair upper caste had opposed it.

However, Vijayan continues to back the Sivagiri Mutt's stand. He said on Wednesday that Sree Narayana Guru had abolished many such practices and the moves by the Sivagiri mutt need to be hailed.

Vijayan's support to the Sivagiri mutt, which is the major pilgrim centre of the Hindu Ezhava community, comes close on the heels of the CPI(M) expressing concerns over BJP making inroads into the Ezhava vote banks.

Ezhava, which is the largest Hindu community in Kerala that comes in the OBC category, had been considered as traditional vote banks of the left parties in Kerala. But Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), which is associated with Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana yogam (SNDP), is a coalition partner of BJP in Kerala. In the last parliament election, BJP candidates improved vote share in many strongholds of CPI(M). The party had even alleged that the BJP was trying to saffronise the SNDP.