Caste realities shackle TN's temple priest diversity push

When he was appointed as a priest in a temple in northern Tamil Nadu's Tindivanam town, it was a watershed moment.

- Divya Chandrababu

CHENNAI: The 40-year-old was among the few other backward classes (OBC) men set to serve the sanctum sanctorum as part of a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam initiative to usher in non-Brahmin priests into temples.

Four years on, the dream has soured. One day in February 2022, he sat overnight in the temple sobbing, afraid to leave the premises because the main Brahmin priest had threatened to get him murdered when questioned why he was not allowed to perform pooja in the main shrine.

"At first, the only work I was given was to buy pooja items for the temple and household items for the main priest's home," the 40-year-old said, requesting anonymity. After a few months, he refused to do anything else other than what he was appointed to do. "And then the mistreatment escalated," he alleged.

"I keep warning the chief priests," said Arun Pandian, the executive officer at a temple in Trichy, whose non-Brahmin priests alleged caste-based discrimination at the hands of chief priests. "They were interfering in the shrines that have been assigned to the two non-Brahmin priests. They keep dominating the non-Brahmin priests," he added.

The OBC priest hails from the Idaiyar community, who are primarily associated with herding and agriculture in Tamil Nadu. He was the first from his family to become a temple priest. "I had no one to support me. I was frightened and just stayed inside the temple the whole night and I cried. I thought they might harm me if I left the temple premises. The next morning my uncle and his friends picked me up in a two-wheeler and took me home," he said.