Author: IANS
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: June 7, 2004
URL: http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE820040606054122&Page=8&Title=NRIs&Topic=0&
A Hindu organisation in the US has
condemned reported discrimination against a Dalit student who was allegedly
victimised for offering prayers in a Hindu temple in India's Andhra Pradesh
state.
Navya Shastra, which professes spiritual
equality of all Hindus, has also promised financial assistance to Tukaram,
19, to meet his educational costs.
The boy scored a first class in
his intermediate examinations and visited the village temple of Hanuman
to make the traditional coconut offering in Allapur, Andhra Pradesh. When
members of the upper caste community discovered this they condemned the
boy and extorted Rs.500 fine from his apologetic father, Tulsiram.
They also purified the temple by
washing it with cow urine and dung so as to efface the imprints of an "untouchable,"
according to Vikram Masson, co-chairman of the organisation.
Such community-based discrimination
continues in India despite a constitutional ban and strict legal safeguards
against community discrimination. "Tukaram must know that others in the
Hindu world strongly condemn such actions," said Jaishree Gopal, the other
co- chairman of the organisation.
"Navya Shastra will award Tukaram
a scholarship to help his family with Tukaram's educational costs and sincerely
hopes that the Indian government and religious leaders will pay more attention
to the apartheid in our midst," said Gopal.
