Friday, December 4, 2009

[ZESTCaste] Dalits enter Shiva temple for first time in 900 years

 

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_dalits-enter-shiva-temple-for-first-time-in-900-years_1319864

Dalits enter Shiva temple for first time in 900 years
Subhashish Mohanty / DNA

Friday, December 4, 2009 1:29 IST

Bhubaneswar: The Dalits of Kisinapur village in Cuttack district took
a big step on Wednesday. They walked inside the 900-year-old
Chhateswar temple in their village, which has been out of bounds for
them, and offered prayers to Lord Shiva. They were received at the
temple gate by the priests and served 'prasad'.

All these centuries, Dalits had been barred from entering the famous
temple, and nobody had even thought of defying the ban. "It was the
greatest day of my life. I had never dreamt of offering puja to the
deity," said 49-year-old Sabita Mallick.

She and hundreds of other Dalits organised under the Rastriya Yuva
Sangathan, which undertook the padayatra to mark the 75th year of
Mahatma Gandhi's march against untouchability in 1939.

The padayatra began from Bairee in Jajpur on November 30 and ended at
Kisinapur. The procession passed through Chattia, Champapur ashram,
Lekhapur, Rameshawar, Gopinathpur and Satyabhamapur.

Dr Biswajit Ray, spokesperson, Rastriya Yuva Sangathan, said the
Dalits felt good about this gesture from Brahmins. "There was no
palpable tension. Both sections of society exchanged pleasantries on
the occasion," he said. Later, the villagers dined together in a grand
community feast organised on the occasion.

The programme had been planned to build a bridge between Dalits and
the upper castes. And that's exactly what happened.

__._,_.___
----
INFORMATION OVERLOAD?
Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/

PARTICIPATE:-
On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com

TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:-
If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/

Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/
.

__,_._,___

No comments:

Post a Comment