Devaswam and Brahmaswam are historical ownership classifications of land and other properties for institutional administration in medieval Kerala. While Devaswom refers to belongings of temples, Brahmaswam designates lands and assets controlled or owned directly by Brahmin families. In this, Brahmswam is long gone and no more relevant.
However, Devaswom wealth is still a reality and highly misused, in fact not properly used for the benefit of the temples and the vast population of believers. One thing we have to remember is that Devaswam wealth, unless properly managed and used, will become a liability in a so-called secular country. Hindus will not be able to use it for the betterment of the temple, themselves and the society at large if policy and programs are not in place at the earliest.
There are about 6000+ temples in Kerala alone, half of them with the government and the other half with private entities. Some of the temples in both categories are really big with vast extent of properties, gold and deposits. Whether they are with the government or families or other entities, temples are places of worship and must be utilisable by all Hindus. That’s the law now.
Current Kerala Scenario
Wherever wealth accumulates there will be pilferage. That’s the universal law of human greed and selfishness. It is the same situation in all areas of our society, but let us take the case of Hindu Temples in Kerala now. Atleast a dozen temples in Kerala are really wealthy today. Land, Gold, Silver etc etc are accumulating and overflowing beyond the real needs of the temples. Since ancient times, rich and powerful Hindu families used to donate a part of their wealth to the temples for the propitious favours from Gods. I think there was an element of social pressure for distribution of wealth involved this noble act by the lucky and wealthy people. If we analyse closely, all the temple activities, except the rituals, involve an element of commercial transactions that result in the transfer of wealth in the society.
Once something is donated to the deity in a temple, it becomes part of the temple wealth. If it is a really costly item like a crown, ornament, property or construction or even currency, what do we do with it? That is where corruption and malpractices start their work. If it is an ornament it can be used for a specific period of time and archived. If it is to be used on specified occasions, let it be so. But what should we do with the currency and other valuable items? That’s where we need to think about and bring in reforms and policies. Our society too has a sizeable proportion of greedy and corrupt people as in all other societies the world over. Temple Loot is no monopoly of Devaswom Board officials alone. All the private devaswom boards and trust too have an equal measure of such greedy looters. The only thing common between them is that none of them are true believers of God. There should be systematic checks and balances within our temple administration system to counter this.
Potential Future
In the current situation of Kerala we have limited options for containing the systemic rot within both Governmental and Private Devaswom administration. So many decades of Leftist rule, mostly by proclaimed atheists and non-believers, have brought the Hindu Temples to the present pathetic condition. With the highly likely scenario of a Hindu minority population in Kerala in the not-so-distant future, not much can be expected from the State Government to reform the Devaswom Boards. The loot of temple wealth will continue in one form or another. But with the huge rise in the Muslim and Christian population, the “secular” State will definitely let go the Temples from its clutches. Kerala Hindus will witness an unprecedented tragedy of faith if we are not prepared for such a highly likely development.
The only entity that is unifying the Hindu society in Kerala is now Temple. Caste organisations are strong in Kerala but often works against the interests of the Hindu religion as a whole. Some of them even align with sworn enemies of Sanatana Dharma and Indian nation for petty narrow and short-sighted reasons. Nationalist forces are unable to get a foothold in Kerala only because of the non-co-operation of the caste organisations. On the other hand, the Semitics are silently working towards containing the Sanatani temples and other institutions. Many of the famous temples have been isolated and surrounded by enemy properties and business units. As the situation worsens, take over of the Sanatani properties will be swift and silent.
Possible Mitigation Measures
The only one thing that can be done in Kerala is to regain the Devaswom properties in and around the temples and get them ready as islands of protection and resistance. We have lost all the Kashmiri temples because there were no plans for containment of enemy forces. The current situation in Kerala is apt for initiating such measures for regaining and protection of our places of worship and pilgrimage by feasible means. We have so much wealth locked up in our major temples with systematic pilferage going on. In olden times, the temple wealth belonged to the Kings for use during wars and famines. Similarly, we should now pledge or sell all the unwanted gold to the RBI to be used as security. Now the world at large is moving away from Dollars and selling off US Treasury Bills to buy Gold as reserve. So the GOI/RBI will be interested in buying the Temple Gold and giving the money in return.
Such money must be used for buying back all the so-called private properties immediately around our major temples and even nearby areas. While properties in the near vicinity can be used for building nosiness complexes, the large areas outside must be used for building housing complexes. Newly married Hindus without any houses or land of their own must be given these houses on rent for a long period of time (say 10 to 20 years). The only condition is that they will follow Sanatan Dharma till the time they remain there. Children brought up in such temple colonies will be the security for Kerala Hinduism in the coming ages. The occupants must create their own homes, move out within the period of tenancy and give way to the next batch of homeless Hindu couples. The temple administration must maintain all the real estate and must never sell it off again. If any temple is run properly, it will generate adequate income for all such activities. Temple wealth in terms of Gold etc must not accumulate beyond a certain limit. Systems must be place to hand them over to the State for adequate returns.
It is expected that the Sanatani forces in our nation will take note of these suggestions and set in motion programs and policies to implement them. Unless something similar is done, Hinduism in Kerala do not have a promising future and Kashmir Valley will repeat itself at the feet of India.
