Long post alert!
Good news article in today's Andhrajyothy.
Brings to the fore some of tradition-modernity conundrums.
This is an ancient Lingamayya ( Shiva ) temple in the Nallamalla forest region in Telangana. Custodians have been the forest tribes/jatis historically. Media also called this as Telangana Amarnath Yatra in the past.
Archakas are also from chenchu tribe/jatis from what I know. Temple is not open round the year. Opens usually for 3 days only in the year around an utsavam in specific tithi (chaitra pournami) .
Entry is regulated by government/forestry department and it used to vary from 3-11 days in recent past.
There have been some stampede and crowd (mis) management issues in the past. As the temple opens for very few days there is a lot of rush and crowds around those days. Has increased in recent past perhaps because of increased awareness and increase in temple visiting frequency in general. I think on average footfalls in many temples have increased. Some consumerisation ( read temple tourism) trends are also there. Population increase is ofcourse a reality. Kshetras can't be manufactured from thin air in proportion to population so that reality is anyway there.
In this background forestry department is bringing a proposal to keep the temple open for visitors for 9 months in the year. They gave 3 month exemption also not because of religious reasons but for secular reasons. As the temple is in deep forests and part of tiger reserve region they want to make sure peak tiger birthing season of July-Sep isn't affected! Pure secular consideration clearly. Nothing traditional about it!
Clearly the government seems to be smelling a ₹ generation opportunity here. I don't know details on the ownership of the temple but government has committed a 30% revenue share to the Chenchus. Toll tax, Parking lot money etc are up for grabs anyway.
Per the news article, chenchus are resisting this change. They want the traditional arrangement to continue.
Would be interesting to watch out what happens next.
Garden variety Atheist Nastika Marxists and allied confused activists of telugu country will anyway find a way to insert their pet peeves on Brahminical hegemony in this too. Hindutva Brahmins are taking over Sub-altern Hindu temples style cries have been heard in recent past in another context recently.
It is clear that the traditional world never interfered with the temple practices until now. That is how this tradition survived for so long. Otherwise evil Brahmins would have usurped such traditions long back. Afterall they had all power at their disposal per the narrative that these folks push.
This is clearly a post colonial era secular modernity induced problem. Secular government bureacracy meddling into temple traditions for ₹ greed, consumerisation trends within religion and increased mobility due to better access to modern transportation and increase in disposal incomes are key driving factors here.
So atleast be honest and treat it like that instead of launching a tirade against Brahminical hegemony, Hindu majoritarianism, Hindutva homogenisation etc.
My preference is to respect local temple traditions and carrying capacity limits considering the fact that this is in a wildlife conservation area.
Traditional temple patrons and community custodians need to be given more independence in decision making here. Hindu devotees are ofcourse stakeholders. But this shouldn't be treated by secular government bureacracy and leadership as a ₹ maximization issue. It is not!