Uttarakhand's Char Dhams Where Lines of Temple ‘Control’ Blur Between Govts & Locals

Dear Reader,

For many years we have subscribed to the argument that the temple control must remain in the hands of traditional stakeholders and locals.

The government being an outsider without any skin in the game is not likely to act in the long-term best interests of the temple or the temple ecosystem. This was a fair argument given the state of temples in Tamil Nadu and other places.

But what if there was a test case of a large temple ecosystem being in the hands of locals and traditional administrators? What if there was also another temple ecosystem nearby in the hands of the government?

In Uttarakhand, we have such a situation where the Badrinath and Kedarnath are in control of a government trust. And just nearby we have Yamunotri and Gangotri under purohit-led management.

My colleague Sumati Mehrishi who now lives in the beautiful hill state of Uttarakhand spent significant time putting together this story contrasting the approaches of the two ecosystems.

Click here to read the story.

PS: This story is part of our special issue on the issue of government control of temples and how best to change it.

- Amar Govindarajan

For the next few days, every evening we'll be sending you an article from our special print issue on temple freedom. What you just read was one of them. We're sure you'll find this one and the ones following interesting.

But the best way to read and experience them are through our print magazines. They're printed as a limited, special issues which can be ordered here.

- Raghu