Tamil Nadu to take Dalits into temple where they were banned

Tiruvannamalai/Tamil Nadu: The district administration of Tiruvannamalai is going to take a community of Scheduled Caste into a temple for worship. The community weren't allowed to enter the temple for decades, NDTV reported citing authorities.

The matter came to light during a parent-teacher meeting, and many talks with dominant communities in the area contributed to the historic development here.

But, heavy police troops were deployed outside the temple premises to avoid untoward incidents. This is after a particular faction has issued fierce opposition towards the move.

In Melmudiyanur village, about 500 Scheduled Caste families reside, and they were not allowed inside the 200-year-old temple for the past three decades. Dominant communities here argue that both communities have agreed to pray in different temples decades ago, and there is no need to change that precedence.

Since around 750 members of the dominant communities were protesting the move to enter the SC community into the temple, the police deployment was resorted to.

Earlier, the district collector and the Superintendent of Police carried out peace meetings to persuade dominant communities.

Temple entry for the Pongal prayers. If everything happens as planned by the authorities, the SC community will enter the temple and pay Pongal prayers.

From the said amount of SC families, some 15 to 20 families have come forward expressing their willingness to enter the temple, and the police said this could be a fresh beginning. They added that more would come, and this will dissolve the 'communal divide', NDTV writes.

This is the second such a move in the state after the district collector of Pudukkotai district allowed a group who were denied entry into a temple to enter it. She ensured their entry, too, after there were reports of excreta being mixed in a drinking water tank that was used by the SC community.