Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Temple priests

The Tamil Nadu Government's decision to allow all persons irrespective of caste to work as temple priests does not seem to be well thought out. No consideration appears to have been given to the fact that lakhs of priests, particularly in the rural areas, will be rendered jobless. The job of a temple priest is not a coveted one. Several priests struggle to make both ends meet, leave alone educating their children. They know no other job. Further, there was no agitation by the people in this respect.

A.G. Balasubrahmanian,
Chennai

The decision will surely not have the backing of a majority of the people considering the sentimental value attached to the issue. Instead, the Government should take steps to recover the huge dues owed by those cultivating thousands of acres of lands belonging to temples, renovate the many dilapidated ones, and explore other avenues of augmenting the income of temples.

J. Anantha Padmanabhan,
Srirangam, T.N.

The decision reminds one of Will Durant's statement: "No one man, however brilliant or well-informed, can come in one lifetime to such fullness of understanding as to safely judge and dismiss the customs or institutions of his society, for those are the wisdom of generations after centuries of experiment in the laboratory of history."

K. Vedamurthy,
Chennai

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