The 'Made Snana' practiced at the Kukke Subramanya temple, near Mangalore attracts severe criticism and equal amount of support in India. The practice involves devotees allowed to roll over plantain leaves; reportedly after dominant caste Brahmins have eaten from the leaves. It is believed that the ritual will cure skin diseases, in the past leprosy, mostly of the inferior castes, in particular the Dalits. The temple is under the Muzrai Department of the Government of Karnataka. Dr. Vedavyas Srinivas Acharya, a senior minister of the state cabinet, who is also responsible for higher education, planning, statistics and information technology departments in the state government heads the Muzrai department. Dr. Acharya is a medical doctor turned politician.
That a qualified medical doctor heads a government department, which manages religious institutions and the revenue generated from such institutions is also responsible for other important cabinet portfolios, not only allows such inhuman practices in the country but justifies it in the name of religious belief and centuries-old tradition is not just a shame for the country, but illuminates the deep-rooted nature of orthodox prejudices that benefits the dominant castes in the caste system of India. It underscores the fact that the liberation of the country from the cobweb of caste is impossible should the current situations continue. It paints an appalling picture of what modernisation means in India, that Acharya is a senior minister in the state, which hosts the country's IT capital, Bangalore. It reiterates the argument that neo-Dalit political leaders like Ms Mayawati are nothing more than shrewd politicians who use pro-Dalit sentiments to maintain power and intends no good to the community that she allegedly represents and her newfound affinity for Brahminical practices could justify, manual scavenging, a practice vicious and demeaning that rolling over banana leafs.
The government had prohibited the practice of Made Snana in 1979. But it was soon reintroduced on the justification that it is a centuries-old religious ritual. So is untouchability, a much older practice, which today is prohibited not only in the constitution, but also in at least half a dozen statutes. Yet it continues openly in the country.
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