HYDERABAD: CS Rangarajan, the head priest of Chilkur Balaji temple, met the Governor of Kerala Arif Mohammad Khan in Hyderabad on Sunday, September 5, 2021, and sought his intervention in preventing of Periyar reforms being implemented in Tamil Nadu, part of which used to be under the princely state of Travancore.
Taking objection to the reforms propagated by Periyar, the priest who is also the convenor of the Temple Protection Movement, conveyed that there was a need to protect the rights of Hindu deities which were being infringed upon by appointing non-customary persons as priests in Tamil Nadu’s temples in the service of deities.
Describing the 1936 Temple Entry Proclamation of Padmanabhaswamy temple through the then king of Travancore Padmanabha Dasa (Chithira Thirunal), who had opened the doors for temples across the State for devotees belonging to all communities as a major reform, he felt that the reform was suppressed due to the effect of colonial consciousness coupled with Periyar’s propaganda, which had pictured Hindu deities as villains. He also gifted a book titled ‘India that is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilization, Constitution’, authored by J Sai Deepak to the governor.