MADURAI: Dalits offered prayers at the caste Hindus maintained Muthalamman temple in the communally sensitive Uthapuram village here on Wednesday, after the Madurai district administration allowed the temple festival to go ahead on Tuesday night.
The village had gained infamy when the existence of an 'untouchability wall' that separated Dalits and the intermediary caste Hindus was brought to public attention few years ago.
Related Story: HC Seeks Reason for Ban on Uthapuram Fest The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Madurai District Collector to explain within two weeks, the ban clamped down on conducting the festival of Sri Muthalamman temple at Uthapuram. Read more |
Though the function was largely incident-free with heavy deployment of police, there still were tense moments when few Dalits garlanded a peepal tree at the temple after worshiping the deity.
Police sources said that the caste Hindus strongly objected to this claiming that this was not part of the peace deal worked out on Tuesday. One of the two garlands were forcefully removed before the police personnel stepped in and prevented the incident from escalating tensions further.
The Dalits protested the removal of the garland and attempted to stage a road roko but were pacified by the police with the assurance that the garland will not be removed.
Earlier, the temple festival that began on October 13 was stopped by the district administration three days later as a section of caste Hindus allegedly refused to allow the Dalits to worship at the temple.
The caste Hindus in charge of the temple administration later moved the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court requesting the district administration to revoke the prohibitory orders, assuring the court that they will not object to Dalits worshiping at the temple. The High Court on Tuesday asked the district administration to respond within two weeks.
Meanwhile, the district administration conducted a peace committee meeting separately with caste Hindus and the Dalits on Tuesday evening in which caste Hindus unanimously agreed to allow the Dalits to worship. Based on this assurance, prohibitory orders were lifted following which the idol made of clay for the festival was brought from Elumalai to Uthapuram on Tuesday night.
While the worship has passed off relatively smoothly on Wednesday morning, additional police personnel have been deployed to ensure that there are no untoward incidents during the procession in the evening. The idol will be taken to a nearby tank for immersion.