Pushpa Sundar 
Ahead of the assembly polls in April-May, Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai has allocated Rs 1,000 crore for the development and renovation of temples and mutts (a monastery in Hinduism), apart from grants to specific temples, in the state’s 2023-24 budget.
He has also announced that a Ram temple will be built in the Ramnagaram district, which is a stronghold of the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Congress.
The Bharatiya Janata Party government, however, didn’t mention any amount that will be used to build the temple.
In contrast, the government has allocated only Rs 596 crore for 11 development corporations belonging to the backward classes.
“All these mutts are doing educational, philanthropical things, and it will help the government also,” Bommai said, while appearing to justify the grants to the temples and mutts.
The government’s move raises two important questions. Is this secularism, as envisaged in the constitution? And, is the need of the temples and mutts greater than that of the backward classes, and the many NGOs who are always in the frontline of any relief or developmental work, rather than the temples?
India is a secular nation, per the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution of India (1976). Articles 15, 16, 25 and 28 prohibit any discrimination on the grounds of religion. Put simply, all religions must be treated equally in all matters.
However, these Articles have not been followed, especially lately, either in letter or in spirit.
For instance, while financial help and facilities to the Haj pilgrimage have been hedged in through various restrictions, many states, for instance Delhi, are now providing financial support for Hindus to go on pilgrimages. (In 2011, the Supreme Court had ordered that Haj subsidy must end by 2022. In 2018, the Narendra Modi government scrapped the Haj subsidy in line with the apex court order.)
In this particular case, the question is, are there no needy mosques and churches in the state? Or is it that they do not provide educational and philanthropic help to the government when needed? Or are temples really in need of government funds?
According to an article, titled The religious economy: $40 billion and growing, donations for the Ram temple in Ayodhya collected in 2021 is Rs 5,450 crore.
In the West, where, as per several surveys and studies, such as that by Sampradaan Indian Centre for Philanthropy and the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy (CSIP), churches have closed down due to lack of patronage, and there are no instances of the state coming to their aid. In contrast, religious feelings have increasingly emerged in India.
India has seen an increasing numbers of devotees of all faiths who contribute huge amounts of money to religious organisations. The numbers of devotees run into lakhs at the popular pilgrim sites. The famous Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh receives over 40,000 people daily, with the number going up several fold on festival days.
The Siddhi Vinayak temple in Maharashtra draws 1.6 million devotees on Ganesh Chaturthi. But even the local neighbourhood temples are thronged with devotees who donate to the temple.
People flaunt wealth, which remains outside the legal tax system, through elaborate publicised rituals. This wealth also finds its way to temples as donations into hundis (contribution boxes).
In short, religion has become a growth industry, and the income of religious organisations has boomed over the years. Advances in communication and information technology have made many religious bodies tech savvy and enabled them to increase their incomes through online fundraising.
Also read: What We Need in India Is Freedom From Religion
According to a study, titled ‘How India Gives 2020-21’, by the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy, about 64% of the total donations worth Rs 23,700 crore between October 2020 and September 2021 went to religious organisations, rather than NGOs.
A National Sample Survey Office survey estimates that the temple economy in India is worth Rs 3.02 lakh crore or about $40 billion, and 2.32% of the gross domestic product. In reality, however, it may be larger. It includes everything from flowers, oil, lamps, perfumes, bangles, sindur, images and puja dresses. It is driven by the vast majority of the informal unprotected labour.
The 2022-23 Union government revenue is Rs 19,34,706 crore, and it is estimated that only six temples collected at least Rs 24,000 crore in cash alone. There are 500,000 temples, 700,000 mosques and 35,000 churches in India, said the article on religious economy mentioned above.
Many progressive religious leaders and organisations are interpreting their religious duties broadly. They have undertaken philanthropic work, such as starting schools, hospitals, universities and the like. They have taken a more reformist stance aiming to bring social justice for the downtrodden.
However, most traditional places of worship and other religious organisations in India have not gone beyond their religious duties, and are offering shelter and soup kitchens for the poor.
While governments are providing funds for religious organisations on the ground as part of their philanthropic work, civil society organisations, whose main work is social and economic development, have increasingly faced obstacles in raising money for their work through restrictive laws and practices.
Clearly, the allocation is a political strategy and the more the state keeps away from such tactics, the better it will be serving the constitution.
Pushpa Sundar is the author of For God’s Sake: Religious charity and Social Development in India, 2002, SICP, Delhi, and other books on civil society and philanthropy.