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Why religion and building temples is a profitable business in India

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prasad1

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[FONT=&quot]Last year, the number of foreign tourists who came to India was about 90 million. By contrast, domestic tourism totaled over 1,400 million visits; clearly suggesting that its implied economics are far bigger than the foreign business. It also suggests that very many of our people make several trips for tourism every year. While the concentration of the central government’s tourism promotion efforts focus on the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur “golden triangle” the highest number of foreign tourist arrivals (20.1%) are in Tamil Nadu. Delhi draws half that. The southern states see the most foreign and domestic tourist traffic because of the number of important religious places like Madurai. The location of Tirupati within it makes Andhra Pradesh India’s biggest domestic tourist destination. Religious tourism is now very big business. What does this suggest?[/FONT]
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The Pew Global Attitude survey study shows that more than 25% of Indians reported having become more religious over the past four-five years. The trend is valid across religions and in keeping with other attitudinal surveys. Between 2007 and 2015, the share of respondents in India who perceived religion to be very important increased by 11% to 80% now. The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report shows that average expenditure on religious trips has more than doubled during this period. Clearly this is a rapidly expanding business sector and given the trends, the sky is the limit.[/FONT]

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While the economic activity and the employment it generates are a cause for happiness all around, we must also ponder about the other ramifications of this growing religiosity. The growth of blind faith, superstition and aggressive religioneering present a clear and present danger to India evolving as a modernising society which values reason and tempers collective behaviour. The building of temples is a profitable business. That’s why public spaces are increasingly usurped by unscrupulous entrepreneurs to build shrines. And we know from experience that once gods and religious figures get installed in a place, they cannot be dislodged.[/FONT]

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With religiosity and religioneering big business now, it is increasingly common to see governments promoting “religious tourism.”

Actually there is increasingly an unstated and subtle competition now implying that my idol is better than yours. The Venkateshwara temple at Tirumala is India’s biggest money-spinner. This Vaishnavite shrine attracts 40 million devotees each year. Telangana has now embarked on promoting the Yadagirigutta temple near Hyderabad to become a religious tourism draw. Under the CPM government, Kerala temple boards actually advertise the magical powers of their stone idols. Communism was supposed to make us rational and believe God was a figment of mankind’s imagination.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/why-religion-and-building-temples-is-a-profitable-business-in-india/story-UPAQDlEw6tNPNOrOGkcYGO.html[/FONT]
 
Last year, the number of foreign tourists who came to India was about 90 million. By contrast, domestic tourism totaled over 1,400 million visits; clearly suggesting that its implied economics are far bigger than the foreign business. It also suggests that very many of our people make several trips for tourism every year. While the concentration of the central government’s tourism promotion efforts focus on the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur “golden triangle” the highest number of foreign tourist arrivals (20.1%) are in Tamil Nadu. Delhi draws half that. The southern states see the most foreign and domestic tourist traffic because of the number of important religious places like Madurai. The location of Tirupati within it makes Andhra Pradesh India’s biggest domestic tourist destination. Religious tourism is now very big business. What does this suggest?

The Pew Global Attitude survey study shows that more than 25% of Indians reported having become more religious over the past four-five years. The trend is valid across religions and in keeping with other attitudinal surveys. Between 2007 and 2015, the share of respondents in India who perceived religion to be very important increased by 11% to 80% now. The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report shows that average expenditure on religious trips has more than doubled during this period. Clearly this is a rapidly expanding business sector and given the trends, the sky is the limit.


While the economic activity and the employment it generates are a cause for happiness all around, we must also ponder about the other ramifications of this growing religiosity. The growth of blind faith, superstition and aggressive religioneering present a clear and present danger to India evolving as a modernising society which values reason and tempers collective behaviour. The building of temples is a profitable business. That’s why public spaces are increasingly usurped by unscrupulous entrepreneurs to build shrines. And we know from experience that once gods and religious figures get installed in a place, they cannot be dislodged.


With religiosity and religioneering big business now, it is increasingly common to see governments promoting “religious tourism.”

Actually there is increasingly an unstated and subtle competition now implying that my idol is better than yours. The Venkateshwara temple at Tirumala is India’s biggest money-spinner. This Vaishnavite shrine attracts 40 million devotees each year. Telangana has now embarked on promoting the Yadagirigutta temple near Hyderabad to become a religious tourism draw. Under the CPM government, Kerala temple boards actually advertise the magical powers of their stone idols. Communism was supposed to make us rational and believe God was a figment of mankind’s imagination.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/why-religion-and-building-temples-is-a-profitable-business-in-india/story-UPAQDlEw6tNPNOrOGkcYGO.html

This article is yet another reason why one should not trust most of the media outlets in India. It is a mischievous article appearing to be somewhat factual to the gullible but its true objective is to propagate and grow anti-hindu sentiments.

Why are only Hindu temples targeted in this piece?

In fact, when it comes to religion being big business, one has to only look at the biblical religions. I do not want this response to be about pointing out how much money worldwide is hoarded by these mainstream religions. Other than Hinduism, most religion requires a percentage of salary to be allocated to their church/mosque/temple. In Hinduism, there is no requirement of any kind. People voluntarily put whatever they want as offering in the Hundis.

Superstitious practices are increasing worldwide and there are new businesses born everyday across the world to take advantage of people's insecurity. But visiting a temple or prayer is never considered superstition by any clear thinking perspn. Anyone who is a serious scientist cannot make a case against an act of prayer.


India is still an open democracy of some sort and is exploited by outside religious and political forces to target propagation of anti-hindu sentiments. This has been on an exponential increase ever since there is a worldwide acknowledgement that India has the potential to be a super economic power in the coming decades.

The Indian media outlets are owned by Churches and other forces and their tone in the last couple of decades have evolved to propagate anti-hindu ideas. The strategy has been to own media outlets.

Just like Fox news in USA ( created in 1996 by Roger Ailes to propagate extreme Right and evangelical views) enabled a Trump presidency to be possible, there is now a recognition and proof that by strategically owning media outlets it is possible to turn human sentiments in open democracies.

I do not know the accuracy of the presentation in the Youtube segment below by Dr Anuj Shrivasatav.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvr4si4ZddQ

There are other links available by doing Google searches if the above link does not work at your location.

I have not seen a point by point rebuttal made to the above presentation.

Finally some other comments on the articles. My critique is directed at the news item and not on the poster (Sri Prasad) who brought this item for discussion.

Dr Radhakrishnanan famously had said that Hinduism is a way and view of life.

For Hindus, every activity we do is tied to worshipping Isvara. Our classical music is all about singing the glory of Bhagavan. Our daily practices involve starting everything with a prayer. The idea of vacationing is a modern concept. While growing up, we never went on 'vacation' but went to visit family/friends and/or visit temples and religious places. This is built-in lifestyle of most people in India. Going to Tirupathi or any other place is not a new thing as this article claims. The population has gone up and the number of temples have not gone up. Hence one may see a surge in number of people visiting famous temples and religious sites.

The article is right that there are bad practices of usurping public land to build street side temples. There is corruption involved in such cases and these have to be dealt with by going after the trustees of such projects. But overall, the amount of money that Hindus give to temples is far less than most religions that demand 10 to 15% of their total income every month.

Please watch the Youtube segment and then read the article in the opening post.

If there is a critique to what I have written it is welcome (but not flippant and chit-chat comments please)
 
Mohan Guruswamy is an economics and policy analyst.
I suppose him being a Hindu, he would write about that culture and not about Aztecs.
Hindus are the predominant religion in India, and they outnumber all other religions put together in India.
I am a Hindu and have deep roots in India.
If I write about a religion I will write about Hinduism (Good or bad). I have not studied about other religion.

I do read that you wrote that I was bringing this POV of someone else, which is true. But at the same time I happen to agree with that POV.

A Nobel laureate in Physics is expected to write about Physics. If he writes about Brain surgery I would be surprised.

It is suddenly very fashionable to be super nationalistic, super religious at the expense of being social.

I have seen famous guru's being given (or taking over) government lands. I have also seen suddenly temple encroaching on roads.
As I do not travel in Muslim enclaves, I can not talk about them.

The op is not anti-Hindu, just as the movie PK was not anti-Hindu. It is presenting the views of the writer about what he/she knows. We all possess the partial knowledge, and we share what we know. If I have to write only balanced articles all the time, I may never be able to write at all.
 
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Mohan Guruswamy is an economics and policy analyst.
I suppose him being a Hindu, he would write about that culture and not about Aztecs.
Hindus are the predominant religion in India, and they outnumber all other religions put together in India.
I am a Hindu and have deep roots in India.
If I write about a religion I will write about Hinduism (Good or bad). I have not studied about other religion.

I do read that you wrote that I was bringing this POV of someone else, which is true. But at the same time I happen to agree with that POV.

A Nobel laureate in Physics is expected to write about Physics. If he writes about Brain surgery I would be surprised.

It is suddenly very fashionable to be super nationalistic, super religious at the expense of being social.

I have seen famous guru's being given (or taking over) government lands. I have also seen suddenly temple encroaching on roads.
As I do not travel in Muslim enclaves, I can not talk about them.

The op is not anti-Hindu, just as the movie PK was not anti-Hindu. It is presenting the views of the writer about what he/she knows. We all possess the partial knowledge, and we share what we know. If I have to write only balanced articles all the time, I may never be able to write at all.

This analysis by the writer is flawed in many means and is not worthy of propagation. I have provided reasons as to why it is anti Hindu in my prior post.

A journalist is not like a Nobel Laureate. A person is expected to do research provide a presentation that is credible and balanced. Even if it did not talk about social practices of other religions it has to be balanced by presenting the facts to justify his opinions. While there is a truth about public land being taken over by selfish few building temples in the streets, this practices is happening not just in the building of temples. The practice is corrupt but applies to many other aspects of the society. There is nothing unique about Hindu temples to which this practice has to be highlighted.


The author has provided a write up to highlight his prejudices and lacks journalistic objectivity by looking at it from any point of view. Even if the topic he was addressing is only about Hinduism t is not fair and balanced.

If a person is going to talk about trend in the society then they have to do research and express that fully. Otherwise it is incompetence or malice both of which are not worthy of highlighting. What one agrees with the write up or not is their business. I can only appeal to reason to fair minded individuals in my critique of the piece.

One does not have to be Hindu to write about Hindu or any other religion because journalistic integrity means to strive to put a credible presentation.

This piece written is Anti Hindu, not based on a fair and balanced analysis and is selectively advanced by Hindustan Times to advance their hidden agenda.
 
It has become a battle of faiths, between us and I am not going to engage in that anymore.

Friday night's "enemy of the people" tweet by Donald Trump has created further widespread concern about the direction of this Presidency.It hints darkly of a Nixon-like mood inside the White House.

Press is not the enemy of the people, by criticizing entire media as biased, you create an atmosphere where "fake news" only can prosper.

Many journalists and camera operators have risked their lives believing that news coverage is worthwhile and that journalism is a vital public service.
So branding the major Indian networks and the print media as "the enemy of the American people" is a disgrace.
It is also dangerous.
Journalists are already being targeted, and are more likely to be after this kind of tirade.

The following quote from Op is worth repeating and is not against any particular religion unless you are into superstitions as a religion.

While the economic activity and the employment it generates are a cause for happiness all around, we must also ponder about the other ramifications of this growing religiosity. The growth of blind faith, superstition and aggressive religioneering present a clear and present danger to India evolving as a modernising society which values reason and tempers collective behaviour. The building of temples is a profitable business. That’s why public spaces are increasingly usurped by unscrupulous entrepreneurs to build shrines. And we know from experience that once gods and religious figures get installed in a place, they cannot be dislodged.
 
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It has become a battle of faiths, between us and I am not going to engage in that anymore.



Press is not the enemy of the people, by criticizing entire media as biased, you create an atmosphere where "fake news" only can prosper.

Many journalists and camera operators have risked their lives believing that news coverage is worthwhile and that journalism is a vital public service.
So branding the major Indian networks and the print media as "the enemy of the American people" is a disgrace.
It is also dangerous.
Journalists are already being targeted, and are more likely to be after this kind of tirade.

The following quote from Op is worth repeating and is not against any particular religion unless you are into superstitions as a religion.

1. First there is never a battle with any member, my critique as asserted is against the piece that was in the Opening post.
2. There is no faith involved in my critique about agenda driven items
3. There is no 'nationalism' involved in my critique

More later ..
 
I would like to present a different point of view. I am personally worried about the well being of my religion in the same way I would want myself to be good or perfect. This does not mean I do not care about the rest but my knowledge and my ability to exert influence is strong in that personal domain.

So my view is I would keep my own house in order and just hope others do the same. Of course I am willing to offer my help if solicited.
 
Further to post # 6
============

I would suggest readers who are open to facts to read the book by Rajiv Malhotra - especially the first in the series of books he had written titled Breaking India

The media enterprise in India and who controls what is not easily identified. When journalistic integrity is lost, then that entity cannot be trusted.

Most dictators use media directly to shape the message the public sees. In democracies, major powers are controlling the media outlets.

In USA, there are still reasonable journalists and news shows like PBS, NPR, etc. There are excellent journalists in shows like VICE

Similarly, there are many excellent journalists in India. However one has to read stories and opinion pieces like the one in the OP with a grain of salt.

There is an agenda to break India and media outlets do play a role. My suggestion is for people to do their own research. In addition when we come across a low integrity news item that we speak up about it. That is the least any of us can do.

A criticism on a piece of external writing has nothing to do with any member here and I really could not care less if anyone believe in the write up or not because in the debating point of the content, my belief or someone else's belief is truly irrelevant.
 
In the modern world, as the economic cycles, push and pull people out of opportunities, depending on the number of uncertainties to people ratio, the 'faith' component increases.

When there are a large number of opportunities and less uncertainties, people tend to be more agnostic or atheistic. When uncertainties increase, faith increases, as it is the virtual pillar that all human beings rely in different circumstances.

In the current world, where more and more people are aspiring for more opportunities, uncertainties have increased for them hugely with respect to their expectations. So it is natural that faith is increasing.

It is increasing for all religions and cults. Newer cults are coming to prominence in every religion. Sanatana Dharma is not a religion. A religion defines starting and ending points. Some religions like Islam even define the path in-between.

But Sanatana dharma does not define a starting point or ending point. Based on your philosophy or school of thought, there are umpteen number of starting and ending points. But it proposes a way of life in between called Varna Asrama Dharma (which is mis-understood, misinterpreted and maligned). Its philosophies come out of questioning the vedas, interpreting them and trying to seek better knowledge from vedic texts, which were heard. So we can say there are lot of religions and cults inside sanatana dharma that proclaim their own starting and ending points by attributing their understanding to vedic or upanishadic or puranic texts of yore.

Depending on how one views it, we can attribute different motives to authors who are highlighting a state of the matter. Tough to judge the motives behind such highlighting.

But this mushrooming of faith, in particular dubious cults centered around specific individuals is not a sustainable one. They often degrade into superstitions and peter out without adding value or knowledge to us. They are just indication of how bad or worse our times are getting for individuals.

We need to be a society led by Brahmanas (Knowledge providers, not refering to a caste), served by Kshatriyas (service providers) and provided by Vaishyas (Material/goods providers) having a balance between these people. But today we are a society of Zudras (slave/cheap labor) is our problem.
 
I would like to present a different point of view. I am personally worried about the well being of my religion in the same way I would want myself to be good or perfect. This does not mean I do not care about the rest but my knowledge and my ability to exert influence is strong in that personal domain.

So my view is I would keep my own house in order and just hope others do the same. Of course I am willing to offer my help if solicited.

I agree with your POV.
 
In the modern world, as the economic cycles, push and pull people out of opportunities, depending on the number of uncertainties to people ratio, the 'faith' component increases.

When there are a large number of opportunities and less uncertainties, people tend to be more agnostic or atheistic. When uncertainties increase, faith increases, as it is the virtual pillar that all human beings rely in different circumstances.

In the current world, where more and more people are aspiring for more opportunities, uncertainties have increased for them hugely with respect to their expectations. So it is natural that faith is increasing.

It is increasing for all religions and cults. Newer cults are coming to prominence in every religion. Sanatana Dharma is not a religion. A religion defines starting and ending points. Some religions like Islam even define the path in-between.

But Sanatana dharma does not define a starting point or ending point. Based on your philosophy or school of thought, there are umpteen number of starting and ending points. But it proposes a way of life in between called Varna Asrama Dharma (which is mis-understood, misinterpreted and maligned). Its philosophies come out of questioning the vedas, interpreting them and trying to seek better knowledge from vedic texts, which were heard. So we can say there are lot of religions and cults inside sanatana dharma that proclaim their own starting and ending points by attributing their understanding to vedic or upanishadic or puranic texts of yore.

Depending on how one views it, we can attribute different motives to authors who are highlighting a state of the matter. Tough to judge the motives behind such highlighting.

But this mushrooming of faith, in particular dubious cults centered around specific individuals is not a sustainable one. They often degrade into superstitions and peter out without adding value or knowledge to us. They are just indication of how bad or worse our times are getting for individuals.

Your post is balanced and measured.
The last paragraph is troubling as the definition you used is not the prevailing understanding.
 
1. First there is never a battle with any member, my critique as asserted is against the piece that was in the Opening post.
2. There is no faith involved in my critique about agenda driven items
3. There is no 'nationalism' involved in my critique


More later ..


Your post#2 was against the poster Mr. Guruswamy.
Please tell me why you think the post is wrong.
Let us keep to what is written in the article.
 
Your post is balanced and measured.
The last paragraph is troubling as the definition you used is not the prevailing understanding.

Few thoughts..

As scientific progress advances, the rate of change in social and mental spheres accelerates, at times comes in bursts rather than in a slow evolving mode, making it difficult for people to adapt over centuries. This is going to tear apart individuals for sure. We are witnessing it world-wide.

That is 'Kali' yuga. There will be lot of people to make a business out of this mess, to turn this into an opportunity for them.

Selling hopes and dreams and not institutional changes, selling 'tamasic or rajasik bhakti' instead of sattvik bhakti, selling 'dogmatic solutions' instead of rational analysis, selling 'messiahs' instead of 'brahmanas/knowledge providers of society', we can find such people becoming successful everywhere in Kali Yuga. That is its nature.

The 'A-brahamic' faiths have individual messiahs and that is the difference between varna asrama dharmic sanatana dharmic society and A-brahmanic (abraham the messiah) society.

But such messiahs come up in sanatana dharmic society too in kali yuga in every domain of life.

In every force there is a seed of its opposition. When such people become successful more and more, they naturally create their opposing forces and other side also increases.

At some point of time as the opposing forces gather strength and society returns to be driven by knowledge providers (brahmanas). From kali yuga, satya yuga is born. That's the cycle.

-TBT
 
Removed all the replies that are unwanted and irrelevant to the discussion.


Praveenji,
This thread is in GD Section, and everything is relevant here. I did not post this thread in Religion or any other serious sections. Please let it flow.


We are all seekers, none of us, know it all. Those who pretend to know it all are wrong.
 
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My humble opinion: Wrong kind of Judicial activism with a lot of uncalled for fervour. Not good for the litigant public nor for justice.

Thanks and bye.
 
Let us put a simple test to determine if the article is ordinary or agenda driven.

What is alleged is that (i) public land is being encroached upon and usurped by by unscrupulous elements in the guise of building temples; (ii) there is growth of blind faith, superstition and aggressive religioneering; (iii) unstated and subtle competition implying my idol is better than yours syndrome.

The examples given are Tirupati Venkateshwara temple and Yadagirigutta Narasimha temple. These temples have been in existence for centuries and one must be joking to give the examples of these temples in land usurpation. In fact, land and real estate belonging to Tirupati Venkateshwara temple has been grabbed and usurped by the then YSR congress regime. If someone needs, I will be only too happy to give web links for this usurpation.

Are there any accusations of promotions of blind faith, superstition and excessive religioneering by these temples? I have not come across any such reporting and the author of the piece has curiously chosen not to make any mention of it.

Now coming to the my idol is bigger than yours syndrome. Are there any idol worshippers in India other than Hindus? No. So it is very clear who are the targets.

Now who are those usurping and grabbing public land to build shrines? My guesstimate is that the author is alluding to many trusts and foundations like Asaram, Sri Sri, Isha Foundation etc. and many such baba and maa foundations

The author is unwilling to name them or shame them, so is a coward and intellectually dishonest to take cover of TTD and Yadagirigutta temples to drive his agenda point.
 
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Your post#2 was against the poster Mr. Guruswamy.
Please tell me why you think the post is wrong.
Let us keep to what is written in the article.

I am away traveling for long weekend. I just got caught up with the thread. Your answer is very well responded to by Sri Narayan (Zebra16) - Post #18, with very good supporting data that I could not have provided.

There is not much more I have to add at this point. My prior responses have addressed the query for most part.
 
There are some members who think they know it all.

Their knowledge encompasses the whole universe, and all other knowledge is waste of time.
Maybe to them.

Please remember Avvaiyar's famous saying.


Her quote "Katrathu Kai Mann Alavu, Kallathathu Ulagalavu" has been translated as "What you have learned is a mere handful; What you haven't learned is the size of the world".


If you have seen a posting or an opinion that you are master of please ignore the poster or the post. Let others enjoy it without your editorial. If have an opinion on the post do post and be ready to be challenged. Please do not critics the poster or their motives.​

Last edited by prasad1; Today at 12:59 PM.​

 
I too feel that the article is biased. It talks about religion but narrows down to Madurai and Tirupati. What about Velankanni? Nagore Dargah? What about the Haj pilgrimages? What about new churches and mosques that mushroom about? What about the conversion for money program that the missionaries undertake? How do the statistics fare here?
 
There are some members who think they know it all.

Their knowledge encompasses the whole universe, and all other knowledge is waste of time.
Maybe to them.

Please remember Avvaiyar's famous saying.


Her quote "Katrathu Kai Mann Alavu, Kallathathu Ulagalavu" has been translated as "What you have learned is a mere handful; What you haven't learned is the size of the world".


If you have seen a posting or an opinion that you are master of please ignore the poster or the post. Let others enjoy it without your editorial. If have an opinion on the post do post and be ready to be challenged. Please do not critics the poster or their motives.​
Last edited by prasad1; Today at 12:59 PM.​

Dear Mr Prasad:

Based on your PM to me wanted to check this thread out.

There are wide variations in views from members. That makes it more interesting though I am not interested in this topic.

A friendly comment : My quote of Gandhi in that sticky thread still applies here. As someone who deals with people, process and organizational counseling in my career, I have known that those that constantly judge and find faults of others and their personalities (ego), tend to have ego problems themselves.

Let the know-all be the know-all. No one claims that as far as I can tell. Why call names of any members or even call them 'know-all' ? In any case who cares.

Even, if such people talk about themselves or others we should bring the discussion back to the topic. (I know a few who find faults of others all the time).

I know this part of the comment do not belong in the thread - my upfront apologies but I thought it is relevant since it seems to be connected to the sticky thread. I am trying to take much more time to form my responses after reading the sticky thread.
 
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