CHENNAI, INDIA, September 13, 2004: With five days to go for the Ganesh Utsav, the question on everyone’s lips here is should Pillaiyar, as the popular Hindu God is known in Tamil, be made only of clay or also plaster of Paris? The problem lies in an interim order of a Madras High Court division bench, which last week prohibited immersion of icons made of plaster of Paris and other chemicals in the sea. Justices Karpaga Vinayagam and Ashok Kumar said icons made only of clay would not only be solemn but also in “consonance” with nature. “Using plaster of Paris to make the icons first and then breaking them into many parts for the purpose of immersion into the sea, is not at all appreciable,” they added.



If the order underlined the solemn farewell to the God it has come as a shock to potters. “We have been working on the plaster of Paris icons for the last six months,” said Ravi, an artisan in the city’s Kosepet area. “The casts are first made of clay and then the hard plaster of Paris white powder (made from gypsum) mixed with water is poured on them to make the icons in the plaster of Paris mold,” said Murthy, another artisan. “We have already made these icons,” said Senthil Kumar. “Now what do we do?” This crisis of “livelihood” prompted a group of artisans from Kancheepuram to write to the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. They said “there is nothing toxic” in plaster of Paris and that they have been working with the medium for over 15 years without any complaints.



E.V. Ishta Lingam, the secretary of the Kancheepuram Potters’ and Artisans’ Association, said gypsum is as much a “natural substance” as clay. Association officials told The Telegraph they had also attached the results of a sample test conducted by the government’s Chemical Testing and Analytical Laboratory in Chennai which certified that plaster of Paris contains nearly 87 per cent of just calcium sulphate. The sample, they added, had passed the “alkalinity test”. The common refrain was that while icons made of clay “crack up soon and is best suited for making small icons worshipped at homes,” plaster of Paris was a medium suited for making huge images. But the order of the high court, which has asked the state government and the pollution board to submit reports soon, has not dampened the festival mood.



“The stay order was only till last Friday and not further extended till now. So our festivities will not be affected,” said Karthikeyan, who heads the legal wing of the Hindu Munnani, a Sangh parivar outfit which has been organizing Ganesh Utsav throughout Tamil Nadu for over 20 years. “Pillaiyar will take care of everything.” This year, the Hindu Munnani is organizing Ganesh Utsav in 25,000 places across the state, including in 5,008 in Chennai city alone, said Ravikumar, another functionary.

TIRUVARUR, INDIA, September 14, 2004: A total of 3,450 temples in the State have been renovated and kumbabishekam performed in the last three years, P.C. Ramasamy, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister, has said. A sum of US$3.5 million had been allotted for renovating 6,000 small temples in Adi Dravida colonies this year. Annadhanam (free feeding) was being implemented in 171 temples and 15 million people had benefited under the scheme. He was reviewing the performance of executive officers of temples in Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Villupuram districts at the Collectorate here yesterday. He said trustees had been appointed for 79 big temples. P. Ekambaram, Tiruvarur Collector, urged the Minister to help in the construction of pilgrim waiting centres in Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts and Karaikal in Pondicherry. (HPI note: In India, nearly all temples are under government control, with the executive officer being appointed by a government minister.)

INDIA, September 14, 2004: Eminent Sanskrit scholar Govind Chandra Pande has been awarded the 2003 Saraswati Samman by the K.K. Birla Foundation. It was another laurel for the eminent scholar and another reminder to everyone about the pressing need to “revive” the Sanskrit language. But Professor Govind Chandra Pande holds a slightly different view of the ongoing “demise” of the Sanskrit language. In his acceptance speech for the 2003 Saraswati Samman, Pande said that though many people believed that Sanskrit was now a lifeless language, language was not a living being which lives and dies. Pande received the Samman for a collection of his poems in Sanskrit, Bhagirathi, from Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. The K.K. Birla Foundation gives this award to an Indian writer every year for his work in any of the languages included in the Constitution. The award consists of $11,360 and a citation.



Pande said that while some languages changed in a lifetime others like Sanskrit did not. A historian by profession, Pande has been a recipient of many awards. The acharya is currently translating the Rigveda. Speaking on the occasion, Shekhawat said that the classical language is our heritage. He asserted that we must save it from going into oblivion. Instead of showcasing valuable legacy in libraries, we needed to give Sanskrit space in our mind and hearts, he said.

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 15, 2004: The U.S. State Department on Wednesday (Sept. 15) for the first time included Saudi Arabia on a list of eight “countries of particular concern” for not allowing religious freedom, a potential stumbling block for relations between the United States and its Persian Gulf ally. The department’s sixth annual report on international religious freedom also added Eritrea and Vietnam to the roster of those countries guilty or tolerant of “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.” Countries that remained on the list were Burma, China, Iran, North Korea and Sudan. Iraq, which had been on the list under Saddam Hussein’s regime, was removed.



Designation on the “CPC” list does not carry immediate sanctions, and returning countries faced little more than diplomatic pressure. Still, human rights advocates say being listed among “the worst of the worst” is a significant signal. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent watchdog group chartered by Congress in 1998, had urged Powell to also add Pakistan and Turkmenistan to the CPC list in its May report. The panel was divided on whether India should also be listed.



HPI adds: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issues a report each year which is largely concerned with the rights of Christians to proselytize in other countries. Its recommendations have no impact on US policy unless specifically adopted by the Department of State. India, with its long history of religious freedom, is brought in for criticism each year. This year, it was cited for “significant improvements” in religious freedom. Still, it was cited for “state neglect” for persecution of minority religions along with Bangladesh, Egypt, Georgia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Nigeria and Sri Lanka.

KAUAI, HAWAII, September 16, 2004: HPI reader patrick Beherec writes: “I noticed a minor error in the 15 September issue. The Zenit news organization is Catholic and tends to agree with the Pope, however it is not the ‘official’ news agency of the Vatican. That is the Vatican Information Service and the Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office.”