FLUSHING, NEW YORK, December 5, 2003: “For three decades, the Hindu Temple Society of North America has been a peaceful refuge,” reads this prominent article in the New York Times. “Every weekend, thousands of devotees stream to this sanctuary on Bowne Street in Flushing, New York. A recent dispute has shattered the temple’s calm. The dispute has nothing do with Hindu theology or ritual. Instead, it is about who should run the temple, and whether the messy business of democracy has any place in a house of worship. On one side are six members who say the temple is run too autocratically. They are demanding the right to vote for the board of trustees. In August, a state appeals court sided with the six members, ordering elections to be held for the first time. On the other side are the temples’s trustees, who call the court’s ruling an outrageous invasion. They say the lawsuit is just a power play by disaffected members who would like to run the temple themselves.
“The six plaintiffs say they have no interest in changing the roles or rituals performed by the temple’s 10 priests, who have not taken sides. In all likelihood, daily life of the temple would probably be unaffected. But when it comes to elections, both sides are adamant. Dr. Uma Mysorekar, the temple’s president, says forcing an election among hundreds or thousands of members could turn a sacred space into a circus. ‘We want a system that prevails based on dedication and commitment, not based on popularity,’ Dr. Mysorekar said. The current system, in which the temple’s unpaid 11-member board manages the temple’s affairs and votes on its own members when their terms come up, is democratic enough, she says. The plaintiffs say they deserve to have a voice in the affairs of the temple, which has grown over the years to include a community center, a school and a cafeteria. The temple has too much debt, they say, and should be more conservative in its spending. They also admit to having a personal grudge against Dr. Mysorekar, whom they accuse of forcing out dissenting board members over the years to maintain her control over the the temple.
“A lawyer for the plaintiffs discovered a copy of the temple’s original by-laws filed with the federal government when the temple was founded in 1970 which was apparently lost soon afterwards. The 1970 by-laws say the members have voting rights. And though the temple trustees wrote new, more restrictive rules soon afterward, they never followed the proper procedure in amending the old by-laws, because they were not aware of them. That failure was the basis of the legal ruling requiring the temple to reinstate the 1970 by-laws and hold elections.
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