In a strange reversal of developments from the West, where religious institutions have seen a decline in income while people have become richer, in India, the gods have become richer while the poor have become poorer.
Because the number of devotees going to worship has declined, many churches in England, Canada and elsewhere have closed or are offering limited services. Some have been sold to other faiths and converted into mosques and temples. On the other hand, most Indian places of worship, and not just Hindu, show a contrary trend. As times turn uncertain and the pressures of life cause unbearable stress, more and more Indians are turning to religion for solace. Religious organisations of all faiths are seeing an increasing numbers of devotees whose numbers run into lakhs at the more popular pilgrim places and who contribute increasing amounts of money to their gods to placate them or to seek boons.
A second reason why gods have become richer in India is that liberalisation has generated a lot of new wealth, a large proportion of which remains outside the legal tax system as black money and finds its way to temples as donations into hundis (contribution boxes). Finally, advances in communication and information technology have made many religious bodies tech savvy. They use the new tools for further fund raising and for managing the money, assets, records and crowds.
The temples, gurudwaras and other religious institutions attract not only devotees but also allied businesses of all kinds such as jewellers, garland makers and so on, seeking opportunities to make money. In short, religion has become a growth industry.
While 30% of India’s poor have to live on Rs 32 per day in villages and Rs 47 in cities, in houses of mud and straw, with no clothes worth the name to cover their bodies, no water or nutritious food and no toilets to ease themselves when alive, and cannot even afford to die because of no money to bury or cremate them after death, the gods in over 16 religious shrines in India have income which runs into crores. They live or travel out in silver and gold bedecked sanctums and chariots, clothed and ornamented in the finest of fine clothes and jewellery, fed sumptuously and sung to sleep.
Wealth beyond the devotee’s imagining
The richest of all the temples in India, the Padmanabhaswamy temple, is estimated to have around $20 billion. The golden idol of Mahavishnu in the temple wears antique gold ornaments and golden crowns, and holds a golden bow. The gold necklace adorning the deity is 18 feet long and weighs around 2.5 kg.
The second richest temple, that of Lord Venkateswara at Tirupati, is visited by approximately 60,000 visitors who donate around Rs 650 crore to the temple in a year. The gold on the deity itself weighs 1,000 kg.
Similarly, the Siddhivinayak temple’s dome over the Ganesha idol is coated in 3.7 kilos of gold. On average, the annual income of the temple is Rs 48 crore.
Even Shirdi Sai Baba, who had renounced all riches in his life to lead an ascetic existence, is said to have gold and silver jewellery worth approximately Rs 32 crore and silver coins worth more than Rs 6 lakh. The temple gets donations worth Rs 350 crore every year.
Commercialisation of religion
As the income of religious organisations has boomed, so have opportunities for spending offered by crass commercialisation and new technology. The increase in godly wealth is being flaunted through elaborate publicised spending on ritual and festivals. At no time is this more evident than in the ongoing festival season when across India a number of gods – Krishna, Ganesh, Durga and others – are said to come to Earth to visit their people. Traditionally, the visiting gods were hosted in individual homes, in their shrines and in local communities as a whole, in a style in consonance with the devotees’ income and standing. There is no record of any god being offended by, or refusing to grant the wishes of a devotee solely on acount of, the amount of money spent or conversely, favouring those who had been lavish in their spending. But now it appears that even gods believe that you only get what you pay for and are doing inflation accounting besides.