In a move that once again highlights the DMK government’s casual contempt for Hindu sentiment, over 1,000 kilograms of gold offered by devotees to temples across Tamil Nadu has been melted down. The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department converted the sacred offerings into 24-carat bars and deposited them in a bank, reportedly earning ₹17.81 crore annually.
On paper, it sounds like smart asset management. But peel back the legalese and finance jargon, and you find something far more disturbing—a government deciding, without public consultation or spiritual accountability, to convert faith into financial returns.
Whose Consent? Whose Gold? (Tamil Nadu)
According to official notes, the gold melted was “unused” or “unfit for deities.” But who decided that? The devotees who offered them in reverence weren’t asked. The temples themselves did not publicly call for such conversions. And nowhere was there any mention of open dialogue with the Hindu community before liquefying offerings made across generations.
This isn’t administrative efficiency. It’s sacrilege disguised as strategy.
Would the same government dare touch offerings made at churches or mosques? Would they send artifacts from dargahs to be melted for profit? Of course not. But with Hindu temples, the state continues to behave as if sacred institutions are state-owned enterprises.
Sacred to Scrap: What the Numbers Reveal
The scale is staggering. Over 10,74,000 grams of pure gold—much of it from the famous Arulmigu Mariamman Temple in Samayapuram—has been turned into currency. And now the state earns crores from faith, while hiding behind a committee of retired justices to claim oversight.
Silver is next. The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department has approved melting “unused” silver in temples through private smelters—again, under state watch, inside temple premises. No mention of public transparency. No question of consent.
When Temples Become Treasury Departments
This isn’t the first time temple wealth has been viewed as an ATM by the state. What’s different now is the scale and the normalization. Each move is wrapped in bureaucratic language and presented as a win for “temple development.” But if development were truly the goal, why hasn’t the government shown this urgency when temples crumble due to neglect, or when priests go unpaid?
Let’s be honest: this is a state profiting from faith while pretending to protect it.
Selective Secularism in Full Display (in Tamil Nadu)
The irony here is bitter. The DMK government would never think of managing the funds of a church or mosque. Their offerings are protected, their administration autonomous. But Hindu temples? Fair game.
That’s not secularism. That’s state-sanctioned discrimination.
The HR&CE Act—unique in its targeting of Hindu temples—remains a colonial hangover, and DMK has weaponized it, turning deities into depositors, devotion into dividends.
The Real Cost: Faith Eroded
Gold offerings aren’t mere objects—they’re prayers, gratitude, penance. To melt them without consent is to melt trust. And once broken, trust is hard to restore.
This isn’t a policy success. It’s a warning. A line has been crossed.
If the DMK truly respected Hindu tradition, it would begin by removing its hands from temple coffers, returning administration to spiritual caretakers, and treating Hindu institutions with the same reverence it reserves for others.
Until then, no number of “interest earned” statements can cover the real deficit—the loss of faith in those elected to protect all religions equally.