Skip to main content

Of child labour and 'sanskari' (cultured?) education at temples near Ahmedabad

By Rajiv Shah 
It was a pleasure trip.  We enjoyed it thoroughly. We visited three temples about more than 100 km from Ahmedabad -- towards the famous Harappan site of Lothal. However, Lothan didn't appear to attract the group members of the society where we live.
First it was a Boot Bhawani temple at a village called Arnej, then we went to Ganpatipura temple of Lord Ganesh, where I had been about two decades ago, and finally to Sarangpur Hanuman temple and the Swaminarayan temple aligned with it. I asked what was meant by "Boot", but nobody seemed to know.
At Sarangpur Hanuman temple, it was interesting that they offered free meal, where we had our lunch, though what disturbed we was three poor kids, including two girls, taking from us used plates and handing them over to the woman who collected them. I also noticed a small child sweeping the premises of the temple, and I managed to take his photograph.
At the Swaminarayan temple, I was struck by a photograph which talked of "sanskari" (cultured) education at the Swaminarayan Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya -- but the photograph was only of boys. No girl could be seen, even in snapshots put up on the temple priests and their devotees. It seemed to be a male dominated premise all the way! 
On our return journey there was a stopover at an agriculture farm where wheat plants were to be seen. Group members took photographs (and I was also part of it). Here, I talked over with the elderly woman who appeared to look after the farm. She told me that irrigation was done with groundwater,  about 150 ft deep, though a Narmada pipeline was there underground. She couldn't explain why.

Comments

TRENDING

The farmer's burden: How oil, war, and climate are rewriting the price of food

By Vikas Meshram   The scorching flames of the Middle East conflict are now slowly reaching the kitchens of ordinary people. The true price of this war is paid in daily markets, vegetable shops, and in the shattered minds of farmers. Expensive crude oil, skyrocketing fertilizer prices, and rising agricultural costs are together creating the conditions for global food inflation — and this crisis is directly tied to what people eat and drink every day.

Economic nationalism under strain as Indian corporates turn to America

By Sandeep Pandey*  U.S. federal prosecutors withdrew a criminal case involving allegations that Gautam Adani had bribed officials in India to secure solar energy projects, stating that they lacked sufficient evidence. Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani also settled a civil fraud case with the Securities and Exchange Commission by paying a fine of around ₹180 crore without admitting wrongdoing. In addition, Adani Enterprises reportedly deposited around ₹2,750 crore into the U.S. Treasury to resolve allegations that it had violated U.S. sanctions on Iran through purchases of Iranian liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). 

India’s heatwave crisis: How concrete cities are fueling climate emergency

By Rajkumar Sinha*  According to recent studies, urban areas are witnessing a much sharper rise in temperatures than rural regions. The planet is currently heading toward an additional 1.9°C of warming — far beyond the target envisioned under the Paris Agreement . A team of climate scientists associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has noted that India’s average temperature increased by nearly 0.9°C during the decade between 2015 and 2024 compared to the early twentieth century (1901–1930). In western and northeastern India, the hottest day of the year has already become 1.5°C to 2°C warmer since the 1950s.