Tamil Nadu Timeline

Social ReformRise of Dravidian rule

Order allowing people of all castes to become temple priests

· Chennai

Order allowing people of all castes to become temple priests
Government of Tamil Nadu, GODL-India · Wikimedia Commons

A 1970 order of the Karunanidhi government opened priesthood in public temples to all castes; in 1972 the Supreme Court struck it down.

Under an order issued by the Karunanidhi government in 1970, members of any caste could be appointed as priests in public temples. Karunanidhi presented the move as answering a grievance that the social reformer Periyar had long voiced. Hereditary priests contested the order in the courts. In 1972 the Supreme Court set the decision aside.

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