Thiruvananthapuram: Eight years ago when a Hindu religious speaker conducted the first-ever study on the economics of Hindu temples, it was found that temples in the state together spend Rs 820 crore annually for fireworks alone. Now, nearly a decade later, the preacher says the amount would have burgeoned to at least Rs 1500 crore.
“Even in earlier times there were competitions among various communally defined areas around a temple. Now the contest is between individuals or even corporate houses,” said advocate Mr S Jayasooryan, a religious speaker who did the study.
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Jayasooryan, who is also a BJP state committee member, attributes the growing clamour for fireworks to commercial gains. “Contractors influence festival organisers promising to rope in sponsors. When sponsors come in, the event gets wide publicity. A wider excitement means more devotees pour in the temple, adding to a temple’s internal revenues. When devotees swell, trade around the temple also takes off. This will mean more income for the temple by way of rent,” Jayasooryan explains the revenue cycle set off by fireworks.
There is also a reason why the fireworks display turns grander and louder with every year. “A festival committee is normally in place for one or at the most three years. So the biggest aspiration of the new festival committee is to do things on a larger scale than their predecessor,” Jayasoorya said.
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The study, released in 2008, said that all the 36,400 temples in the state together spend a minimum of Rs 10,408.42 crore annually on a range of items from oil and coconuts to fireworks and elephants. Jayasooryan said it might have crossed Rs 20,000 crore by now, almost as big as the state’s annual plan outlay.
