PILGRIMS’ HOLY HILL

Shannon News, 19 October 1926, Page 3

PILGRIMS’ HOLY HILL

THE CITY OF, HIG-H TEMPLES SERIOUS DISPUTE IN INDIA. A decision has just been given in a dispute* in which people of all religions in India feel themseUes Adtally interested, as it concerns the right of a State GoA'ernment to levy taxes on pilgrims passing through their country. The Jains number only a million, and a half in all India, but they have great influence through their wealth, industry, and good citizenship. Their religion is an offshoot from Hindusism, and has much in common with Buddhism. It is a part of their religion to go on pilgrimage to the great temple on the Holj/ Hill of Shatrunjaya in Palitana, one of the States of the KathiaAvar Peninsula, north of Bombay. The Holy Hill is covered by a city of temples, with shrines dedicated to the founder and chief teachers of Jainism. The Government in Ayhose territory the Holy Hill is. situated, the Palitana Durbar, claims the right to tax th e pilgrims at the rat of two rupees a head, if only to meet tlie cost of protecting them and keeping order during their* pilgrimmages. The -Jains while objecting to a poll-tax, were ready to pay a lump sum annually to meet these expenses, and it has fallen to the British Government to find a way of reconciling these conflicting views. . '

In IS9G the Government fixed the tribute at 15,000 rupees a year for 40 years, ani gave leave to either party when that period should expire to seek a revision of the amount. The time being up, the Durbar has now represented that the number of pilgrims has greatly increased, and that it must have a tax on each pilgrim. The quarrel on this as well as on other matters has become so serious that the pilgrimages have been suspended.

At the request of the Indian Government a British official has held an < inquiry and given an award. He says that when a lump sum was first fixed in 1863 it was on the basis of two rupees a pilgrim on the estimated average number of pilgrims at that ■ time. Since then, he says, the purchasingpporerw r er of the rupee has been diminished by one-half, and the average number of pilgrims before the , pilgrimmages were suspended this year was not less than 80.000. But in- , stead of the average he takes the minimum number, which he puts at 50,000, and, still awarding two rupees a head, he fixes the new payment at a hundred thousand rupees, or £7500, against the 15,000 rupees allowed during the past 40 years. The compromise seems fair, but neither side is satisfied. The Durbar says it is not enough for the trouble involved by the pilgrimages; the Jainist leaders say it is a wrong principle to increase the amount because of the increase of pilgrims. That, they contend, admits the right of State Governments to put a poll-tax on pilgrims who are simply visiting their own sacred property, an idea which will be opposed by the leaders of every religion in India. The Jains have given notice of appeal against the award.