CHENNAI: It has been more than a decade since Nagamuthu has been climbing the hill to perform pooja at the Kailasanathar temple in T Kallupatti village in Theni district. No one raised an objection to a dalit performing pooja at the temple till it got a facelift four months ago. On May 5, 2012, non-dalit members of the temple committee told Nagamuthu not to come to the temple as some devotees were unhappy with the pooja being performed by a dalit. When Nagamuthu questioned the decision, he was allegedly beaten up. For Nagamuthu, the issue in fact began a couple of years ago.

"A couple of years ago, the committee members had called me and said not to perform pooja on auspicious and festival days. They hired a Brahmin priest for those days. I didn't object to this because I was getting the opportunity to perform pooja on normal days. Now, they have asked me not to enter the temple because some devotees don't want a dalit performing pooja. They even slapped and abused me when I questioned this," said the 23-year-old priest. Even though Nagamuthu approached the police, they didn't take any action. With the help of some activists, he filed a writ in the Madurai bench of the Madras high court, which eventually directed the police to do a proper investigation into the case. Based on this, the Thenkarai police registered an FIR (420/2012) on August 2, but no action has been taken so far. "We can't take immediate action in these matters considering the casteist angle in the case. The temple is maintained by a trust and it has the power to terminate a priest. At the same time, investigation is on whether Nagamuthu was beaten by anyone or not," said a police officer, who didn't want to be named. The more the investigation gets delayed, the more it's difficult for Nagamuthu, whose sole income depends on the money he gets from the temple. There is, however, another angle to the story. "At a time when no one was there to take care of the temple, there was no problem with the dalit priest . Now, the temple got a facelift with the help of some influential people in and around the village. They want a Brahmin priest. It's unfortunate," said A Kathir, director of Evidence, an NGO based in Madurai, which helped Nagamuthu fight his case.