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Time of India
7 hours ago
- General
- Time of India
For 200 yrs, remote U'khand temple has had men & women as priests
Dehradun: A centuries-old Vishnu shrine in a forested Himalayan valley in the upper reaches of Chamoli district has quietly been appointing a man and a woman each year for more thanm two centuries to serve jointly as priests. This year, the Phulanarayan temple in Urgam valley opened its doors last week, marking the beginning of a 45-day ritual calendar that ends on Sept 2, the day of Nanda Ashtami. Rajeshwari Devi and Vivek Singh, selected a year in advance by the local panchayat, have taken on the responsibilities of priesthood for this cycle. Devi, a resident of Bharki village and aged above 55 as required, is in charge of floral arrangements, preparing tulsi garlands, and cooking prasada for the devotees. Singh, from neighbouring Baintha village, leads the main aarti and prayers. Both remain within the temple premises throughout the 45-day period. No official record traces the exact origins of this practice in Phulanarayan. But for the communities of Bharki and Baintha, it simply continues — an annual partnership shaped not by political declarations but by quiet repetition. There is no spectacle or assertion of modernity here. Just a garland of tulsi, handed to a woman, who steps without hesitation into a role still forbidden to many others. "It is an honour for a woman to be given the key responsibility. As the announcement is made in advance, we do not have any problem," said Devi, seated beside baskets of fresh tulsi and wildflowers. Chandra Mohan Panwar, a local who has observed the tradition for over five decades, added, "This is something passed down from the time of our forefathers. Each priest has different but essential tasks." The temple's elevation — close to 3,000 metres above sea level — only adds to its isolation. The approach road from Helang to Kalpeshwar stretches for 13 km and is in utter disrepair. From Kalpeshwar, a steep 4 km trek through deodar and oak forest is required to reach Phulanarayan. Unlike Kalpeshwar Mahadev — a cave shrine nearby that is part of the Panch Kedar circuit and is now accessible year-round with a road reaching within 300 metres — the Phulanarayan temple remains disconnected from motorable routes and entirely off-grid. Savita Devi, the president of the Mahila Mangal Dal of Bharki village, said, "The road from Helang to Urgam village is in poor condition. We demand that the construction of this road be prioritised, as it could boost pilgrimage and tourism activities here." She added that many travellers visit, but there are no facilities for them. Another resident of the same village, Govind Devi, said, "Although our village is quite behind in terms of development, we are ahead in social support and harmony. " Urgam valley itself is steeped in spiritual significance. In addition to Kalpeshwar Mahadev, it hosts several ancient shrines: Dhyan Badri, Urva Rishi, and Bansi Narayan. The last, an 8th-century shrine dedicated to Lord Krishna situated around 3,600 metres, opens only once a year on Raksha Bandhan. On that day, women from nearby villages tie rakhis directly onto the deity — another rare practice that underscores the valley's unusual spiritual rhythms. Brijesh Sati, general secretary of Char Dham Teerth Purohit Mahapanchayat, told TOI, "Right from parliament to the streets, we keep talking about gender equality. This temple, in one of the most difficult terrains, has shown what it looks like in practice." He added that Phulanarayan may well be the only Vishnu temple in India where a female priest serves alongside a male counterpart in full religious capacity.
DW
8 hours ago
- Politics
- DW
Why is India rechecking 80 million voters in Bihar? – DW – 07/24/2025
The revision of the electoral roll in India's Bihar state has sparked controversy with critics and opposition parties warning of voter disenfranchisement. Sita Devi, a daily wage laborer from Nalanda, a district in India's northeastern Bihar state, has had a tough time gathering the necessary paperwork for inclusion in the draft electoral rolls. The Election Commission of India (ECI) gave voters in Bihar just weeks to prove their eligibility to vote ahead of a July 25 deadline. "I submitted my application on time but when I followed up, I was told my details were incomplete," Devi told DW. "Now, I am running from pillar to post just to get my voter ID included before the deadline." About 200 kilometers (124 miles) away, Ram Kishan, a farmer from Bihar's Gopalganj district, has spent weeks running between government buildings and the local election office to submit his application in time. "Officials keep asking for more documents. I have all these, but still, my name has not been added to the voter list," Kishan told DW. "Without this, I fear I will not be able to vote in the upcoming elections." The ECI announced the revision of the electoral rolls in June ahead of upcoming polls scheduled for November, which involves reverifying the records of nearly 80 million registered voters. The ECI said the "intensive revision" was needed to remove the names of deceased individuals, those who have permanently moved and duplicate entries — as well as avoiding the "inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants." Members of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have long claimed that large numbers of undocumented Muslim migrants from neighboring Bangladesh have fraudulently entered India's electoral rolls. Bihar is one of India's largest states by population, making it a key election battleground. The outcome of November's assembly elections can impact the balance of power in the Lok Sabha (India's lower house of Parliament), where voter strength and coalition math are critical. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video People who were registered in 2003, the last time scrutiny of the voter list took place in Bihar, may submit a copy of their registration. But everybody else — around 30 million people, according to ECI estimates — are required to provide documents to establish eligibility, including proof of citizenship. The electoral commission has specified 11 documents for this purpose. A vast swathe of Bihar's rural population lacks the necessary documentation, and obtaining alternatives like domicile or caste certificates has proven difficult. Bihar's main opposition party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, challenged the ECI in the Supreme Court, along with other parties and critics of the Bihar voter roll revision operation. "It is being used to justify aggressive and opaque revisions of electoral rolls that disproportionately target Muslim, Dalit and poor [Indian] migrant communities," the court petition read. "They are not random patterns but ... engineered exclusions." India's top court allowed the special intensive revision (SIR) in Bihar to proceed, but expressed concern over its timing and fairness, urging the ECI to adopt a more inclusive approach to documentation. Yogendra Yadav, national convener of Bharat Jodo Abhiyan, a civil campaign collective, said that the burden of proof has been reversed. "This is the first such instance in 22 years where the onus of getting their names on the list has been placed on the voter and where voters have been asked to furnish documents to prove their citizenship," Yadav told DW. "Instead of election officials ensuring eligible citizens are registered, voters must now submit fresh applications and documentary evidence of citizenship." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Jagdeep Chhokar of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGO known for its work on electoral and political reforms, challenged the SIR. Chhoka said the Bihar revision is "arbitrary and unconstitutional" and "risks disenfranchising millions of voters, particularly the poor and marginalized." "If it is not stopped now, it will disrupt the electoral process," he said. "If someone is not proven to be a citizen, he can also be deported. This is very dangerous," he added. Nearly 2 million people were excluded from the final citizenship list in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, which was published in 2019, effectively rendering their political and legal status as Indian citizens unclear. India's ruling BJP emphasized the importance of the election commission's registration revamp, which set to be applied nationwide. "This must be done," BJP spokesperson Tom Vadakkan told DW. "It is a routine and legal exercise aimed at cleaning the voter list and weed out non-voters. In the upcoming election, we want Indians to vote not outsiders." The ECI said the draft electoral rolls will be published on August 1 and voters will have until September 1 to make claims and objections. The final electoral roll is set to be published on September 30. The Supreme Court scheduled its next hearing for July 28.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Hindustan Times
Accused woman had hired mason to dig pit, took help of slain hubby's brother to lay tiles
Palghar, A 28-year-old woman arrested along with her paramour in connection with the murder of her husband had hired a mason for digging a pit at her home in Nallasopara in Palghar district to bury her husband, police said. Accused woman had hired mason to dig pit, took help of slain hubby's brother to lay tiles The accused woman, identified as Chaman Devi, told the mason that she was constructing a new toilet. After burying the body of her husband, Vijay Chouhan , she took the help of one of her brothers-in-law to lay the tiles. Her brother-in-law was not aware that Chouhan was buried in the pit, said Deputy Commissioner of Police Suhas Bavche. Devi and her paramour Monu Sharma were arrested from Pune on Tuesday evening, a day after the decomposed body of Chouhan was exhumed from the couple's home at Gangnipada in Nallasopara, a distant suburb of Mumbai. Bavche said the police discovered the identity of Devi when they spotted her with the victim's son in Hadapsar area, and the scarf she had covered her face with drifted, leading to her arrest. He said Monu Sharma is studying in the final year of BSC in a college. Earlier in the day, a court in Palghar district remanded Devi and Sharma in police custody till July 30. According to police, the duo killed Chouhan and buried his body under floor tiles around two weeks ago. The crime came to light when two brothers of Chouhan went to his home, which was filled with a foul smell emanating from the floor. Neighbours informed Chouhan's brothers that he had not been seen since July 10, and Devi had also been missing since July 19, said police. On being alerted, a police team arrived at the house and exhumed the body in the presence of doctors, forensic experts and local tehsildar. Bawche told reporters that the two accused were next-door neighbours. "They wanted to get married, but saw Chouhan as a hurdle. They then decided to kill him," the officer said. He said three probe teams of Pelhar police worked on several inputs to trace the duo to Pune's Hadapsar area, around 270km from Palghar, and nabbed them. They have been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 103 , 238 and 3 and further investigation was underway, according to police. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- General
- The Hindu
In male-dominated Kanwar Yatra, women pilgrims struggle to find space
Defeating all odds, Munni Devi, 32, a resident of Usmanpur, Shahdara, completed the Kanwar Yatra on Tuesday, carrying pots of water from Ganga in Haridwar on her shoulders and covering a distance of over 240 kilometres on foot. Ms. Devi, a devotee of Lord Shiva, who undertook the pilgrimage with her 12-year-old son, Pappu, said that finding a place in rituals and space in the male-dominated pilgrimage was more challenging than physical endurance. 'I participated in the yatra this year as my son desperately wanted to go for it. I did not want him to take the yatra in the company of other men,' Ms. Devi, sews/embroiders clothes for a living, said. Her son is a school dropout Amid hundreds of male pilgrims at a camp in Shahdara, Kiran Devi, 40, was trying to find a covered space to change her clothes and take rest. A Tikri border resident who has been participating in the yatra for five years, Ms. Kiran Devi told The Hindu that the organisers had 'ignored the needs of women participants'. 'Ever since my husband fell ill, I have been going for the yatra. To date, I have not found a separate washroom or resting space for women in any camp across the route,' she rued. She said with no separate space for women pilgrims, she had to take rest in the common area of the camp. Pilgrims felicitated Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday visited a camp at Shastri Park, north-east Delhi and felicitated the kanwariyas returning from Haridwar. 'It is an arduous journey, especially when it rains. But the camps set up by the Delhi government were equipped to meet all our needs,' said Ranjeet Paswan, 22, a migrant worker from Sitamarhi, Bihar, who was felicitated. With the yatra ending on Wednesday, Delhi Police heaved a sigh of relief as managing traffic and unruly elements had kept the force on edge.'There were various incidents of kanwariyas creating a law and order problem,' said a senior police officer. The officer said multiple complaints of loud music being played by the kanwariyas en route had also been received. 'However, there was no complaint of vandalism,' the officer added. The yatra also kept food stall owners in several areas on the edge. At a pizza joint in Shahdara, the manager and staff said they had been tense ever since a viral video of a popular food chain in Ghaziabad being targeted by kanwariyas surfaced. 'We put the guards on alert, just in case a large number of kanwariyas enter,' the manager said. Rajat Kumar, 55, a street food vendor, complained that a group of six-seven kanwariyas ate at his stall, then got into a verbal spat, and refused to pay him. 'They said they did not like the taste and left,' he said.
News18
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Bipasha Basu, Daughter Devi Twin In Matching Dupattas As They Visit Gurudwara
Fans, as usual, showered Bipasha's family photo with love. Sophie Choudry commented with red heart emojis. Fans wrote, 'God bless you all", 'Satnaam waheguru little princess Devi", and others. Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover met on the set of their horror movie Alone in 2015. After dating for a while, the couple married in a Bengali wedding ceremony on April 30, 2016. Six years later, they welcomed a baby girl in November 2022. For the unversed, Devi was diagnosed with a ventricular septal defect (VSD), a condition characterised by holes in the heart. At just three months old, she underwent open-heart surgery to repair the defect. Her parents have often spoken about how bravely Devi fought at the hospital. Regarding her professional life, Bipasha has been away from acting for quite some time. Her last appearance was in the 2020 crime thriller miniseries, Dangerous, which premiered on the OTT platform MX Player. Directed by Bhushan Patel, the show also starred Karan Singh Grover, Sonali Raut, and Suyyash Rai in key roles. Her last film appearance was in the 2015 horror film Alone, where she played a dual role. Discussing her potential return to the entertainment industry, she told ETimes, 'I went against the tide always. And it's always worked for me. So, I do believe that you have to live your life. The work and your life have to kind of be in balance. Mine is not right now. It's my baby, my baby, my baby. But it is going to come. I think it is the right time. I will do it."
