New economy is religious: $ 40 bn at stake, it’s glitzy, dynamic

The temple economy is as large as the Indian budget is sustaining the country. Its contours across the religious denominations – Hindu, Muslim and Christians – are much wider than it is perceived.
It is changing the society and its financial parameters.
The NSSO survey estimates that temple economy is worth Rs 3.02 lakh crore or about $ 40 billion and 2.32 percent of the GDP. In reality it may be larger. It includes everything flowers, oil, lamps, perfumes, bangles, sindur, images and puja dresses. The vast majority of informal unprotected labour is its driver.
The 2022-23 Central government revenue is Rs 19,34,706 and mere six temples collected Rs 24000 crore in cash alone. There are 5 lakh temples, 7 lakh mosques and 35,000 churches in this country. Top officials as devotees give a kick.
Donations for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya collected in 2021 is Rs 5450 crore, almost equal to Rs 5000 crore country’s defence budget. It surpassed the collection in the first phase. Others are Tirumala Tirupati Rs 3023 crore; Vaishno Devi Rs 2000 crore, Ambaji Rs 4134 crore (Rs 5163 crore in 2019-20), Dwarkadhish Rs 1172 crore, Somnath Rs 1205, Golden Temple Rs 690 crore Donations to Kamakhya temple in Guwahati; Krishna Janmabhoomi, Mathura; Banke Bihar Mandir in Vrindavan, Padmanabha mandir, Siddhivinayak mandir and Kashi Vishvanath mandir have similar large earnings. Gold donations at different temples vary from 130 kg at Tirupati to 380 kg at Shirdi.
The Pew Global Attitude survey shows that more than 25 percent of Indians reported having become more religious over the past four-five years. Between 2007 and 2015, the share of respondents in India who perceived religion to be very important increased by 11 percent to 80 percent now.
Ram Mandir movement and the court verdict has been a game changer. It has poured in huge funding into a region that was one of the most backward. It boosted funding for mosques and Islamic shrines too. During pandemic the silent real estate boom took place in Ayodhya, Varanasi, Vindhyachal, Mirzapur and Mathura. Land prices soared in the most backward places. The premium on land is unprecedented.
Whether religious activities can sustain such places would be interesting to observe. The enthusiasm is high but would it surpass the next industrial revival?
The domestic religious tourism is surpassing the number of foreign visitors. Over 100 crore domestic visits to new destinations suggest there is churning beyond Delhi-Agra-Jaipur golden triangle. Even 20 percent of nine crore foreign tourists are visiting Madurai and Mahabalipuram in Tamilnadu and Tirupati, in Andhra.
The NSSO figures suggest that 55 percent of Hindus undertake religious pilgrimages patronizing mid and small sized hotels after two years of pandemic slump. Expenses on religious travel Rs 2,717 per day/person
Expenses on social travel Rs 1,068 per day/person
Expenditure on educational travel Rs 2,286 per day/person. Expenditure on religious travel Rs 1316 crore/day
Annual expenditure on religious travel Rs 4.74 lakh crore
This NSSO data says that Indians do more pilgrimage than business trip and spend more on pilgrimage than traveling for education purpose.
The government has chalked out religious circuit tourism. The Ramayana circuit is over the life philosophy of Lord Ram. Along with this, the Char Dham road project has also been prepared. The government has also strengthened the Buddha circuit. Apart from this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi relaunched Varanasi corridor, Kedardham and Badridham. Not only this, the government is renovating about 50 thousand temples in Jammu and Kashmir. No other prime minister made the visit to religious shrines an event. Indira Gandhi used to visit places and saints but often keeping low profile or at dead of night away from public glare.
The dargahs of Chisti, Aulia, Charar-e-Sharif, Jama masjid of Bhopal, Delhi and other shrines have large income in cash and kinds. Similarly various churches also have decent incomes. The movement for Ram temple in Ayodhya stated to have increased the incomes for most Hindu and Muslim shrines. The earnings of the Hindu temples are known to some extent but whether it is the Ajmer dargah or other Muslim shrines they are shy of telling the approximate figures.
The income of Ajmer dargah stated to be around Rs 200 crore is an underestimate. The dargah is visited by foreign tourists, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Hindus in large numbers. So are many other Muslim shrines. Donations are in cash and kinds as also food grains and other objects pour in everyday. But it is not known to contribute much in charity unlike the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam that has hospitals, universities and other specialized institutions. Ramakrishna Mission and Bharat Sevashram Sangh like organisations are always in the forefront of relief operations anywhere.
The churches in North-East, tribal areas and at some others engage in charity. But Caritas India says that their funds are limited and activities are also like that.
The issue here is not that who indulges in charity. The religious funds have emerged as parallel source of funding for various kinds of activities. The real estate is a major activity. Others include political, elections and other transactions.
These enormous “donations” reaching various small and big organisations are used for many activities in places like Hardwar, Vrindavan, Ayodhya and Ujjain and even nondescript places like Deoband. One particular function is to launder the funds by issuing donation cheques at cuts of 20 to 60 percent depending as per the exigencies. It ensures that those with illicit or non-tax paid money is channeled back to the system. Many institutions have “secular” approach in dealing with the money. Nobody has compunction. It was a favourite route during demonetisation. Not a single note possibly was left out at the bank coffers for this “generous” religiosity.
The holy fund is changing the politics, hospital administration and even university portals and more. Dishing out degrees is not difficult and that becomes a money spinner.
During demonetisation some heads of mutts were in the news for their wide connections and effective delivery. Their services were not limited to India. They could deliver new currency notes with ease even in dollars to Dubai, Canada, England or other destinations at premium price. The hawala linkages help.
They are good at balance sheet manipulations for whatever the amount may be for turning black into white. Even scrapped notes were equally exchange with élan. Yes, these are done to adjust the murky money. (Shivaji Sarkar)