Religious Trade/Tourism in Kerala
Kerala state is distinct from all other states in India . Some of the remarkable features in this respect are highest literacy, longest span of life, highest civic consciousness, unique economic development without the support of agriculture or industry. Besides, the life style of Keralites is considered almost equivalent to that of a developed country. In spite of all these positive features some unhealthy trends badly affected the image of Kerala. The recent police raid in a Christian worship hall, Divine Retreat Centre, near Chalakuudi has sent shocking waves to all. The Divine centre is very famous for its peculiar prayers attracting not only Christians but also from all other sects from the entire parts of Kerala and all over India. It conducts treatments for mental health and other related illness. Recently, a compliant was filed in the High Court of Kerala about unnatural deaths in the Divine Centre. Even the government was not daring to take any action against the Divine Centre although many such complaints rose. Now when the Police conducted the raids on the basis of High Court direction, it unfolded the history of more than one thousand unnatural deaths. Many complaints are related to sexual persecution. It is nothing but the part of religious trade or better says a tourist spot with religious cure centre. Every day hundreds of people arrive at the centre for the purification of mind and treatment. But what actually going on was the exploitation of the people for money and sexual purposes. It has the support of all political parties cutting across their differences in their ideologies.
This is the story of not the one institution in Kerala. There are hundreds of such centres from small-scale to large scale operated by all the major religions – Hindus, Muslims and Christians. The intensity of cases is more in Christians and Hindus. In fact, the most recent trend is the worship in the name of Human God like Amrithananthamayi. It is very surprising the trust in the name of Matha Amrithananthamayi has billions of assets. The question is from which source they accumulated such money. But nobody is ready to raise their finger against the Trust. Amrita institutions are now the leading charitable trust in India. It has Universities, Medical institutions, Engineering institutions etc. What more…she is recognised as one of the highest respectable personalities in India. It was stated by the natives that Amrita was born to a poor family and later led a nasty life
