Fwd: Submission of a PIL in the form of a letter petition on the issue of Bhandaras
Socialist Party India
From: Socialist Party India <socialist...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 2, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Subject: Submission of a PIL in the form of a letter petition on the issue of Bhandaras
To: <c...@allahabadhighcourt.in>
Cc: <rahul...@yahoo.co.in>, <rahul...@gmail.com>, <shashanksi...@gmail.com>, Nitin Mishra <advniti...@gmail.com>, Imran Ahmad <imrana...@gmail.com>
Date: 2 June, 2026
To: Honourable Chief Justice
High Court of Uttar Pradesh
Subject: Bhandaras on roads should be shifted inside premises of temples.
Honourable Sir,
Kindly treat this submission as a Public Interest Litigation.
During summer bhandaras are organised with great enthusiasm on Tuesdays and Saturdays by followers of Hindu religion, especially devotees of Lord Hanuman,
However, the manner in which these are organised leaves much to be desired. Often, quick to prepare puri-sabzi is distributed from road-side makeshift stalls, devotees have to stand in queues and when queues get longer there are traffic jams and finally, plates and glasses often made of plastic or non-biodegradable material are littered by the receipients of bhandaras.
If these bhandaras were to be organised inside temples, like langars are organised in Gurudwaras, we can get rid of above-mentioned problems. Proper healthy and nutritious meals - roti, sabzi, dal, chawal - can be served as there will be more space for cooking, people can be made to sit in rows on floor instead of stand in queues and prasad can be distributed in a more respectable manner both for the receipients and those distributing. If steel plates and glasses are used they can be washed by devotees to be used by next batch. Hence the litter problem can be avoided.
Briefly, instead of looking for short cut ‘punya’ devotees organising the bhandaras should spend extra time and resources in a more disciplined and systematic manner. And these bhandaras should be regular feature in temples like in Gurudwaras. Well off devotees can take turns to provide resources. Hence instead of doing it on Tuesdays and Saturdays only, effort should be made to run the bhandaras daily, all round the year. There will be two long term benefits. Problem of beggary may be solved and mal-nourishment situation among children might improve. They say that you will not find Sikh beggar. It is because of the social support system that the Gurudwaras provide.
When the founder of Sikh religion Guru Nanak Dev started the first langar in mid 15th century he probably saw it as a way of tackling the problem of poverty and hunger and also by making it open to everybody, irrespective of religion, caste, class and gender, he wanted to get rid of the discrimination practiced in society based on these categories. This was a revolutionary step.
Why shouldn’t the social support system of Gurudwaras be a model for other religious places too? However, like the Gurudwaras other religious places should also welcome one and all, irrespective of their religion, caste, class and gender, only then social and communal amity will be maintained. Even today Hindus of different castes may not share meals or utensils. If Hindu religion would like to get rid of the discrimination practiced in the name of caste then langars in temples would be a good idea.
The ‘kar sewa’ devotees perform in Gurudwaras is another tradition to be emulated by followers of other religions. The spirit of service is essential to any religion. We should make it a central feature of all religions. Without any service to humanity, religion has no meaning. Evolved and conscientious individuals see their God in ordinary people and their devotion to God takes the form of serving the needy people. Swami Sahajanand Sawarswati hailing from eastern Uttar Pradesh who became an iconic farmer leader in Bihar was one such ascetic who defined toiling peasants and workers as his true God and devoted his life to fighting for their rights against the big landlords and the British government.
Government may think of making langars a compulsory feature of all religious places to tackle the problems of beggary and malnourishment.
Submitted by: Sandeep Pandey
Secretary General, Socialist Party (India)
A-893, Indira Nagar, Lucknow-226016, U.P.
Phone: 0522 2355978, 3564437
E-mail: ashaa...@yahoo.com
Madan Lal Hind
Website: spi.org.in.
Facebook: facebook.com/socialistpartyindia
Twitter: twitter.com/spiinfo
Email: socialist...@gmail.com
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