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For year, Dalits have been treated as less than human, tolerated from a distance. Even God has been out of bounds. But they are waking up to their rights and others too seem to be realising their folly.

Many temples are now opening their doors to Dalit devotees. The presiding deity of the Jagannath temple in Puri comes out once a year so the "untouchables" can have a darshan of the Lord. Now the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) has decided to carry the Lord to the Dalitwadas or Dalit villages. The temple deities will not only be carried to the villages, a team of priests and veda pundits from the main temple will perform the rituals of the Lord — including Srinivasa Kalyanam, the marriage of the Lord and his divine consort — in a Dalit home. Thereafter, the Lord and his servants will spend the night in the Dalit colony.

The revolutionary step is also a well-calculated move. "Dalits have been discriminated for years. The alienation was leading to religious conversions. We have to make them feel they are not second class citizens and bring them into the religious mainstream," said TTD chairman B Karunakar Reddy.

A few months ago, the TTD did a dry run at a Dalit village in Nellore district where a large number of conversions had taken place. The incident became a talking point among Dalits there. Spurred by the good response, the TTD decided to do the same across the state in a phased manner.

Calling the programme a "revolution of sorts", Reddy said it would be conducted every month. He also urged other Hindu organizations to follow suit to assimilate the Dalits and weaker sections into Hindu society. "Veda is for all. God is for all," he said.