Hamtramck Hindus Struggle After Loss of Temple to Fire

September 13, 2006

Source: Detroit Free Press

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060913/NEWS02/609130420

On September 13, 2006 the Detroit Free Press reported, "The damage from a fire last month that swept through a Hindu temple on Hamtramck's south side was more than heaps of charred wood and scorched bricks. Since the Aug. 22 fire consumed the Bangladesh Hindu Cultural Center and Temple on Grayling Avenue west of Jos. Campau, the congregation has not been able to meet for worship. 'It is a problem for us right now,' said Karuna Nath, 51, the temple president. 'We have no space.' Social tensions in the congregation, which at one time had 100 families, also have taken their toll. A conflict among castes -- the hereditary social classes in Hinduism -- exploded into a major split shortly after the fire. Disagreements about money and status also fueled the discord, and now the congregation has only 45 families, fewer than half of what it had before the fire. 'There's politics going on there,' said Jolly Nath, 22, the niece of the temple's president. 'It makes it worse for us.'"