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or to get some other land in exchange for the remaining 16 acres of his possession. He said if this was acceptable, other farmers would not be disturbed and new township could be completed in the remaining 16 acres of Dhanjibhai.
Option of cash compensation for Dhanjibhai was summarily rejected and search was made for alternative land in exchange. However, they could not find land of equal fertility in that area. After some more efforts such land could be located near the town Mundra. Dharamshibhai was persuaded to accept that land in exchange and the whole problem was solved, within the period of about forty-five days of Shuddhi Prayog.
Shuddhi Prayog against a Religious Institution :
Sarangpur is a place of pilgrimage as there is a Swaminarayan temple and Hanumanji's temple visited by many pilgrims. The temple possesses agricultural land, out of which about 800 Bighas were cultivated by different farmers. Though some these farmers were cultivating the temple's land from generation to generation, their names were not shown as tenants in the Government Revenue record. After the advent of popular Government land reforms were undertaken on a large scale and those cultivators whose names were recorded as tenants in the revenue record had many substantial rights such as the right of hereditary holdings, payment of revenue instead of crop share, etc. However, temple authorities did not allow the farmers to get their names recorded as tenants and took crop share instead of cash revenue. No farmer would venture to complain against the institution because if he did so, he would be evicted not only from the land of cultivation but also from the residential house allotted to him. Government Officers who were putting up as the temple guests whenever they visited the village, got royal treatment from temple authorities and hence no farmer could get any redress against excesses committed on them by temple authorities.
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