Sabarimala, the holy shrine of Lord Ayyappa, nestled amid the jungles in the Western Ghats, is back in the news and is expected to stir up a hornets’ nest, even as the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court is getting ready to hear the plea demanding the restoration of the ban on women’s entry into the temple.
Adding to the woes of Lord Ayyappa devotees is the demand by a section of MLAs and MPs of Kerala, belonging to a particular community, that the Centre should take up the task of laying a railway track to Sabarimala ostensibly to facilitate the transportation of cannabis from the Western Ghats to the rest of the State.
The demand for women’s entry to the shrine has been made by Ranga Hari, former All India Baudhik Pramukh of the RSS, the organisation that spearheaded the agitation against the entry of women in the age group of 10 to 50 into the shrine.
“Off with Outgrown Customs”, authored by Hari (93), states that reformation is inevitable in Hindu society. “Traditionalists have always opposed reformers, and it is a human phenomenon in human society. The great Indian poet Kalidasa has said that nothing is good only because it is old and nothing is bad only because it is new,” Hari writes, quoting from Malaavikagnimithram, a play by Kalidasa.
Hari has also quoted Malayalam’s mystic poet Kumaran Asan, who exhorted the society to reform and change the rules. “Else those very rules will be your downfall,” the author has quoted Kumaran Asan’s explosive poem Duravastha written immediately after the Mappila Rebellion of 1922.
The nonagenarian has called for the extension of the darshan period of Sabarimala from the present three months to a year-round event. “Sabarimala is a global Hindu pilgrimage Centre. Hence we have to consider the status of Hindu women globally, their psyche, knowledge, finance, inquisitiveness, scientific temper, jobs, etc. Today’s woman is an entirely different person. Indian women have more adherence to things religion, and culture… Though both men and women have gone through a westernised public instruction system, it is the woman who transforms India into Bharat; it is the man who makes Bharat, India,” Hari has written, and he calls for the establishment of a casteless and classless Hindu society in the country.
To substantiate his arguments, he draws the attention of the Hindus towards temples in Mauritius, Trinidad, Myanmar, and Singapore. Hari points out in his book that though there are Hindus in these countries, there is no caste or caste-related discrimination.
The custom in Sabarimala, which was in vogue from time immemorial, was not to allow women to worship in the temple, citing that the presiding deity at Sabarimala was an eternal Brahmachari.
The apex court had passed a landmark judgment on September 28, 2018, in which it allowed the entry of women inside the Sabarimala Temple. The petitioners, Indian Young Lawyers Association, had contended that denial of permission to women for worshipping in the temple was violative of the Right to Equality and liberty. The association argued that the custom violates the Right to Equality under Article 14 since it is “derogatory to the dignity of women.”
Article 25 of the Constitution states that “all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice, and promote religion.” The exclusion of female worshippers was a violation of such rights.
The verdict was pronounced by a Bench consisting of the then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices Rohinton Nariman, DY Chandrachud, Indu Malhotra, and AM Khanwilkar.
Following the Supreme Court verdict, the Kerala Government went all out to ensure the entry of women into the temple. Despite a massive agitation staged by hundreds of thousands of devotees across the State and the resistance under the leadership of Valsan Thillankery, the top RSS leaders in the State, the Kerala Police ferried women activists to the shrine, masquerading them as women cops. Fatima and Bindu Ammini, the women activists who made it to the shrine, are Maoists.
Valsan Thillankeri, who spearheaded the agitation against the Kerala Government’s move to allow women into the shrine, told The Pioneer that there was no change in the stance of the RSS. “The Sangh as well as the women themselves are unanimous in their opposition to women entering the holy shrine. What Hari has written are his personal views,” said Thillankeri.
The book, written in Malayalam, has been translated into English by eminent journalist and author Rama Chandran. Many scholars with whom The Pioneer spoke expressed their anguish over the views of Hari. “It is an age-old custom and tradition, and there is a scientific reason behind the decision to ban women devotees. A pilgrimage to Sabarimala itself is a ritual that needs stringent regimen,” said Unnikrishnan Panicker, a Vedic scholar in Kerala’s Parappanangadi. Many lives have been lost in police action on devotees who had thronged the shrine in 2018 demanding a ban on women.
