We
live in a democratic society where all of us supposed to be equal. In
pre-industrial society the inequality was very much there and it was
based on birth. In Indian society this inequality, the one based on
birth, pertained to caste and gender. Leftovers of this inequality are
very much there even in today’s society. One aspect of this has been
pertaining to entry of women in places of worship. In most of the
mosques, it’s predominantly men who pray to the Allah. In temples the
discrimination has been based on the ground of caste and gender, both.
One recalls the epic struggle of Dr. Bhimrao Babasaheb Ambedkar in
matter of Kalaram Mandir for temple entry of dalits. One also recalls
the recent campaigns led by Trupti Desai for entry into Sanctum
Santorum’s of Hindu Temples (Shani Shingnapur of Maharashtra in
particular). Recently we also had the agitation of Muslim women for
entry into inner precincts of Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai. These recent
agitations did lead to success of women gaining entry to these hallowed
places.
That
is not the end of the story. There are scores of famous and not so
famous temples which still bar the entry of certain castes and women.
One of the most well known of these being Sabrimala Shrine of Lord
Ayappa, where women of menstruating age group are not permitted. The
premise is that Lord Ayappa had taken the vow of permanent celibacy. In a
recent (28 September 2018) Supreme Court Majority judgment (4 against
1) the Court ruled that banning the entry of women to Sabrimala shrine
is discriminatory and violates the rights of Hindu women. The judgment
has been welcome by most of the women’s rights groups and many others.
Kavita Krishnan’s tweet well summed up the view of most women’s rights
groups,
“In
Instant Triple Talaq, Haji Ali, and Sabarimala cases courts have
rightly held that women’s equality can’t be held hostage to religious
practices. Just as it’s unconstitutional and discriminatory to debar
entry to temples based on caste, it’s the same to debar entry based on
gender. Also, we project our own values on our gods - and patriarchal
values that put the burden of men’s celibacy or sexual choices on women
are deeply damaging to women in real life.” At the same time RSS
cautioned with the statement that feeling of the people should be
considered. Congress asked the Trust controlling the temple to ask for
review of judgment while BJP asked the state Government to bring an
ordinance to reverse the same. Many other organizations are planning to
get it reversed through appeal against the same.
The
journey of women’s march towards equality is not a smooth path. The
abominable practice of Sati was the first one, which was opposed to
begin with by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. He did have massive obstacles in his
path despite the supportive legislations which came to abolish the
horrendous practice of burning the widow alive. Despite many
legislations, the Sati has could not be eradicated easily. Just a few
decades back we saw the Sati of Roopkanwar, and when the most from the
society responded by calling for strict punishment, while the then Vice
President of BJP, Mrs. Vijayaraje Scindia took out
rallies in support of practice of sati. The other major reform among
Hindu women related to age of consent. The debates have ranged for
increasing the age of consent initially from 10 years to 12, when even
the leaders like Lokmanya Ganadhar Tilak opposed this move on the ground
that this is against
Hindu traditions. The notion prevalent being that girls should be
married before the first menstrual period. There are brilliant accounts
of these struggles for these reforms which are worth being recalled, one
such being Tanika Sarkar’s book ‘Hindu Wife Hindu Nation’. Just few
years ago many a maulanas came up in arms against the age of consent
being raised to 18. For them the special provisions for early marriage
of Muslim girls was mandatory.
Our
society is very uneven. The arguments for early marriage do relate to
lack of education, mostly among poor, where the safety of girls is a big
issue. Today the Sabrimala judgment is a matter of debate between those
aspiring for equality and those sticking to age old customs, which have
women’s inequality in-built into it. Even today there is a wide
spectrum of social thought on the topic. On one side we see that a group
of women have resolved that they will ensure that menstruating women will not enter the temple, on the other we have places like Eklavya Ashram
where menstruation is no taboo, where menstruating devotees also pray.
To strike a balance in such a situation is as difficult as the tight
rope walking.
Many
a women’s groups kept aloof from the struggle for temple entry for
women on the ground that all religions are inherently patriarchal, so
why fall in the trap. To the best one can say that patriarchy is the
core foundation of most institutionalized religions. This demand for
temple entry is a step in demolishing the patriarchal set up, which
should lead to total abolition of the same in times to come.
Legislations don’t solve the problems in themselves; still they are the
major step in laying the direction for future march of the journey for
equality. The other social situations of poverty and lack of security
for women in this set up are the major aggravating factors leading to
sustenance of patriarchal mould. We need the social policies which
bring to fore and provide foundation for application of legislations in
letter and spirit. With Supreme Court taking the lead in this the onus
is on us to pave the path of equality in times to come. Need to create
the situations congenial for such judgments.
