Sabarimala pilgrimage cannot be a test of women’s empowerment

Left liberals often lose the plot when they wade into temple traditions because most of them are atheists who use cold logic against frenzied faith. Call it inane, illogical or even regressive (all religions by definition ought to be feudal and regressive), but the tradition of fertile women staying away from a bachelor god is definitely not anti-women. If at all anything needs urgent intervention at Sabarimala by the highest courts it is the state sponsored temple miracle every year, which is a fraud on devotees that has even killed scores in stampedes.

Most religions of the world have kept women out of the sanctum sanctorum, not allowing them to preach, worship or lead the congregations. These are real issues of women’s empowerment and women’s role in a religious society. In fact, Kerala has a rare exception where women head an ancient Naga temple in Alleppey district.

But the Sabarimala pilgrimage cannot be a test of women’s empowerment because they are not kept away from the temple. Thousands of women do the tough 5 km trek to visit their favourite god every time the temple inside the forest is opened. There is no age bar, even. Anyone who is not of the menstruating age can walk up the hill. My mother did the trek after her hysterectomy. Is this something about ritual purity? Well strictly not.

Ritual purity ought to force normal temples to keep non-Hindus away from the premises or their rituals. But this is one temple where the deity goes to sleep listening to a Catholic’s lullaby. As a matter of ritual, the recorded voice of KJ Yesudas is played on the public address system every night for the god to have a good night’s sleep. Ayyappan, like all Malayalees, seems to be a great fan of Yesudas. Then, at the feet of the 18 steps that lead to the temple is a Muslim deity, Vavar Swami, also worshipped by the pilgrims. The myth has it that Vavar was Ayyappan’s comrade-in-arms.

There is no logic to Yesudas singing a lullaby and a Muslim being worshipped in a Hindu temple, but these are the quaint practices of an amazingly syncretic tradition, which come as a package. And this temple has retained its plurality despite some rabidly communal non-Hindus trying to burn it down in 1950. Now, non-believers shouldn’t pick just one among the many crazy beliefs and challenge it.

Menstruation and Malayalee temples have a complex relationship. There is even a goddess who menstruates every month at the Chengannur temple in Alleppey district. Menstruating devotees normally don’t visit temples or even light the evening lamp at home. That is a tradition, which ought to be re-evaluated. But by whom? Most of the empowered women of my matrilineal family who have even chosen life partners outside their caste would not want to violate temple rituals, simply because they are believers.

Sabarimala is not Shah Bano. There is no discrimination, no denial of rights and no question of allowing women to rot in harems. Instead, watchful fathers carry their daughters on their shoulders to the shrine and anxious sons match steps with their mothers never letting them gasp for breath. By mixing up matters of civil dispute, like property rights, maintenance and divorce with strange beliefs, the liberals are pushing the insecure devotee into the waiting lap of the Hindu Right.

Source : ET