Sabarimala Temple in Kerala

When in the 21^st century we all are supporting the issue of gender equality; the incident of ‘Sabarimala shrine’ shook the foundation. For the first time, when I read the news on bbc, I could not believe that in the modern era such discrimination among men and women is so much alive in our society. Sabarimala temple which is famous among the Hindu religions made headlines these days even in international level surrounding all the violence and protests taking place for the establishment of recently enacted verdict of Supreme Court of India.

Lord ‘Ayyappa’, who is worshiped at Sabarimala temple, believed to be a bachelor according to Hindu mythology. According to the wish and rule led down by the god ‘Ayyappa’ to intact his celibacy , girls in menstruating period i.e. 10 -50 years old are not allowed to enter his temple and ever since girls were kept out of any activities including prohibition of their entrance in the temple. Although there is no practical base in favour of such claim hitherto 2016, none felt the urge to stand against such baseless protocol of the shrine. However, when in 2016 the first petition against this ritual of the temple submitted to Supreme Court the incident got momentum all across the country.   

The temple authority, who support such gender inequality, pertain to entrance of women in the holly temple of Lord Ayyappa, condemned such petition and supporters of the same. There are instances when Supreme Court of the country overruled such prevailing ill religious practice of the temple in Pune and Masjid, where girls were not allowed earlier. But the issue of Sabarimala temple until then never got much attention about the arbitrary, lopsided ritual of the shrine where girls were not allowed to enter the temple premises.

After 2016, there were seldom tensions rising revolving the possible verdict of the court in favor of the protestors. The temple authority delivered more and more vicious comment against the protester, who was trying to revoke the usual protocol of the temple. Girls from all over the regions of the nation have often uploaded pictures on social media against such prejudice. With time passing by things turned out more aggressive, as there were many incidents of clash among the protestors and temple authority.

According to many intellectuals of the country, the baseless claim of many temple authorities of the Hindu religion and their followers, that girl in the age of period are deemed as unclean or unsanctified, are nothing but irrational. Further, girls of menstruating period are barred from taking part in any religious activities of Hindus, is nothing but a manifesto of sustaining patriarchal dominance in the society. They also mentioned that god has never distinguished men and women based on their physical activities, like periods for girls. It is we the human being led all this impractical rituals in the name of god.   

Having gone through after a lengthy process the Supreme Court of our country finally in September 2018 revoke the ban on women entering the temple based in Kerala. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court declared its verdict on the issue there is still clash going on between the blind supporters of the temple authority, who are mostly men, and on the other hand women who are still struggling to establish their right to entering the temple.  

It is quite shocking that after the enactment of the law in favour of women entering the temple; only in one or two occasions under the protection of police two women were able to enter the shrine till date. It is indeed a surprising fact to me that being a democratic country how come there is so much apathy in the society about gender equality in religious sphere. I hope such brutal discrimination between men and women in the name of religion would soon be put to an end and literally gender equality will rejuvenate in our society.