From secular progressive to regressive. That didn't take
much time, did it?
There is a palpable sense of glee in some quarters, eagerly
waiting for the religious floodwaters to break through and drown this secular
bulwark against communal bigotry. They hope
that this would be another deluge, with Sabarimala the first shutter opening of the Cheruthoni dam of religious bile. Let’s hope we find enough fishermen and boats
to survive this flooding.
Ideally, one would expect these people to be protesting in front of the Supreme Court, as it was that court’s decision to let these "impure" women in.
It’s hard to believe that the secular, liberal intellectuals had any kind of
influence on the court. Or for that matter, anyone, because then that will not
be a fair and impartial judiciary.
My initial reaction was, “hey, let the ladies believe in whatever
hocus-pocus they want to believe”. However, after seeing the attempts by a
section to hold God’s Own Cakoos to ransom, I became more interested and
started looking up largely uninteresting facts (or fake news, as they are known
now).
We have to admire the audacity of this group. The women who filed
the case were not, as a Facebook friend commented, WEIRD (Western-Educated
Industrialized Rich & Democratic) people with a liberal agenda. If
anything, some of them were from the “right” stock (check out Prerna
Kumari/husband in fb). An initial smokescreen was created in the name of the Indian
Young Lawyers Association, which was headed by a guy called Naushad at that
time (2006), who didn’t have anything to do with this petition.
The case dragged on for 12 years, and the Supreme Court, in its infinite
wisdom (or is it ignorance, if you believe these people), and hopefully after studying
the case meticulously, gave a verdict. All these people, including the NSS, the
descendent of the family that ruled over the Pandalam municipality and
surroundings, and even a guy called Rahul Easwar, had the opportunity to
present their side to the court. Naishtika brahmachari (it will be interesting
to know how many people who spout this word know its meaning (I googled)),
menstruating women, magnetic force, magic fire in mountain, crowds killed in
stampedes trying to watch magic fire in mountain, e-coli in Pampa river,
everything. Still, at the end of the day, the court decided in favour of the
women who filed the complaint.
Then, before you could say swamiye saranam ayyappa, it all became
some devious liberal agenda. Suddenly, some of them saw a chance to open that
shutter to let the pent-up religious bigotry on the people. The glimmer of a chance
to get a foothold was too good to pass. Hence the change of heart from
https://www.news18.com/news/india/rss-backs-womens-entry-in-temples-says-such-unfair-traditions-should-be-discarded-1215530.html
https://www.news18.com/news/india/rss-backs-womens-entry-in-temples-says-such-unfair-traditions-should-be-discarded-1215530.html
Suddenly, ancient customs became important. The RSS supreme leader
now blames the judges for ignoring tradition. Irony drowned itself in the Pampa
when a Dalit priest said centuries-old customs should be respected. The guy
would have had to stand close to a century steps away from the Namboothiri
thantri of Sabarimala if those centuries-old customs were intact.
Regardless of the feeling towards the ruling dispensation in the
State, it’s time once again for mallus to pull together like they did during
the floods.
P.S. It is interesting to note that a similar centuries-old
tradition was ditched some time ago at the Shani Shingnapur Temple in
Maharashtra after a court order.
