Sabarimala: Verdict of the Supreme Court & the Recent Debate
The age-old superstition that the menstruating woman is vile and not eligible to offer puja is widely accepted among the Hindus of India. The temple of Sabarimala in Kerala had taken this superstition to its extreme where a girl reaching her puberty was even barred from entering into the temple premises till she reaches menopause. Supreme Court, in a recent verdict, has declared this custom as null and void stating this to be anti-constitutional and in opposition to the equal rights of women. Since then, severe debate and demonstration has started against the verdict. The point of opposition is that the state or the court has no right to interfere into the belief of the devotees of the temple.
The logic is such that it can be used to uphold any sort of custom/practices continuing in the name of religion. Its resonance had already been heard as and when protests against the evil customs of Hinduism, like widow-burning, child-marriage, refusal of re-marriage of the widows, Devadasi system first surfaced. Then also the logic was that the law was acting against the sentiments of the Hindus. Excuses were drawn from the Shastras. It was said that infidels were trying to malign the sanctity of the Hindu religion. When confronted with the demand for reforms similar logics were put forward not only by the orthodox Hindu religious gurus but by all the orthodox religious leaders, be it Hindus, Muslims or Christians. Recently, when the Court gave the verdict against the TripleTalaaq, a diabolical system of depriving women from equal rights and an instrument to oppress the women, the Muslim Mullahs also brought forward similar kind of logic. Customs that deprive equal rights of women must be condemned as they go against the principle of democracy and being the strongest upholders of the democracy, the representatives of the proletariat must welcome the abolition of these customs.
One among the bench of the judges opposed the Sabarimala verdict and said that except some barbaric customs like widow-burning, court must not interfere in religious practices, "even if discriminatory". It is also learnt that she went on to the extent of saying that the notion of rationality is not applicable in religious matters. This logic implies that no law can be enacted to bring social reforms; because most of the social reforms in the societies where religion is deeply entrenched are integrally connected with the religious strictures. Even if this general perspective is set aside, is it not the fact that in the near past the Supreme Court itself has often acted against this logic! If Supreme Court cannot give a verdict against ban on women's entry in Sabarimala temple, then how was it possible that Mumbai High Court issued similar verdict regarding entry of women in Hazi Ali Darga of Mumbai? If the same logic is followed, then the Supreme Court was also not in a position to give a verdict against Triple Talaaq! Or, the Court which have questioned the practice of polygamy among the Muslims, cannot interfere in it also!
After the verdict on Sabarimala, different political parties have entered into the arena to reap benefits for their narrow parochial interests based on the orthodox religious position of the Keralite Hindus centering the Sabarimala temple. Undoubtedly, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar is among the front-runners in this competition. The Congress party, supposedly the ardent propagator of secularism, is also in the foray. It's quite natural that Sangh Parivar would fan up religious bigotry among the Hindus. It is also understandable that they would utilize the verdict to further polarize communal division. But this verdict has actually laid bare the attitude of Sangh Parivar-BJP about women's rights. When Bombay High Court upheld the rights of women to enter the Hazi Ali Dargah, Sangh Parivar did not blink twice to lend their support. These Sanghis went to the extent of posing themselves as the supreme flag bearers of women's emancipation by projecting the fight against Triple Talaaq or right of polygamy in Muslim Personal Law as if it is the sole fight for equal rights of women. At that time, they not only upheld the verdict of Supreme Court on Triple Talaaq case, throughout the whole phase since filing of the case till issuance of the verdict they played an active role. Now, when the question of equal rights of Hindu women has surfaced in Sabarimala case, they started saying that judiciary cannot interfere in religious rites and rituals. Great! A complete volte face! But it's not amazing; this is the true face of the Sanghis! The concept of Hindutva of Sanghis is to protect and propagate religious bigotry of Hindu religion. So we always find them as frontrunner to protect and propagate that bigotry. When in the eighties of last century Roop Kanwar was burnt alive on her dead husband's pyre in Rajasthan, these Sanghis supported such inhuman act and when the anti-Sati Law was promulgated, BJP leaders spearheaded an agitation against this law. Only around two years back, when the doors of Shani Shingnapur temple was thrown open for women through a Court verdict, we found local BJP leaders raising hue and cry against it. Narendra Davolkar was murdered by the Hindu fanatics for his tirade against superstitions. So it is not at all surprising that BJP-Sangh Parivar would go against the verdict of Supreme Court on Sabarimala issue as this verdict goes against the regressive Hindu ritual. And once again it has been proven that it is a ploy of BJP-Sangh Parivar to support the verdict against Triple Talaaq verdict only to heckle the Muslim fundamentalists by raising the issue of Triple Talaaq or right of polygamy, rather than standing up for equal rights of Muslim women. They have amply established the fact that as and when similar issues emerged in case of the Hindu community, they have acted no different from Muslim clerics.
Several months have passed since the Supreme Court verdict and however progressive and democratic the verdict may be thought to be, it is becoming more and more doubtful that how much it would be able to bring about any change in reality. Two years have passed by since the verdict of the Supreme Court withdrawing restriction on entry of women in Shani Shingnapur temple. But as per reports of the media, still the women residing in Shani Shingnapur area do not enter the temple; very few women who have entered the temple are all outsiders. More importantly, Hindu women are still victims of so many regressive customs which have officially been declared illegal long time back. Polygamy is illegal in accordance to Hindu Code Bill, still polygamy has not been fully eradicated from Hindu society. Female foeticide is still very rampant in different states. Same is applicable for child marriage also. All these have been made illegal long back. So, it is evident that by making any law or through some Supreme Court verdict, these customs and rituals cannot be stopped. The prevalence of all these religious bigotry and superstition actually reveals the truth that the present Indian society still carries along with it the remnants of old feudal socio-economic production relations. Whatever changes are taking place in the realm of production relations that is also taking place not through revolution from below, but through reforms from above and that also at a snail's pace. So the wide prevalence of values, customs, rituals, superstitions of old feudal society is present. Yes, some changes are taking place. Due to effect of capitalist development through reforms, there has also been some changes in social and religious arena; but those are very minor and incapable of eradicating the regressive old customs. Actually, without complete revolutionary transformation of production relations, such regressive social and religious customs and practices cannot be fully removed. Even, after the overthrow of old feudal production relations through revolution, it is not possible to eradicate all these regressive customs, rituals and practices merely by making some acts or decrees from above. For that, struggle for reforms of all these needs to be initiated from within the community itself. That is, first we need to eradicate the root cause of the existence of these customs etc. so that it does not get nourishments from the society, and then there is the necessity of struggle for reforms from within all the communities so that the influence of all these customs etc. present in the consciousness of the masses is done away with. Of course for this the necessary force for such a struggle must be in existence from before-hand otherwise such a big change like a revolution cannot become possible.
In a class-divided society, where the oppressor classes are in power, the most important task of the class conscious advanced section of the proletariat is development of class struggle and class consciousness. Throughout the process of the development of class struggle, they would not only march ahead towards liberating themselves and other toiling masses from all sorts of exploitation and oppression, they would liberate the humanity from the shackles of all those values, customs, rituals etc. of the old society which are holding back the all-encompassing free development of humanity. They would definitely fight against all those values-customs etc which act as an hindrance of development of class struggle, but they must remember that they are not mere social-reformers, their true role lies in the struggle for establishment of society free from all exploitations and oppressions, i.e. a class-less society.
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