This Article is From Aug 30, 2016

I Want To Pray At Sabarimala, I Am Not #ReadyToWait

Tradition is usually acknowledged as a thread that holds some aspects of a society together. It comes into existence for a reason. Usually, the reasons die out with time, but the tradition lingers on and needs to be changed to suit the times. 

Over the centuries, women have always been socially conditioned by various traditions and taboos to believe they are less than men and must obey rules that men need not. A woman's biological differences once made her vulnerable to being always under supervision. In some societies, this led to women being ostracized from certain aspects of life. 

Even in Kerala, which stands on a high pedestal in socialist pedigrees, we have a regressive past. We were the society which put a tax on a woman with breasts, we were the society which chased away the first woman actor on celluloid because she belonged to a marginalized community and dared to enact the role of an upper class woman. I can go on. 

There has always been stiff resistance to change of any sort, but especially to change of existing norms: remember how banning the horrific custom of Sati, widow remarriage, and educating women were once considered blasphemy? The stiff resistances to these changes put up by the then privileged have been well-documented in history. 

But now I am talking about the current controversy about Lord Ayyappa's women devotees. 
 

Dedicated to Lord Ayyappa, worshipped as a son of Lord Vishnu, the Sabarimala temple allows entry only to girls younger than 10 or women over 55

Oh yes, I do understand the Sastha and the Ayyappa concepts. Let me make it very clear that I am a born and practising Hindu, and we have been ardent devotees of Lord Ayyappa. As a woman who is also a believer, I have strong feelings against what is obviously an imposed restriction on a woman devotee of productive age entering the Sabarimala temple.

Here are some of the arguments that people have raised. Some are connected to devotion, others plainly lack common sense and reflect not moving along with the times. 

Argument 1. Lord Ayyappa is a celibate. So women of productive age should not visit the temple. 

I think that's a terrible insult to the concept of Lord Ayyappa. Lord Ayyappa is beyond temptations. It's a usual human error in interpretation that celibacy means isolation from temptations. Celibacy is steadfastness to one's choices in spite of temptations. Celibacy is about the person who chooses to be so, and not about the others around him. It's the devotees who have to resist temptations to emulate him to get nearer to the concept of God. That's why the 41-day-vrat from anything worldly is a part of the Sabarimala pilgrimage. 

The restrictions on keeping women of a certain age away had once probably been about keeping women away from a tough trek up the hillock to the shrine, about the difficulty of travelling during menstruation. Modern conveniences have altered all that.

Argument 2. Women will not be able to hold the vrat for 41 days because of their period (required to enter the temple).

Really? Is it not up to the devotee to ensure that she holds the vrat rather than someone supervising her commitment to God? Age is not a factor that controls everyone's menstrual cycle, there are exceptions. There are so many women who have surgically removed their uteruses at younger ages due to health issues; they can surely take the vrat? And how about the tablets that women take to put off menstrual periods when the men in their house are on Sabarimala vrat? They too take the oath of abstinence with their family. And surely the not-cutting-hair, not-shaving, alcohol restrictions etc. don't apply to an average woman? And if she violates any of these, surely whatever retribution follows comes to her alone? As for checking if a woman is "in line," does anyone check if a man's observing a vrat? Isn't a woman devotee owed the same respect? 

So don't even start to talk about weird ideas like machines to check the woman's "purity" - a temple official suggested a machine to scan whether women approaching the temple have their period.

What I cannot stomach here in the whole deliberations is the concept that woman is "impure". This has been an age-old plot of patriarchy and used to control women. And then they glorify motherhood. Why? It's women who carry on the race, and that's grudgingly acknowledged as the sole use of womanhood.
 

#ReadyToWait campaign supports Sabarimala temple's tradition of not allowing women of reproductive age

As for my fellow-women who are #ReadyToWait, I respect your decision to wait till you are 55. I expect you therefore to return the grace and respect the other women's decisions to not wait too. Let not a man-made tradition in another century stand in their way. 

I see this movement to allow women to worship in Sabarimala as a change. And a change of the order that puts an end to what I see as gender discrimination, and in concurrence with the supreme law of the land. If you cannot or do not choose to see that as discrimination, I am afraid you have just been socially conditioned to accept discrimination. 

(Suneetha Balakrishnan is a writer and gender activist.)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.
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