View: Why the BJP may end up on the losing side of Sabarimala slugfest

To strengthen constitutional morality over custom in all faiths and in every walk of life would be the long-term political implication of the confrontation at Sabarimala between the forces of reaction trying to stop women pilgrims from entering the shrine and the state enforcing, albeit wearing a velvet glove over its iron fist, the Supreme Court’s order striking down the ban on women of menstrual age. This would further erode caste hierarchy and move India closer to the ideals of liberal democracy that the Constitution seeks to mould into a functional societal framework.

The short-term fallout would depend on how skilfully the state government and its political leadership control the confrontation to minimise violence. The BJP sees in the defence of a misogynist temple custom a chance to roll out a version of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in Kerala and follow in its spoor, hopefully all the way to power. If the party and its affiliates succeed in spreading violence, the ruling Left Democratic Front would be out of power and the Congress is likely to be the immediate gainer.

In any case, the removal of the ban on fertile women’s entry into Sabarimala on the strength of a court order, without a sustained debate and a movement for reform leading up to the change, has had the result of diverting popular attention from the task of rebuilding flood-ravaged Kerala. It has also taken away from the state’s Left leadership the sheen of non-partisan competence it had acquired from its handling of the flood and subsequent flood relief.

Such a debate would have brought out the lack of substance in the claim that the ban in Sabarimala on women capable of bearing a child is an age-old custom. Women were, indeed allowed, except during special pilgrimage seasons. Any number of small children have had their first meal of rice — choroonu is considered an important transition in an infant’s life — sitting on their mother’s lap at Sabarimala. TKA Nair, principal secretary to Manmohan Singh when he was prime minister, is one of them, and the A in his name stands for Ayyappankutty, kutty being a suffix meaning child.

The notion that the consecrated deity’s celibacy would be challenged by the presence of fertile women is a recent fabrication: otherwise, why would women have been allowed entry except during the pilgrimage season? In any case, if a man like Mahatma Gandhi could remain steadfastly celibate in the company of women at all times of the day and the night, would a god be swayed?

Ayyappa as Sastha had two wives — Poorna and Pushkala. He became celibate, presumably, after having completed the first two stages of life, of the celibate scholar and, thereafter, the householder, who pursues both love and wealth. He would, presumably, be above temptation.

Women were excluded from Sabarimala during the pilgrimage season because pilgrims have to undergo penance for 41 days before they climb the 18 steps leading up to Ayyappa’s shrine. Women would have their monthly period at least once in 41 days and so were deemed incapable of the penance.

The notion that menstrual women constitute impurity was widespread in Kerala. Women were confined during this period and in truly tradition-bound homes, they stayed out of their own bedroom and kitchen, not to speak of a temple of any description.

This notion of menstrual impurity has lost purchase, over time. Today, young women of Kerala wage an open battle against menstrual shaming. Most coeducational colleges have machines that dispense sanitary napkins. If these don’t work, girls go and complain to those whose job it is to ensure that the campus works efficiently. How would such women react to exclusion from sacred spaces on menstrual grounds? The BJP is overoptimistic about the fruits of their labour to defend custom and ritual.

A WhatsApp message doing the rounds in Kerala depict a young Namboodiri wife being mobilised by her husband’s cousin to join a Sabarimala protest in defence of custom. Her husband then commands her to take off her blouse, withdraw into the kitchen and step outside home only under the cover of an umbrella. He also urges her to ask his cousin to be reborn, for the cousin was born of a marriage while the custom was that only the eldest son of a Namboodiri family would marry and raise a family, while the rest were permitted only liaisons with women of other castes. The wife sees the light.

Traditional, Hindu society’s code of morality and ethics subsisted in every member of society following his or her caste’s given duty. There is no equivalent to the divinely ordained Ten Commandments in Hinduism. So, caste transgressions represented a breakdown of the moral order itself.

Traditional morality has no place, clearly, in a casteless society. Only constitutional morality can replace caste-based morality. The stronger constitutional morality, the less corrosive the caste transgressions. Thus, when removal of menstrual impurity from Sabarimala rituals gets normalised, as a result of the Constitution’s values being enforced, caste norms would weaken as well. Not quite a tragedy to be rued or prevented, wouldn’t you say?