By Aditya Aamir
Protests in Kerala against the Supreme Court order to do away with restrictions on women wanting to pray at Sabarimala should not surprise anybody. The ‘Ayappan mindset’ of the average Malayali is gender-neutral. Malayali men and women brought up in the Ayyappan tradition think alike. It has to do with faith, and diversity.
The Supreme Court looked at the issue from the constitutional prism. Justice Indu Malhotra chose to dissent. She dared to look at faith, which is nebulous and tenuous but also tenacious. Justice Malhotra could be accused of crystal-gazing. But the Ayyappan devotee, male and female, will object. For them Swami Saranam is belief, refuge in faith.
The frenzy of the gender-neutral Ayyappan devotee is not far removed from so-called feminist Trupti Desai’s steadfast determination to put the female gender on an equal footing with the male. In post-SC order Kerala, #ReadyToWait is asking for diversity. Trupti is asking for due process; implementation of the apex court’s order.
That being said, true diversity is formula for war and forcing diversity is divisive. Also, there cannot be diversity on fundamental principles. Like on gender equality. Can there be diversity on right to fair trial? Can we have diversity on whether we ought to respect natural rights? Some crazies say “diversity is like keeping a skin cancer so you can have diverse cells!”
In matters of faith, if faith is kept completely a private matter and if all faiths agree to tolerate differences in each other, then and only then can there be diversity. But what when fundamental principles like gender equality come up against diversity of faith? Then it is discord and the differences spill out in the street. Like in the instance of Sabarimala. Justice Malhotra warned of that and the apex court is on record that democracy is all about dissent.
Women are not a monolithic block. There is #RightToPray Trupti Desai and there is #ReadyToWait Radha Nair. But Trupti’s fight is essentially with men. Does Desai want to emasculate men, sissify the opposite sex? Maybe, maybe not. Hers is a one-point agenda: Right to worship, gender-equality at places of worship. As if that is the core of women empowerment – temple reforms! There are other things gender equality Trupti could concentrate energies on.
Faith has nothing to do with law but is entrenched in the psyche. Jallikattu proved that Social Media hasn’t changed the outlook of modern youth on cultural and religious traditions that date back into the bowels of history. They compelled the Centre and apex court to return to status quo. It is a similar victory the Ayyappan Dharma Sena aspires to replicate in Kerala.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who took to Social Media in a big way during the Kerala floods, used the time-tested press conference to press home the message that his government is bound by law, and has no recourse other than to implement the verdict. ASAP. That hurry is now the cause for the state Congress to cry foul. The Congress is not against gender-equality but says the Kerala unit faces compulsions peculiar to the state, which the top court should have anticipated.
The state Congress unit has a theory: By being in an all-fired hurry, the Left Front wants to fire up Hindu fanatics, BJP and RSS. The resultant turmoil will put fear in the minorities and the left will emerge out of the chaos as “saviour” of the minorities. The BJP and RSS are no less contradictory. In the immediate euphoria of the verdict both rent the air with hurrahs. Two days later and they were baying for a review.
The VHP’s game-plan to turn the “Hindu way of life” into a monotheistic “Hindutva religion” has taken a backseat in Kerala. For the time being. An op-ed in BJP mouthpiece Janmabhoomi exposed the BJP’s and RSS’s doublespeak. The article Thursday morning demanded Pinarayi Vijayan heed the court verdict. The BJP dismissed the article as the “personal view of the author”.
RSS intellectual R Sanjayan argued in the article that the SC verdict is actually good because it will increase the number of Ayyappan devotees flocking to the shrine. That is religion talking, Hindutva evangelizing, Sanatan Dharma spreading. Note that Sanjayan is farsighted and his name rings with Mahabharata’s Sanjaya Gavalgani, Dhritrashtra’s charioteer with the Divya Dhristi! Strange how the links unearth!
For instance, amidst all these climactic actions, there are two which aren’t part of the hullaballoo – Swami Ayyappan and the agnostics. If Swami Ayyappan is nervous, there’s no way to find out. But signs are plenty his brahmacharya status is no longer sacrosanct. His status has been ruled on and could be up for review. Will Islam or Christianity agree to a review on Allah and Jesus? The agnostics and atheists are all in the Hindu fold. The agnostic falls short of “I don’t believe in God”, that there are possibilities. So, keep looking for God! (IPA Service)
The post Due Process And Diversity Up Against Each Other appeared first on Newspack by India Press Agency.
