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Devotion with a splash of hooliganism

By Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal. Dated: 10/21/2018 1:06:17 PM

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
--Blaise Pascal
When women are hounded and heckled by politically backed hooligans to prevent them from trekking up to the Sabrimala temple, a battery of 100 personnel has to ensure water tight security for two women to be able to reach the threshold of the temple only to face yet another mob of over-zealous devotees protesting inside the temple adamant to violate a Supreme Court ruling, and a leftist state government begins to succumb to pressures by drawing a distinction between 'faith driven' women and 'activists', forcing the women to return, it is a reflection of what legally abiding devotees are pitted up against - mobsters backed by the country's ruling party and other political groups in the name of faith.
The Sabrimala row betrays that even in the modern world, hooliganism in the name of religion continues to limit the religious freedom of others and cross all limits to persecute them. Is the faith of believers inspired by rigid traditions so weak that it can be shattered by the contesting faith of another? Right to religious rituals of an individual is absolute but it cannot be invoked to throttle the faith of another. If women want to enter the temple, regressive traditions cannot be imposed to snatch that freedom from them in the name of 'faith'. The basic thumb rule in matters of religious freedom is 'my freedom ends where your nose begins'.
The framing founder of the Indian constitution, B.R. Ambedkar had warned that "religion must mainly be a matter of principles only. It cannot be a matter of rules. The moment it degenerates into rules, it ceases to be a religion, as it kills responsibility which is an essence of the true religious act". Rigid religious traditions that impose a culture of inequality, caste or gender based, should have no place in a secular and democratic country. The history of India shows how laws have been used to alter regressive traditions. Laws prohibiting ban on the entry of Dalits in Hindu temples opened the doors of many temples to the socially oppressed community within Hinduism, though without its stringent penal provisions, the law continues to be violated. Similarly, the Supreme Court nod for women's entry into Sabrimala temple, ahead of the annual pilgrimage, without criminalizing the prohibition of entry by disregarding court directives or hooliganism, will not yield the results. Both the traditions of keeping temples out of bounds for certain castes and women amount to injustice, social humiliation and inequality which contradicts the fundamental rights of equality for all citizens. The idea of barring women stems from treating menstruating women as 'impure', which amounts to endorsing another form of untouchability. This cannot be constitutionally, legally and morally upheld.
Such regressive traditions that seek to denigrate women; and elevate men over women cannot be perpetuated in the name of faith. Nor can it be overlooked through the dualistic nature of religion which often extols women to levels of highest virtue and even goddesses as in the case of Hinduism. Laws and reforms within religious communities are the need of the time to ensure that no inequality is allowed through religious practices. If India could shun the ugly slur of sati-practice (aberrations like Roop Kanwar case apart) through reformation movements and subsequent laws, it could just as well rid itself of other regressive traditions as well. How much of tradition is fine in the name of faith? Can inhuman practices of sati, pushing widows into shabby ashrams, child brides, jauhar, female infanticide and even denial of property rights to women be legitimized in the name of faith? Anything that is ultra vires of the Indian Constitution cannot be justified as a religious practice. Clearly, denying entry to women in temples or other places of worship violates the very spirit of constitution and the spirit of human dignity that is central to it.
If it is fine for women to enter Haji Ali, which they did without much ado, why should it be a blasphemy if women climb up the steps to Sabrimala sanctum sanctorum. The Sabrimala incident betrays the hypocrisy of the BJP and the Hindu-right wing completely. It backed women with respect to Haji Ali entry but opposes the same demand for Sabrimala. While it raises a banner of revolt against Muslim women oppressed by the instant triple talaq, it is fine with oppression of Hindu women by another way. It wants Muslims to abide by laws and court verdicts on Babri mosque-Ram temple issue, but uses an entire mob and all its machinery to demolish a mosque in abject violation of law, spreads lawlessness in the name of temples. And, when an apex court ruling brings the question of parity between men and women on the question of women, it not only shamelessly rejects the court directive, it openly promotes a culture of hooliganism to perpetuate the shameful inequality.
The Sabrimala episode, does not only expose the hypocrisy of the BJP, it also manifests the shoddy role of the Congress, which has in recent decades not shied away from mixing religion with politics. If shilayanas and Shah Bano case became the rallying point for Congress in the 80s, in 2018, it is trying to outdo the BJP with many of its leaders describing the permission to women to enter Sabrimala as 'hurting the religious sentiment'. The most disappointing was the role of the Left government in Kerala which should have used its entire machinery to uphold law and protect women wishing to enter the temple. On the first day, it allowed women to be booed and sent back by cheerfully happy lynch mobs. On the second day, it offered a huge posse of personnel to ensure the women reach the steps of the temple. And, then it chickened out, conveniently trying to invoke the distinction between 'genuine devotee' and 'activists'. Is it the state's or anybody's job to test the devoutness of any individual and certify it? And, if certification indeed is a compelling requirement to enter a temple, what does the Kerala government think of the display of muscle power and hooliganism at the Sabrimala site of the men who gathered there heckling women and pelting stones at police personnel? Was it an example of religiosity and devotion?