On the second day of 2019, three months after the Supreme Court’s contentious verdict allowed women of all ages to enter Kerala’s Sabarimala Temple, and a day after women across Kerala formed a 620 km-long women’s wall, two women finally made it inside the sanctum sanctorum before dawn.
The two women, Bindu and Kanaka Durga, both under the age of 50, entered the shrine accompanied by police personnel, on Wednesday at 3:45 am, as reported by ANI. This comes after three months of persistent protests led by right-wing Hindu groups against the ruling, despite prohibitory orders and heavy security which have led to over 2,000 arrests in addition to sporadic violence and a heady political tussle.
Historic entry
The temple was reportedly closed for an hour at 10:30 am for purification rituals after Bindu and Kanaka Durga broke centuries-old tradition and offered their prayers to the perennially celibate deity Lord Ayappa.
It reportedly opened in the afternoon while protests against the women’s entry gathered further steam across the temple town. The police used tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons as protests and clashes erupted across Kerala. Violent clashes were reported between scores of people in front of the state parliament in Thiruvananthapuram.
Bindu informed local media that they had paid obeisance from the VIP lounge and did not climb the 18 sacred steps to the shrine. Police had not attempted to send them back, she said. There was no media glare and very few devotees were around at the time, which apparently facilitated the “sneak.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan later confirmed the women’s accounts, saying, Two women below 50 entered Sabarimala today. Calling it a victory for women, he told reporters in Kochi that the state government “has been consistently saying that it will provide security to women who wish to enter Sabarimala”.
Both women had attempted to enter the temple on December 24 as but had failed to do so. They were just a away from the hilltop shrine on Monday when they were forced to return to the base camp in Pamba after protestors mounted a momentous agitation against them, after which the police urged them to go back. Protestors had even gathered in Perinthalmanna, Malappuram, outside Bindu’s residence.
The standoff so far
The Supreme Court in September had noted, The country has not accepted women as partners in seeking divinity.” “Subversion of women on biological factors cannot be given legitimacy. Certain dogmas have resulted in between doctrine and practice, it further observed.
Since then, the temple has opened its gates for a total of three times and each time, women pilgrims of menstruating age were barred from entering the temple by fierce mobs, comprising mostly right-wing self-appointed guardians of tradition. They flagged cars and buses carrying devotees, intimidated pilgrims, including women who were above 50, and snatched the religious offerings they carried.
Protestors fervently chanted Lord Ayappa’s prayers as a form of protest, which is said to have involved women and children as well, to obstruct those women who attempted to undertake the uphill trek from Pamba and Nilakkal to the shrine. Numerous activist groups from southern states and international female journalists were also forced to retrace their steps despite being accompanied by police officers. Resistance continued for three months, in violation of Section 144 which was declared in November by the Vijayan government.
Women’s wall
The historic entry into the temple comes a day after lakhs of women in Kerala formed a 620 km-long womens wall across 14 districts of the state to send a message of gender equality. The “ “, as it is known in Malayalam, was primarily envisaged as a response to the Sangh Parivar’s campaign preventing women from entering the Sabarimala temple on grounds that the SC ruling attacked Hindu values.
The idea of forming a womens wall came from a meeting of the representatives of 178 Hindu , including the backward Hindu Ezhava community and a faction of the Kerala Pulaya Maha Sabha, a Dalit group, in December. Senior CPI(M) leadership, including district secretary C.N. Mohanan, former secretary P. Rajeev, Politburo member M.A. Baby, Politburo member Subhashini Ali, and writer M. Leelavathy participated in Vanitha Mathil.
State minister for health and family welfare, K.K. Shailaja, was the starting point of the wall in the northern Kasaragod district, while senior CPI(M) leader and Politburo member Brinda Karat stood as its concluding link at the southern tip of Thiruvananthapuram district. At Edappally, one of the busiest traffic points in Ernakulam district in central Kerala, scores of women lined up on the side of NH 66 and took a pledge to work preserve gender equality in the state. Nuns of the Jacobite faction of the Christian Church also took a stand against patriarchy.
In an interview with BBC Hindi, a young demonstrator said, “This is a great way of saying how powerful women are, and how we can empower ourselves and help each other. Of course, I support the move to allow women of all ages into the temple. I don’t think tradition or any kind of backwardness should stop women. Those who want to pray must have the right to pray.”
How the government responded
Vijayan stated on Facebook, The womens wall has become the largest women movement in the country to protect their rights enshrined in the Constitution and defend the attempts to deny them gender justice. This wall is a warning to the conservative-communal forces, which try to deny women their legitimate rights and renaissance values. The womens wall has emerged as a loud announcement that Kerala women are with the progressive thought.
The state’s Congress unit, however, Vijayan for instigating a “communal wall”, while the BJP and its affiliate groups kept away from the movement. Three days earlier, thousands of women and men by the Sangh had lit Ayyappa Jyothi, or Ayyappas lamps, vowing to save Sabarimalas traditions and rituals. NSS general secretary Sukumaran Nair, who spearheads the opposition campaign against the entry of women into the temple, said Kerala would become Satans land after the women’s wall. No Chief Minister can destroy traditions and rituals, he said.
The latest movement and the Sabarimala row have garnered considerable attention from global media, offering a good boost to Kerala’s left-wing coalition government and its progressive image.
Prarthana Mitra is a staff writer at Qrius