Sabarimala: Between Renaissance and Revivalism

The Sabarimala temple has been at the centre of controversies in recent times owing to the Supreme Court judgment which lifted the prohibition on young women entering the temple. The Chief Justice Dipak Misra-headed constitution bench, in its 4-1 verdict, observed that

     “woman is not lesser or inferior to man. Patriarchy of religion cannot be permitted to trump over faith. Biological or physiological reasons cannot be  accepted in freedom for faith, religion is basically a way of life however certain practices create incongruities .”

Kerala witnessed an unprecedented show of unity and selflessness in combating the devastating floods recently. This unity and fraternity came under tremendous pressure when the Right Wing political Hindu groups began to respond violently to the court verdict, which divided the hitherto secular Kerala society into two political fronts: one led by the Left, representing the values of renaissance and progress, and the other led by the Sangh Parivar consisting of forces representing dangerously conservative and revivalist positions.

To the amazement of all secular forces, the Congress is betraying its own history of an active role in the renaissance movement of Kerala, diminishing the question to a mere conflict between the Constitution and religious belief systems. The Congress was  invoking the archaic practice of treating menstruating women as ‘impure’ as a belief system. In the verdict, Justice Chandrachud observed:

     “the stigma around menstruation has been built up around traditional beliefs in the impurity of menstruating women. They have no place in a constitutional order. These beliefs have been used to shackle women to deny them equal entitlement and subject them to the dictates of a patriarchal order.”

The inhuman practice of untouchability in India is based on the notion of purity and impurity. The prohibition on young women from entering the Sabarimala temple was based on the archaic notion of menstrual impurity. Denying a particular group entry to a public space based on ‘impurity’ is against constitutional morality .

The caste system is also against the mobility and freedom of women, as much as it is against the ‘lower castes’. In that sense, fighting caste also carries a historical task of fighting gender oppression and discrimination which works through dogmas constructed on the notions of purity and impurity.

Kerala Renaissance Movement

The Kerala renaissance representing the universal values of equality, liberty and fraternity was a movement led by the historically oppressed castes from below -- unlike what happened in many other parts of India. This movement ruthlessly criticised and demolished the then existing belief systems and practices under the leadership of lower caste leaders, such as Sri Narayana Guru, Ayyankali, Poykayil Appachan , Ayya Vaikundan et al.

When caste Hindus questioned Narayana Guru installing a Shiva idol and challenging the then belief systems, he retorted that he was installing ‘his own Shiva’. Ayyankali led the first agricultural workers’ strike in Kerala demanding that lower caste students be admitted to schools. Because of its class character, these struggles widened their base to become mass movements and emerged as popular struggles, paving the way to larger class movements, and not limiting themselves to mere religious reformism.  

In a society like India, where social discrimination of different forms divided the masses, the Independence struggle could take the form of a mass movement only when it addressed the question of social reform along with the anti- imperialist slogan. But the bourgeois–landlord class character of the leading political movement of this struggle – the Congress party – betrayed the question of social reform.

The Left’s Struggles

Meanwhile, the communists could take forward the struggle since they combined the anti-imperialist struggle along with the anti-landlord and anti- caste movements. For Congress, fighting the caste question was more of a ‘change of heart’ at the individual level while the communists perceived it as a part of the larger struggle against the extremely exploitative landlordism and colonialism which systematically took advantage of the caste system.

In the post-colonial period, the communists expanded this struggle with its land reform movement, breaking the material base of the highly caste-biased land relations in Kerala. At the same time, the Kerala renaissance has its own historical limitations in developing it to the next level of social reforms and addressing the important question of gender justice. The social sphere associated with religious institutions is still male-dominated, which produces and reproduces patriarchal values perpetually.

The recent verdict must be seen as an important intervention to address this gap which side-lined the crucial question of gender equality when it comes to equal access to different social spheres. As Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in a recent speech, the Kerala renaissance taught lessons of breaking the customs and rituals that obstructed social progression. Many of the rituals and customs which gave legitimacy to caste and gender oppression, were demolished during the Kerala renaissance. Breaking the prohibition of women’s entry in Sabarimala is a continuation of the same.

Sangh Parivar’s Onslaught

Though the Sangh Parivar has been tirelessly trying to make inroads into Kerala since the early 1960s,  the state has always rejected the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s brand of Hindutva, both electorally and socially. In Kerala, the communist party was the prime target of the Sangh Parivar, ideologically and physically. After 2014, the Sangh Parivar has been trying hard to make gains in Kerala, a state that was in the forefront of the anti-Sangh Parivar struggles in India.

The Left in Kerala has  always resisted the Sangh Parivar’s onslaught by creating secular public spheres and building popular resistances. The values of renaissance have always been an inspiring force behind these resistances, and this is the very reason why the Sangh Parivar always wanted to attack the renaissance tradition. The Sangh very well knows that secular spaces in Kerala, where caste and religious differences played little role, are the main obstacle to their growth in Kerala. From Thali temple struggle to the Nilakkal struggle  and Thalassery riots to Marad riots, there are numerous examples in Kerala’s history that substantiate the Sangh Parivar’s role in disrupting the secular spaces and renaissance values in Kerala, Sabarimala being the latest one.

History teaches us that this Sangh Parivar onslaught can be resisted only by building a stringent struggle of all secular forces and rallying all the masses around renaissance values. The crucial question here is, when the Hindutva forces set another stage for a communal divide, which side will be chosen by the political forces that are committed to uphold the democratic and secular fabrics?

Congress ‘Helping’ Communal Forces

Congress, along with their allies, including the Indian Union Muslim League, has moved towards the Sangh narrative which has created the binary of ‘Left versus believers’, instead of upholding the constitutional provision.  This, in fact, is tantamount to not only surrendering to the Sangh agenda, but also a move to deceive the renaissance values that Kerala’s society has achieved through century-long struggles.

Historically, the Congress has always relied on communal forces at the time of crisis – which has paved way for the growth of the Sangh Parivar in India. In the neo-liberal era, Congress and the Sangh Parivar pursued the same economic policies in India, the communal factor being the only difference between them. Even this difference is now being narrowed in Kerala, thanks to their stand on the Sabarimala issue. But this would eventually lead to the irrelevance of Congress in Kerala, helping the growth of communal forces, as has happened in many other states.  

At this historic juncture in Kerala’s society, all secular forces must unite to fight the divisive communal forces that have been trying to reverse Kerala’s renaissance values for long. Else, a society built by struggles spanning  more than two centuries, would crumble from inside and the future generations would call us a failed society.

(Sreejith Sivaraman  is Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, St. Mary’s College, Sulthan Bathery, Kerala. Nitheesh Narayanan is a Research Scholar, Centre for the Study of Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.)