Men and Women Pray Together

Men and Women Pray Together

At last the Bombay High Court in a landmark judgment observed that it is the Fundamental Duty of the state to protect the Fundamental Rights of women. This was made in a verdict on a petition pleading for the entry of women into a temple which discriminated against their entry into specified areas. Interestingly and immediately some temples have taken to heart the recent advice of a Spiritual Guru advocating equidistance of both genders from sanctums and restricted the entry of both men and women to areas hitherto allowed to men only. 
There can be no better example of the superb art of living by cutting off the nose to spite the face. 
The High Court was hearing a public interest litigation challenging the prohibition on women’s entry to the shrine area at Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district. The provisions of The Maharashtra Hindu Places of Public Worship (entry Authorisation) Act, 1956, would apply. The implementation of this law, which perhaps had been deliberately overlooked, would have a bearing on all the places where people are banned from entering temples on the basis of gender.

As it appears that the decision of a High Court of any state would be followed by all lower courts in the country, provided that a contrary judgement has not been passed by the High Court of that particular state where the lower court exercises jurisdiction, it would be interesting to see what would happen in the case of Sabarimala in Kerala (which is now before the Supreme Court) where  the Kerala government in its latest affidavit has said the prohibition of women is a matter of religion and it is duty-bound to “protect the right to practice the religion of these devotees”. Curiously enough, in a previous affidavit, it had supported a PIL seeking women’s entry in Sabarimala.

The Bombay High Court is waiting for a Supreme Court ruling on entry of women in the Kerala Sabairimala temple before deciding on the case of Haji Ali Dargah where women are not allowed entry and has kept a petition pending.

In this bewildering scenario would we have the industry of  ‘offended sentiments’ descend upon us if we enquire what the position of the temple and other shrine guardians would be if and when pious transgenders seek to pray at those shrines that exclude one gender.

The Gender of the Gods

The Gender of the Gods

It starts before the beginning with a denial of entry to females into the womb by using an enterprising Godman’s  Divya Putrajeevak Beej medication which claims to install a divine gatekeeper at the womb keeping out prospective life which has XX chromosomes. If the gatekeeper has been careless the error is corrected with a murderous termination of the female foetus after a prenatal determination of its sex.

It is not only into some temples that one half of humanity is being denied entry.  They face a denial of entry into life itself.

The Semitic religions have male gods, Jehovah, the Lord Almighty and Allah but the polytheist Indic religions have been devised as gender equitable with space for both gods and goddesses.  So their places of worship have either a god or a goddess as the principal deity. And in the notable Sabarimala even the miraculous offspring from a transgender Mohini has been installed as a deity.

It makes one question the gender of the gods.

Whatever be the origin of this bias against women entering some temples and worshiping alongside with men we as a society must realise that the times have changed.  Old arguments of ‘centuries old traditions’ or of ‘the restriction ... ...prevailing in Sabarimala from time immemorial’  do sound ludicrous when mouthed by agents of a modern, elected  democratic government.  Kerala with its high literacy, higher than average Quality of Life index and a relatively high participation of women in public life finds its government anachronistically debating for the ban.

Political activity represents the aspiration of a people.  We are well past the age of monarchs and feudal chieftains who in earlier times claimed centuries old traditions and practices from time immemorial. We are striving to be modern and have welcomed women in the work place, in various professions (including soldiering) and in the conduct of public affairs. In keeping with this #gender justice diffusing in all other orders of society religion too must assign an equal place to women in all places of worship. 

The representatives of the people have a major role in doing this. 

After the Kerala government's stated position in the Supreme Court we now have the parties to the dispute in the Shani Shignapur temple pass the onus for a decision saying "now the ball is in the chief minister’s court.”