Comrade Ayyapan’s Celibacy
The Battle for Sabarimala
About the story:
This story revolves around the controversial 2018 Sabarimala verdict of the Supreme Court and its fallout on Kerala’s society seen through the lens of an expatriate Malayali family’s dinner table conversation. The verdict, lifted the ban on entry of women of menstruating age into the hill shrine whose deity according to legends is celibate. While supporters hailed it as similar to the earlier historic Travancore temple entry proclamation of 1936 that granted access to members of Scheduled Castes, opponents condemned it as an attack on their faith, religious freedom and identity. While there were voices of reason and rationale on both sides, what stood out was the poison of intolerance, sensationalism and violence that unexpectedly unleashed itself into Kerala’s civic life. In many ways for me, my parents’ vitriolic argument taking the two sides of the Sabarimala issue was a reflection of what was happening to Kerala’s society back home. What was ordinarily regarded as an island of political sanity and progressive civic consciousness quickly descended into the chaos of religious fundamentalism and demagoguery. In her book Demagoguery and Democracy, Patricia Miller defines the phenomenon of demagoguery as the reduction of all issues into a question of membership of groups formed on the basis of identities like religion, caste, nationality and gender. Everything becomes a question of “us vs them”. My parents’ complex and interesting personalities that complemented each other made this episode even more interesting and comic and inspired me to use it to portray the phenomenon of demagoguery in the backdrop of the contradictions in Kerala’s social and political life.
Scene 1:
New Town, Kolkata,
Home, 0800 hours, 28th September 2018
It was September. The last days of Monsoon in Kolkata. My parents and I were sitting in the balcony, sipping hot tea with samosas. I had been living with them for the last two years after quitting my job in Bangalore to prepare for the civil services
My father: One can never get tired of watching the rains, right?
My Mother: Yeah, especially when somebody else makes tea and samosas for you.
He chuckled and looked back into the distance
Mother: The rains are beautiful, but the floods were disastrous in Kerala this time. You should have seen the debris by the roadside. Entire households had been washed out.
Father: Very true, but what stood out as usual is the unity and efficiency that the people of Kerala displayed in the relief efforts. Even during the Nipah outbreak the administration and people responded with such resolve!
Mother: Yeah, Kerala is so progressive! Compare that with UP. Those poor kids who died of Encephalitis didn’t even get oxygen cylinders in time. And then, Modiji comes and calls Kerala, “Somalia”!
That and other digs at Modi, Shah and Yogi Adityanath had been made a million times in our household and still elicited laughter. The rain was beginning to subside, and my mother went in and switched on the TV
Father: She is in front of the TV all the time.
Mother: You lie around reading the newspaper all day, nobody protests against that, right?
He muttered unintelligibly while joining her on the TV facing sofa. I meanwhile returned to my room and began reading “Indian Polity” for UPSC. The chapter I was studying was fundamental rights. “Article 25: Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion”, I read absent mindedly while wondering what would happen if I made a religion where the primary ritual was going on a shooting spree in a public place. Will the Constitution protect my right to do that?
I lazily opened WhatsApp. Mickey (A UPSC aspirant friend with a normal human name whom I had nicknamed that because her voice made her sound like a disney cartoon character.) was texting me excitedly.
“Dipu Da” was Justice Dipak Misra, honourable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, the senior most judge in the country. We called him Dipu out of sarcastic affection, of which he had become a recipient ever since the four senior most judges of the Supreme Court had come out in public accusing him of impropriety. Prime Minister Modi, General Bipin Rawat, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and many other prominent public figures had become recipients of this kind of affection for different reasons. But Justice Misra had oddly started becoming part of many historic judgements including the verdict that decriminalized homosexuality and the one that made privacy a fundamental right. In Mickey’s words, “Dipu Da was emerging the hero Indian judiciary needs but does not deserve”
In the drawing room I could hear my father exclaiming in a loud happy voice that there is hope now for the Indian judiciary and my mother was muttering her disapproval and saying this is why the flood devastated Kerala. So much for “unity during the floods”
Me: Why is Dipak Misra being so progressive? Is he overcompensating for that four judges debacle?
Mother: PROGRESSIVE? You call this PROGRESSIVE? Progress is not trampling on traditions and sentiments.
Father: What tradition? Keeping half of humanity out of the most important PUBLICALLY OWNED pilgrimage site in the state?
Mother: But that is the belief of thousands of devotees right? And your stupid Left government has no respect for that.
She stormed off into the kitchen. My father rolled his eyes and reclined on the sofa, deciding to celebrate both the verdict AND my mother’s disappointment. My mother stormed right back out.
Mother: Get out of the sofa NOW and go for your walk. Lying around all day and doing nothing except cheer these communists and their anti-social activities!
Father: Society consists of women who may want to go pray at Sabarimala, dear! And society should be organised as per the values in the Constitution and one of those is equality!
Mother: Really?? You call that equality?? If the petitioners don’t believe in the legend of Ayyappa’s celibacy they aren’t true devotees right? Why should people who aren’t devotees go to Sabarimala?
Father: You do realize tradition isn’t always justified, right? Even the caste system and Sati were part of tradition. Even you are becoming like these RSS people. Before you Hindus shout yourself hoarse over your rights I’d like to remind you that Sabarimala isn’t even a Hindu shrine. It was a tribal worshipping place that was appropriated by the Brahmins later on. Why else would you have a temple in the middle of the forest? When the Buddhists gained ground they appropriated him too. There is evidence that Sabarimala was once a Buddhist shrine. Devotees who come to Sabarimala first pay a vist to Vavar’s mosque before proceeding to the shrine. It is a religious place that espouses inclusion and unity. Pilgrims call each other Ayyapan. They are all God. There is no hierarchy. Like a socialist state. And even there, these Sanghis have managed to polarize people, fill them with the venom of fundamentalism and exclusion.
My mother let him catch his breath and poured him a glass of water, then proceeded to retaliate
Mother: “Civilized” women won’t go to Sabarimala! It is these activist types that want to go. Just to pollute the place. In any case you think women have the stamina to climb these mountains?
Me: Isn’t it a shame that women themselves think they are polluting? Isn’t that what the so called “untouchables” believed when they were kept out of temples?
I knew it wasn’t wise to butt in and get caught in the crossfire but I felt proud after saying this. My mother wasn’t so proud. She gave me an angry look
Mother: Yeah, take his side! That’s what I get for bringing you up so lovingly. Go become an atheist like him. Ente Daivame! (Oh God)Kids these days!
Me: Amma, but. But…
Mother: [Throws a ladle into the sink]. You men always gang up on us and oppress us. You have no respect for our opinions. We just slave away in kitchens like this.
Father: You women never know what is good for yourselves and end up perpetuating your own oppression. Isn’t it funny she is accusing us of oppression while advocating it on the Sabarimala devotees herself?
Mother: Have you seen the number of women protesting against the verdict out on the street?
Father: Women are the best allies of patriarchy, how they argue like this for their own exclusion. At least the blacks and Dalits fought for their own liberation.
Mother: Oh yeah? Come do the dishes, feminist !
Father: The rain has stopped. I think I’ll go for that walk.
Mother: [Turns to me] Poyi irunn padikada chekka ! (Malayali Mother lingo for, “go sit and study you useless brat”)
That stung because my UPSC efforts were going nowhere and here I was getting into “pointless arguments about empowering women who don’t even want to be empowered”. Got to get back to work.
Scene 2: Home, September 28th 2018, 1900 hours. The dining hall.
Later that evening some guests came home. John Sir (whom everybody out of respect referred to with the Sir suffix all the time) who was President of the local Malayali association (legend has it that even Antartica has a Malayali association), his wife Radhika, Mr. Sanal who works at the Catholic Syrian Bank, his wife Beena and then a friend of mine, Bhaswar who had just dropped by to borrow a book. Bhaswar was just going to leave when John Sir questioned him about his career plans like most middle aged people do to twenty somethings in India and then Bhaswar took leave of us.
John Sir These Metans (derogatory Malayalam term for Muslims) had it coming. They carry out terrorist attacks across the world. Now finally somebody is standing up to them.
Me: [whispering in my Father’s ears] Is he talking about Bhaswar?
Father: [replying in hushed tone]No, idiot ! He is referring to the attack on the mosque in New Zealand
Me: What?! But, even small children died in that attack ! How can he…?
Father: [hushes me] But sir, how is this not terrorism?
John Sir: People will get fed up, no sir?
John Sir: [turning to me with a smile] Bhaskar? Bhaswar? What was your, friend’s name?
Me: [after a pause] Bhaswar. Bhaswar Faisal Khan.
Sanal: Oh they are Muslims, eh?!
Me: Yeah, his parents are IAS officers.
I think I added that because I hoped being from the same class would insulate him from being from the “other” religion. They didn’t voice any disapproval or hatred, just asked me a few questions about his parents, and such, and by then mom had announced dinner. The men sat at the table while the women huddled together in the kitchen.
John Sir: Sir, [referring to my father] this new Sabarimala verdict, I heard it is causing major violence. Large numbers of people are camping outside the shrine to prevent the verdict from being implemented. Is all this really required? The government shouldn’t have favoured women’s entry into the temple in court. This LDF (Left Democratic Front) is unnecessarily stoking sentiments.
Father: They are only upholding their constitutional responsibility, sir! What is wrong in that?
John Sir: But sir, they didn’t show the same enthusiasm to uphold the same law when their party leaders were accused of sexual harassment.
My father had criticized the CPM for this incident, in which a district level leader was protected by the party in spite of allegations of sexual harassment by a party colleague. So now he was in a fix, but luckily Sanal uncle rescued him unintentionally.
Sanal: These communists just want to destroy people’s faith. Is it any wonder that the entire state was devastated by floods? This is the celibate deity’s wrath!
Father: Oh then we have a solution to drought. Whenever the monsoons fail, the Supreme Court can just violate some deity’s celibacy and we’ll have torrential rains!
Everybody laughed and tensions were momentarily defused. John Sir resumed the debate when dessert was served.
John Sir: In one way it is right that women have been kept on the side-lines for centuries. Even now see how our women were just huddling in the kitchen waiting for us to finish eating to begin their meal. But the real problem is how the verdict is being implemented. The government could have asked for time to implement the verdict and then held consultations with the community. Now all this has resulted in is giving RSS and BJP a weapon to polarize people in the state.
Father: [in a conspiratorial tone] Actually this is a very cunning plan by Pinarayi Vijayan. The Congress led UDF usually used to get the sizeable minority votes in Kerala. Now those votes would shift to the LDF because UDF has taken a stand similar to BJP on the issue. The devotee votes would be split between UDF and BJP. These Hindu bigots are digging their own graves [guffaws].
Mother: All this rhetoric on liberation and you communists are no different from BJP. You need to polarize people for votes. Shameful indeed!
Father: Sheriya shameful okke aan, samathichu (Okay, Okay I agree it is shameful and all), but this same BJP and RSS and Mata Amritanadamayi (a god woman from Kerala who had criticized the verdict and a personal favourite of my mother and also Chancellor of the university I did my engineering from) had earlier called for allowing women into the shrine. Now they are protesting against it and damaging public property just to destabilize the Left-Front government. Isn’t that worse?
Mother: Don’t change the topic. You men are so cunning. But anyway, finally you agreed with me on something!
The conversation then became light hearted and everybody began gossiping and joking. My mother happens to be a terrific cook and while the seeds to communalise Kerala’s relatively secular social fabric was being sown we enjoyed the fish and the mashed tapioca and the other dishes, blissfully unaware of the coming storm.
No, I am not referring to cyclone Fani that devastated Puri and passed by Kolkata, but the mess back home in Kerala. The LDF government carried out an extensive campaign for promoting gender equality, calling upon thousands of cadre and supporters to form a 620 km long human chain in support of the Supreme Court verdict.
The RSS-BJP combine organised a counter chain called “Ayyappa Jyoti” which involved devotees lining up with lamps in hand to protest against the verdict and defend faith. Hundreds were injured in clashes with the police. Public property was destroyed. Businesses remained shut for days on end.
Scene 3: Home, May 2019, 1600 hours: As cyclone Fani passed by after kicking up dust and uprooting trees, we opened our windows, this time my father wasn’t pleased by the rain. He was worried if a tree had fallen on the car. As he leaned to get a better view, I read the newspaper reports.
Me: Kerala’s political situation is somewhat like this cyclone here.
Father: What do you mean?
Me: The two women below the age of 50 who entered Sabarimala have been assaulted and denied entry into their own houses by their families.
Father: Communalism makes monsters out of common people. These RSS leaders are spewing venom.
Me: Is it just their fault though? These women entered just for the sake of entering, just to prove a point, don’t you think so?
Father: Why is that wrong? Even during the Vaikom Satyagraha, when temple entry was granted to all castes, the protests were led by communist leaders who weren’t even believers. Sometimes it becomes necessary to revolt and fight for your rights.
Me: Yeah, okay. Religion is an important part of people’s cultural and social life and therefore having the potential to be a medium for social reform. But, we are engineers. Shouldn’t we look at things through the lens of a cost-benefit analysis? Look what this has done to the unity and harmony in Kerala’s society. It has created a breeding ground for the worst kind of hatred and divisiveness. You yourself admitted that this was a “cunning plan by Pinarayi Vijayan” to split Congress votes. Have women really achieved parity through this forceful, middle of the night temple entry?
Father: Hmm. I guess not?
Me: Isn’t it ironic that in an age when women are unemployed, withdrawing from the labour force, struggling for basic amenities and safety and severely unrepresented in politics, we think letting them into some temple can be emancipation? Isn’t it infuriating that even a left front government allowed such a non-issue to polarize the people?
Father: [sighes] Yeah, you let religion into politics, even the sensible ones are led astray. It’s madness. And this human chain-making madness and these riots and these assaults on women. Ridiculous!! But I still feel it was necessary for the government to not go easy on these Sanghis.
Me: Is it just religion? Don’t you think we all do this in every aspect of our lives? “Women are emotional”, “Bengalis are lazy”. We do this every moment of our lives. Making it all “us vs them” rather than focussing on the issue and trying to logically find common ground. I think it is human nature. Democracy doesn’t exist without demagoguery
Father: They are like Dr. Jekyll and Hyde.
Mother: [shouting] STOP GOSSIPING AND GO CHECK ON THE CAR YOU NINCOMPOOPS!
About the Author:
Ashwin Sreekumar is an electrical engineer who quit his job at Blue Star Limited to prepare for the UPSC civil services exam. He is currently pursuing a one year diploma in Liberal Studies called the Young India Fellowship. He is interested in politics, military history and development economics and reads, sketches and plays badminton in his free time. He is fond of dogs, the monsoon and tea.
