Religious faith is seen as being integral to human existence. It, however, is often that faith does not conform to the law of the land. Law, yet, is the last word. So too with the Supreme Court order on Friday allowing entry for women of all ages into the sanctified precincts of the Sabarimala Sree Ayyappa Temple in the southern state of Kerala. The apex court order delivered by a constitution bench, with one dissenting voice, might still not be the last word. Review petitions are likely to be filed by temple functionaries to restore status quo.
Notably, the present legal battle over denial of entry to women in their menstrual age – age 10 to 50– in the hilltop shrine premises for ‘darshan’ of Lord Ayyappa lasted 12 years. The issue got a new fillip after the Supreme Court lifted a ban in 2016 on entry of women to the Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai. Both the demands had a common strain – of assertion of equality of the sexes in matters of worship. While this equality was asserted both in principle and in practice by the apex court vide Haji Ali, there was no way it could turn its back on a similar demand in relation to Sabarimala, or other shrines for that matter.
Yet, issues remain. The arduous trek from the nearest base on the banks of River Pamba covers a distance of eight kilometres to reach up to the hilltop shrine. Toilet facilities are to the minimum for the pilgrims – an estimated 45 million pilgrims through seasons of a year – and the open forests provide the cover for most pilgrims as of now. Logistical as also law and order aspects will now be a huge challenge to the temple and district administrations.
Notable also is the fact that, the so-far-banned sections of the women faithful are mostly not in a mood even now to visit the shrine for fear that the deity’s wrath might befall them. This, despite the assertion of the legal right to do so. Little girls and elderly women have been a notable presence at the shrine, though their numbers were not high. This scenario might progressively change, but not in a massive way in the immediate future, despite the green signal from the apex court. Justice Indu Malhotra had a point when she stressed in a dissenting note, “Notions of rationality cannot be brought into matters of religion.”