If it is asked whether there is gender equality in the country, today's Indian democracy is busy preparing a list of religious institutions that should be excluded from it!
P. S. Remesh Chandran
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
If it is asked whether there is equality between men and women in the country, today's Indian democracy is busy preparing a list of religious institutions that should be excluded from it! Even the Supreme Court, which heard the case and delivered its verdict that gender equality assured in the Constitution should be ensured in the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala as well, does not have a firm stand on it- it wanted to extend the old status quo of not admitting women for another seven years and now considers a review petition which it promised! They are holding long discussions on whether the democratic laws that are written down in documents as laid down in the Constitution or the religious laws that exist as unwritten customs have the upper hand in the country; with the BJP ruling, which is building a Hindu nation based on superstitions and bad customs, having gone down that path, there is no courage left in them to stand in the democratic camp as before and decide on one of the two.
This is not just a wavering in the Indian judiciary alone, it is also the same in the political administration and governance arena. Even when they pretend to lead the world, even when they sit on podiums as chairmen and preside over various international conferences, even when they scorn Iran and Syria for being religiously hostile, they have no idea of the various progressive ideas and the ideals of gender equality that exist in the world, through which the world is passes through. In a temple like Sabarimala, which is hailed as a symbol of universal humanity, where since when the wild gorillas of the ruling elite of the royal palaces seized control of it from the forest virgins and then, fearing the counterattack of female suicide warriors and primitive female guerrillas banned the entry of all able-bodied women in the menstruating age group of 10 to 60 there, the Indian political scene, even after eight decades of the country having become independent, still does not have the strength, does not have the freedom, and does not have the national consciousness, to take a rational stand that the ban on women entering there should be lifted. They are still trapped in superstitions that have no records or evidence.
Isn’t the Sabari in the name of Sabari Mala Temple a women? Wasn't Sabari a woman who was the chief of the tribal hill warrior women in this most inaccessible peaked and wooded part of this fierce and mountainous region, at a time when Kerala was ruled by matriarchy? Isn't it her forest and jungle shrine? Isn't it her women who are now denied entry into their temple by men? Isn't Malikappuram, the betrothed bride whom Lord Ayyappa has consecrated and seated just beside him in the temple, an able-bodied and healthy young woman? When a young woman is already sitting there very next to Ayyappa, what does it matter if other woman are allowed entry? What kind of mockery are these narrow-minded male chauvinistic devotee clowns and political parties creating in the name of Sabarimala, which means the Mountains of Sabari?
When a case came up that they should be admitted, the BJP's own central government, which is obsessed with superstition, took a stand that they should not be admitted, and the Marxist government in Kerala, which had given an affidavit then that they should be admitted, confessed that it was wrong and is now trying to back down from it. The Bharatiya Janata Party ruling at the Centre, which has declared that India will be saved only when Marxism ends, and the Marxist Party ruling in Kerala, which preaches that India will be saved only when the BJP ends, are united and in the same place in protecting the Hindu superstition of not allowing women to enter Sabarimala. Is gender equality, the core of democracy, or the votes that can be obtained from religious Hindu stout stubborn violent presumptuous insolent self-willed extremists in elections more important to them?
Even the main opposition party in the country, the Congress, has backed away from its then progressive stance of allowing women into not only this temple but to all temples, churches and mosques. Where else but in public institutions like this should gender equality be implemented first? Isn’t it only after that, in such a rotten society, would it come to homes? If the first comes, won't the second come by itself?
Matriarchy and patriarchy are social systems that repeat themselves once in about ten thousand years. Some think that it occurs once in five thousand years. Whichever of the two exists, it will control, limit, and take away the rights of the other. In society, in the home, and in the nation, everything will be governed by its rules, its laws, when either of them is in force. Now, in our time, in our society, the last matriarchy has ended and it is patriarchy before the next matriarchy comes.
The ones who act with extreme superstitions on issues like Sabarimala are the fools who think that many of the existing social orders are permanent. To give an example, they think that the transfer of property from father to son is permanent, has always been so, but earlier, property was transferred from mother to daughter, and the mother was the sole owner of all properties. Today, even the transfer of property from father to son did not exist in Kerala some time ago- property was transferred to the descendants, i.e. the nephews, whether it was the father's or the mother's. There are so many areas and even states in India where women now control the society! In Meghalaya, it is the girls who sit on the roadside culverts at night, not boys- you don't even see them there at that time. There it is the women who always carry a bag in their hand and manage the finances.
Written and first published on 16 February 2026
