Why Politics In India’s Most Educated State Is Coming Down To Women Being Banned From An Ancient Temple

All she did was enter a temple. Bindu Ammini has been in hiding since. It was 2019, a few months after India’s Supreme Court lifted a controversial ban on women of childbearing age at one of the world’s most popular temples in the southern Indian state of Kerala.

Legend has it that the reigning temple deity, Ayyappa, is a celibate man, and a menstruating woman entering his Sabarimala temple—which has an annual footfall of 25 million pilgrims— is disrespectful. 

The court decision triggered violent clashes, police brutality, hundreds of arrests, five state shutdowns and two deaths in India’s most educated and one of the most progressive states. 

Ammini, a 42-year-old law professor from Kerala and her friend Kanakadurga, hiked through a forested trail to enter the Sabarimala temple in the wee hours of January 2, 2019. Before them, a dozen women had tried to enter and failed.

Over the phone, Ammini’s soft voice still grapples with the consequences of them being the first women to enter the temple. “Nothing has been the same after that,” she told VICE World News. As feminists hailed them as heroes, Ayyappa devotees and religious hardliners launched a vicious attack that forced them into hiding. 

The symbolism of Ammini and Kanakadurga’s historic entry into Sabarimala is now an intricate part of a messy political movement that wants to bring back the ban on women at Sabarimala. 

“Sabarimala stands as the symbol of the biggest public discrimination against women, of period taboo,” explained Charmy Harikrishnan, a journalist with The Economic Times.

Many pro-ban advocates are from the Hindu far-right and belong to India’s Hindu-nationalist ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). As India’s Assembly Elections rages on—with results in the state of Kerala to be declared on May 2—Sabarimala is now a hot potato in fevered campaigns and conversations. 

Ammini said that political parties are picking up the Sabarimala issue as a “distraction” from “more important issues”. “Almost all political parties have the same position on this,” she said. “Even the ones who openly support women’s entry are too soft on the pro-ban rhetoric.”

Last month, an opposition party called United Democratic Front promised to “protect the traditions of the temple”, while a BJP leader called women’s entry “an act of a demon”. 

The political rhetoric around Sabarimala led the ruling state party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M)—which famously supported women’s entry—to resort to door-to-door visits to inform people of the “real situation in Sabarimala”. 

“Ayyappa and all other gods are with the government which has protected the interest of people belonging to all religions,” Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the media. Some critics also called Vijayan an atheist, given communism’s association with atheism, turning the debate into “believers versus non-believers”. In a rally last month, India’s Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that temples should be managed by “devotees, not atheists”. 

The popularity of pro-ban supporters cannot be taken lightly. In 2019, the ruling CPI(M) lost 19 out of 20 lower house seats right after their support for the Sabarimala verdict. Political analysts said that this time the steam around the issue is raising similar concerns. 

Rahul Easwar, a right-wing Hindu activist who started the Save Sabarimala campaign has been arrested five times for his pro-ban activism. He told VICE World News that the Sabarimala issue “has got nothing to do with women empowerment”. “The backlash you see is of those who were offended because their beliefs are offended. Every political party is against [women’s entry],” he said. “The emotion is very deep and is strongly rooted in the traditional beliefs.”

A group called People for Dharma started #ReadyToWait campaign for women under the age of 50 voicing their desire to enter the temple only after they hit menopause. 

The journalist Harikrishnan told VICE World News that the tussle for a bigger vote share in the state turned Sabarimala into a “dirty, desperate issue before the elections,” where politicians used terms like “evil” or “wicked” to describe women’s presence at Sabarimala. 

“It was misogyny in public space—in posters and through loudspeakers in the political sphere and in posts and abuses on social media,” said Harikrishnan. “That kind of discourse does enormous damage to gender equality. It normalises and legitimises misogyny, it puts random religious customs above fundamental rights. This stance of political leaders trickles down to their young supporters, into Kerala homes.”

“It affects the way the youth thinks — that's what is most worrying,” she added. 

Kerala has been setting a benchmark for other Indian states in gender equality and has some of the best human development indicators for women. It also has over 50 percent women's representation in local governance and institutions. 

Recent data, however, showed that mainstream politics marginalises women from political and leadership roles in the state. 

Ever since her temple entry, Ammini has been attacked in broad daylight, faced hate on social media. “The issue is still affecting me, especially because I don’t get help from government institutions or police,” she said. “Since 2019, I have had trauma. But I am ready to stand up to all kinds of threats.” 

Devika Jayakumari, a feminist historian in Kerala, said that women continue to “face the repercussions” of the “ultra Hindutva” movement triggered by the Sabarimala judgment. “Since the 1980s, women have entered every domain and threatened male dominance, even in the poorest of families,” she told VICE World News. “Women’s access to capital and power has brought a balance, although the space for working-class men is shrinking. The Sabarimala issue became a point where all these frustrations of men condensed.”

Harikrishnan said that Kerala has a lot to be proud of in terms of sex ratio and high literacy level among women, but that doesn’t mean it has addressed gender inequalities at home. Sabarimala brought both to the forefront – the feminist and the misogynist,” she said. 

Despite the pandemonium in Kerala, Sabarimala also triggered an intense feminist movement. In 2019, hundreds of thousands of women formed a “women’s wall”, which was supported by some government and community outfits to counter the anti-women campaign. CM Vijayan called it “the largest women movement in the country to protect their rights enshrined in the Constitution.”

“The Sabarimala issue mainstreamed the discourse on gender equality in Kerala. It brought to the surface our underlying misogyny, it exposed who were regressive among family and friends and colleagues, it showed us how far we have to travel,” said Harikrishnan. “For me, Sabarimala is the ultimate litmus test. It tells me whether you are for or against me.” 

Ammini agreed. “Feminists everywhere were encouraged to raise their voice against the fascist position of the Hindu right-wing,” she said. “They joined me in this movement, told me that this moment is not just mine but all of ours. I’m positive we will win.”

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