Intersection of Caste and Gender in the Sabarimala Issue: Problematizing the ‘Hindu Devotee’
Presenters:
· Krishna K. R., Kavya Assistant Professor, Department of Humanistic Studies, Indian Institute of Technology(Banaras Hindu University) (Varanasi, India)
Timeslot:
07/29 | 10:00-10:20 UTC+2/CESTAbstract
In September 2018, the Supreme Court of India ruled that pilgrims irrespective of gender can enter and worship in the Sabarimala Temple. It upheld the Right to Equality under Article 14 and the Right to Freedom of Religion under Article 25 of the Indian Constitution by quashing the Kerala High Court’s ruling of 1991 which banned women of menstruating age (between 10-50) from entering the temple. In this context the paper will map the arguments of three groups which emerged supporting/opposing the Supreme Court verdict – the ruling Left government, the Right-wing groups (like BJP, RSS) and the Dalit groups– and examine their positions with respect to gender equality and religious belief. The paper argues that the law and the mainstream discourse on the Sabarimala issue centres around the confidence about a unified subject-‘the Hindu Devotee’. The Dalit intervention and the bringing in of the caste question especially by the Malayaraya and Pulaya communities problematize and collapse the entire discursive structure centred on a unified ‘Hindu devotee’ devoid of caste. Thus the paper further argues the ban on women’s entry into Sabarimala as a larger upper-caste Hindutva project and the Dalit involvement as crucial; as the whole debate on belief cannot but centre around the question of gender and caste patriarchy which are inseparably intersecting in the Indian context.