11
INDIA CONST. arc 14.
National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India, AIR 2014 SC 1863 (India).
INDIA CONST. arc 15.
Peoples Union of India for Democratic Rights v. Union of India AIR 1982 SC 1473 (India).
INDIA CONST. arc 25.
Commissioner. H.R.E v. L.T.Swaminar, AIR 1954 SC 282 (India).
INDIA CONST. arc 26.
Sastri Yagnapuruhdasji v. Muldas Bhurdardas Vaishya AIR 1966 SC 1119 (India).
State of Bombay v. Narasu Appa Mali, AIR 19 1952 Bom 84, (1951) 53 BOMLR 779, ILR 1951 Bom 775 (India).
Zeeshan Shaikh, Women and the right to worship: The 'controlled' access at Haji Ali Dargah, Indian Express (Feb. 11, 2016, 3:41 AM), http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/women-the-right-to-worship-the-controlled-access-at-haji-ali-dargah/.
Dr. Noorjehan Safia Niaz And 1 Anr vs State Of Maharashtra And Ors, Public Intrest Litigation 106, 2014 (India).
Alok Prasana Kumar, Women in Shani Shingnapur temple: A brief history of entry laws and how times are changing, Firstpost (Apr. 12, 2016, 10:32 PM), http://www.firstpost.com/india/women-in-shani-shingnapur-brief-history-of-temple-entry-laws-and-how-times-are-changing-2723582.
Utkarsh Anand, Sabarimala temple: Kerala government defends ban on women's entry, Indian Express (Feb. 6, 2016, 10:20 AM), http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/sabarimala-temple-kerala-govt-defends-ban-on-womens-entry/
Ibid.
Sub Theme- One step into a Temple, a Giant Leap for Womankind?: Women's Right to Enter Places of Worship
Title:- Religion as an enigma
Name:- Vivek Varun
University:- University Institute of Legal Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh
Programme and Year of Study:- B.Com., (Hons.), LL.B
3rd Year
Email id:-
[email protected]
Contact No:- 9041033571
Religon as an enigma
A critical analysis on women's right to enter places of worship
Introduction
India is a very vast country which includes so many religions and every religion is rich and secular making it a diverse country. All religions are treated with equal dignity with respect among the people of India. Each religion has its own oldage customs and traditions that are followed by its followers whether those practices are good or bad in the eyes of society or law. In India, a large portion of men and women are not allowed not to enter places of worships because they either belong to poor and deprived class or they are discrimintaed on the basis of their sex, gotra and religion. Despite all these scenarios the women class is the most affected because of the prevailing customs and superstitions of their religions which consider women as an character of ignomy during many occasions.
In India, despite being a ardent devotee and worshipping goddesses like Durga, Kali, Saraswati etc., which are "Females" and are belived to have special power that can relive them from their sins that are commited by them in thier birth. Men specially do functions like Jagratas, Langars and Hawans for the female dieties to impress them virtually, but in reality most of them cannot tolerate a women to stand in place of their position, they treat the goddesses with a high respect but can not respect women in their own house, who are living form of the God itself that they pray, then how can they venerate that by doing all these stuffs they will get relief of their sins. India is a much more male dominated society their perpetual thinking towards women does not change, despite of several efforts by the law and the society. Women are equally devoted in worshipping Gods as are men but still their rights are discriminated by the society due to faulty and gullible reasons given by the high religious priests like "If girls are mensurating they must not enter the temple", "Widows must not enter sanctum of the temple", and various other reasons. Each and every person wheather a male or female is a human being first and by following these customs we are not only depriving them from their human rights but we are also setting up an example in front of the world and our future generation that women are treated with gender dichotomy. The so called religious saints ostracize the mensurating or poor dalit womens in front of the world whenever they get a chance to show their superiority above the law. Treating women as outcasts for a specific period of time in a year or binding them to rules for a particluar sect does not bring justice to the opposite sex in a society nor this kind of act makes them exemplary.
Constitutional Provisions
India being a secular and democratic country offers each and every person the right to follow his religion and practice it peacefully and these rights are given by the Constituion of India to its people.
Article 14 states that State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or equal protection of laws within the territory of India.
In National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India, it was held that the word "person" in Article 14 is not restricted to male and female but includes even Hijras/Transgenders persons, such persons are entitled to equal protection of laws and equality in all spheres.
Article 15 of the Indian Constituion states the grounds of prohibition on which discrimination cannot be done like religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. Article 15(1) says that there may be discrimination on other grounds, but these cannot be arbritary and oppresive in nature they must be reasonable.
In Peoples Union of India for Democratic Rights v. Union of India, the Supreme Court ruled that whenever any fundamental right, which was enforceable against private individuals was being voilated, it would be the constituitonal obligation of the State, to take necessary steps, for the purpose of interdirecting such voilation and ensuring observance of the fundamental right by the private individual.
Article 25 states that Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion.
The term religion is not defined in the Constitution. In Commissioner. H.R.E v. L.T.Swaminar, SC held that :-
Religion is a matter of faith with individuals and communities and it is not necessarily theistic. There are well known religions in India like Buddhism and Jainism, which do not believe in God or in any Intelligent First Clause. A religion undoubtedly has its basis in a system of beliefs or doctrines which are regareded by those who profess that religion as conducive to their spiritual well being.
Article 26 gives freedom to manage the religious affairs subject to public order, morality and health.
In Sastri Yagnapuruhdasji v. Muldas Bhurdardas Vaishya, The Bombay Hindu Places of Public Worship (Entry Authorisation) Act,1956 authorised every Harijan to visit and worship in any temple coming under the Act, as any other Hindu, in general. The act was challenged by the Satsangis on the ground that it authorised the non satsangis to enter places of worship managed by them, who constituted a seperate religious sect. Supreme Court upheld the validity of the Act as its object was to establish was to establish social equality between all sections of Hindus in the matters of worship. However, the actual worshipping would be held by the authorised pujaries of the temple with the traditional and connventional manner.
It is the duty of the State to protect the religious rights of the people given under the Article 15, 25 and 26 as these are absolute rights and come under the directive principles laid down by the State. In the case of State of Bombay v. Narasu Appa Mali, the court said that religion in a modern democratic State is purely a matter of the individual and his God; with the religious beliefs of the citizen and his religious practices normally the State would not interfere. But if these religious beliefs or practices conflict with matters of social reform or welfare on which the State wants to legislate, such religious beliefs or practices must yield to the higher requirements of social welfare and reform.
Do all the religions ban women from entering places of worship?
Religions like Hinduism, Jainism, Christianity, Muslims etc., work on the same old hyphotetical thinking of past by saying that mensurating women are bad, they are impure and they treat those women as untouchables for a given period and then there are religions like Sikhism and Buddhism which say that the whole concept of mensuration is a natural human thing that goes inside and outside of the body, god does not discriminate between the pure and impure it treats all of them as their own children.
From where did the concept of banning women from places of worships came and what is the present Indian scenario related to this?
The concept of mensuartion and banning the women to worship was evolved in the Ayurvedic period where it as developed by the concept of mythology by the Rishis and Saints. The myth that still exists and is still unanswerable by many religious Godmen is that, when the women is in her mensurational period how does this affect the worshiping of their God? How does God and its surroundings even touching by a women become impure? If this is the case dosen't the God gets outraged when people especially males who don't consider women equal commits a henious and gravious sin by killing, raping or selling and outraging the modesty of a women for fun and coming in the temple with presents to make God happy and ask them to forgive for the sins committed.
In answer of this the Priests give the contention of Vedas and writings that the women in her "periods" gives out negative energy from her body as she is loosing blood through her vicious cycles and cannot focous on God easily and the positive energy mantras, she would not be able to absorb that energy, they experience mood swings, depression, tiredness, cannot clean herself properly and cannot maintain hyigene and sanitation properly, because of the low blood and hormones and being a part of family they could not make food or fulfill the duties they were given, 4 days rest advise were given to them in a seperate place, outside the house and food was given in a seperate plate made by others.
If we see this case and analyze it with the old and modern part of society, some orthodox men and women wil say that it is a right vedic practice as the indian women works hard day and night caring for their family so it's good that they get rest for 4 days and abstain from it thus by following and preserving the rituals and customs of the past. They will say that all these customs are for the comfort of the women and not to disturb her.
But what on earth saying that these are comforts, treating her like a untouchable prisoner for 4 days by keeping her away from the house and sometimes in a cow shed, giving treatments like to animals, disrespecting her and her human rights and then treating her like her own on the 5th and 6th day and by continuing this obnoxious whole cycle till shes doesn't die one day, what kind of prudent comfort is this in terms of human eyes.
In modern India where the society with the help of some ardent women and men followers and with the support of law are putting their step forward in abolishing this atrocious act. Now sanitary pads, tampoons, proper handwashes, proper place of sanitation are evolving so there is a decrease in these types of religious practices. Modern society respect the religious beliefs but not the practices as they did earlier in the past by accepting the commission of Dowry, Sati, Child marraiges and Honour killings. They were also a part of our old Indian culture, some malovent narrow minded people were in favour of it but with the help of certain people the thinking of society, slowly and slowly it vanished. By educating the newer generations and teaching the women to fight for their rights there is a slow but progressive rate of increase in the awareness of rights among the women and the thinking of the society in rural and urban area.
Mensuration as a Taboo by many?
Talking or even discussing this topic with the elders is considerd as a taboo everywhere. This superstition existed not in India only, but also in many so called modern countries too, but as years passed it started to deform in these countries, but in India wether in the rural or urban part this thinking is still being followed because of the support of the Dharamguru's, who on many occassions try to oppress their ideas on their followers, who in deep faith of god beleive this and are continuing it as a practice. The main problem with this type of supersitious thinking is that you can't devlop fully from the inside as you always have a fear that someone is watching you, and whatever actions you do is being watched by the society that will punish you on time because of your karma if you don't follow certain sects and rules made by the society. By this thinking no one has ever gainned success in life wether it is physically, mentally or financially.
In India especially because of the conservative and orthodox nature of most of the families they don't like to even discuss about it, even a girl who has attained puberty cannot talk openly with her own mother, because of the upbringing and continuing trend of what is going on society. Talking about sex education in India is considerd like a sinful crime. Whenever a question is asked regarding any dumb religious practice that has no place in the modern world today in front of their elders they either prefer not to answer or scold them in the name of god.
Case study on the Restrictions made by various temples and mosques and reforms made against them by the law and society
In Muslim community Haji Ali Dargah is considerd one of the holiest place in their religion, but the problem that arised in the following past years was that it imposed a ban on mensurating women to enter in the inner sanctum area of the mosque and prohibiting certain parts of the area too. A petition was filed in 2014 by the Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), it's basically a group that works for the empowerment of the Muslim women, it basically challeneged the ban and on what scientific or religious basis they had done this. The case was accepted in by the Bombay High Court and was trialed in as
Dr. Noorjehan Safia Niaz And 1 Anr vs State Of Maharashtra And Ors, the members of that `group filed that, recently in July 2012 when one of its members visited the Darga, she saw a steel barricade put up at the entry of the sanctum sanctorum, thus preventing the entry of women devotees in the sanctum sanctorum. Then they went to the trustees to find out the answers and in return got some weird excuses like:-
Women wearing blouses with wide necks bend on the Mazaar, thus showing their breasts;
For the safety and security of women; and
That earlier they were not aware of the provisions of Shariat and had made a mistake and therefore had taken steps to rectify the same.
The Trust gave many excuses of the Quran that mensurating women are better in home rather than in mosque to offer prayers as they are unclean and would easily absorb negavtive energy from the surroundings and they also concluded that the Quran has not given a right to women to visit the graveyard. The trust that is made under Article 26 of the Constitution of India which confers upon the Trust a fundamental right to manage its own affairs in the matters of religion. Arrangements are made for the safety and security of women and not a single women pilgrim complained about this to the trust, hence the following members have made a false PIL regarding their own intrest.
The members showed that the women were allowed in the Darga of Ajmer they were allowed in the inner sanctum, and both men and women visit the Mecca and offer prayers jointly.
The Court by listening both sides and by cross verifying each and every sentence and meaning of Article 13,14,15 and 25 concluded that Haji Ali Dargah Trust is a public charitable trust. It is open to people all over the world, irrespective of their caste, creed or sex, etc. Once a public character is attached to a place of worship, all the rigors of Articles 14, 15 and 25 would come into play as they provide many facilities and the ban imposed by them on women to not enter into certain areas of mosques is void and totally inhuman as this is a specific gender practice and infact the right to manage the trust does not include the right to practice religion itslef and it is the duty of the State to protect the rights of its citizen gurranteed under Part III of the Constitution, hence the court upholds the ban and therfore allows women to pray with men in the mosque.
Recently Shani Shignapur Temple in Maharashtra, was in whole social and print media regarding, imposing a restriction on the entry of women in its temple permises so that they could not offer their prayers to their diety Shanidev by giving a excuse of not breaking their 400 year old custom.
One day a women went there and offered her prays and touched the idol and when the preist came to know about this they purified the temple by cleaning it with milk and holy mantras. The ignominy of this act by the priests of that temple by considering women as a untouchable was not only shameful but it started a revolt against them. Tripti Desai, a social activist along with some women challanged this custom of the temple and forcefully went there. She filed a petition against the temple authorities in the High Court by saying that its a false man made custom and has been created by the villagers and the priets and they don't have any scientific reason behind this ban.
The Court made it clear that it was incumbent upon the State Ggovernment to ensure that the Maharashtra Hindu Places of Worship (Entry Authorization) Act, 1956 was properly enforced. The Maharashtra Temple Entry Act, originally enacted to enable temple entry for Dalits, long forbidden to enter public temples by Hindus, was held to be equally applicable to women who had been excluded from praying at the temple. Since 2011, women had been allowed to enter the Shani Shingnapur temple though they were not allowed into the sanctum sanctorum. The Court held that it was injustice to the rights of women given by the Constitution of India and no law prevents entry of women in any place. Both genders are equally allowed to enter and worship their god. God dosen't see any diffrence between the two of them and its the duty of the State Goverment to protect rights of its citizens whether it is a male or female. Court uplifted the ban and said that under the Maharashtra Worship Act if any temple authority impose restrictions on someome's entry related to their gender or caste under the Articles 14,15, and 25 shall face a imprisonment of 6 months.
Similarly Shabrimala Temple, in Kerala banned women of age 10-50 years from entering the temple and worship and touch the idol of Ayyappa. Impertinent comment were passed for the women by the authorities there and a clean indication was given by the Kerala Goverment that it will defend the Rights of the Travancore Devaswom Board that manages the temple and there is nothing wrong with the oldage customs running. A statement was produced by the new blind god orthodox president of the Trust, that a machine would come that will check and tell the mensurating women wether it's the time to offer prays or not in a temple. Goverment defended the ban and told the Supreme Court, that beliefs and customs of devotees cannot be changed through a judicial process and that "the opinion of the priests is final" in matters of religion. It was said by the goverment at that time due to elections, in favour of the Board that it comes under Tranavancore Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act, 1950. Under the Act, there is a statutory duty cast on the Board to arrange worship in temples in accordance with the usage. Therefore, in matters of religion, it is the opinion of the priests that is final. The government stated that "the right to exclude persons who are not allowed to participate in worship according to the tenets of the religious institution in question is a matter of religion" and such essential or integral parts of religion are "immune" from challenge under Article 14 (right to equality).
The Court defined this as an atrocious act by the authorities and the goverment, it was conspicious that the rights of women were getting hurt and the constiution gives right to each and every persons and rejects any kind of discrimination based on caste, sex, gender unless there is a right enacted that prohibits the entry of women in temples, mosques or any other holy place and upheld the ban.
There are a lot of temples and holy places that are in India that ban the entry of women on various intricate reasons that they know very well and the scientific reasoning behind them, but the problem is that the world does not about them as no one wants to interfere in the matters against the religion because of the peer pressure of society.
A socialmedia campaign was started by Nikita Azad in 2015, named as #happytobleed, in protest of the ban imposed by the Sabrimala Temple of Kerela, on entry of women. The campaign recieved such a great response from so many women who were willing to break the social taboo of mensuration. Women of today are not only independent but they want the world to know that they must be treated equally as they are a human being too, not a animal who will obey each and every order of the master. They know how to deal with pain, mood swings, and depression that is caused during the period of mensuration. If they still followed the old quixotic traditions then they would not have progressed in the society as they are now. Women now know how to work and take care of their body with facilities available, they are more open minded now and actually are bigot who criticize about them on their caste, sex, dressing sense. Women in the rural area are a lilttle diffrent, they are willing to accept a change in themselves but the problem with them is that they dont have proper guidance under which they can evolve, the old generations want them to follow the past traditions and continue with it but with modernisation wave some are willing to change for the sake of new generation and some orthodox are not so there is a conflict between the two and between this the, women of all ages suffer. It is their wish that they want to worship or not, if they have belief in religion, no one can stop them for entering just because of a perpetual thinking of some men or women that consider themselves as a supreme head of that society, thier rights are protected by the Constitution, and no religion is bigger than the law because the religions are themselves made of various social laws.
Conclusion
No one can deny traditions irrespective of wether he is an athesit, agnostic or a religious person. Traditions are a part of the human culture and society and these will be there till the human race is alive. Religion is man made and full of myths and misconceptions not backed up by science, and there is no thing as a perfect religion in this world. Religious traditions that have been in this world for centuries must evolve with the modern thinking of the society. Banning a particular class in the name of religion is obnoxious and by imposing rules like mensurating or dalits women are not allowed is of no use. Rather then considering mensurating as a taboo, it should be respected by the society and its members, because of the process of mensuration (red blood) we all are alive and borned in this world, think mensuation as a sacred object like creator of this world and whereas the untouchability is issue it should be thinked in a positive manner that they are humans also irrespective of their caste as caste is man made and it was their bad luck that they were born in it by the myth based system.
Following a religion and its rituals, customs and traditions is based on personal choice. The State has the legal duty to protect the rights of its citizens whenever they are hurted, it has the duty to protect you from religious practices that are not currently fitting in the modern thinking but not from religious beliefs. Religion and science cannot go step by step, it is a narrow path that we have to decide, in a skeptic world full of myths, superstitions, and customs. Follow it blindly with belief and you are a thiest, don't follow it then you are an atheist. If the society wants to progress with the sake of its new generations then it has to change its old past as evolution is the rule to key to longetivity. Wars in the name of religion are commom in India, either accept the eternal customs or obliterate it for a better future its all upto you. Rather then thinking of women as a burden, think her as member of your own family, corroborate her and giver her oppotunities in various fields to let her succeed in life rather than judging her character on a particular occassion.
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. - Charles Darwin
