After the Ayyapa jatara ended on January 14 with the so called ‘Makara Jyothi’ appearing for the devotees at Sabarimala, Pinarayi Vijayan, the chief minister of the Left front government, emerged a skillful social reformer and good administrator. The Narendra Modi government deployed its Kerala wing to push him against a wall by opposing the implementation of the Supreme Court judgment in 2018 lifting the ban[Read More…]
Harappa! We are all your descendants You shepherded the first civilization You built the first city in the East You domesticated the early animals Goat, sheep, buffalo, dog and donkey. You made the first pot, brick, bronze tools You built the first tank, boat and building. You were God’s Own Man. Brahma came and burnt all your civilization Indra damaged[Read More…]
“Untouchability is a crime against god and humanity,” said the Mahatma, the father of our nation. And untouchability is a crime in India. But Sabarimala temple in Kerala has been practising gender untouchability long since by imposing selective ban on menstruating women and the quite positive and progressive verdict of Supreme Court on Sept. 28, 2018 put an end to this selective[Read More…]
The entry of two women devotees, Bindu and Kanakadurga, into the sanctum sanctorum of the Sabarimala temple on January 2 led to widespread violence in the state of Kerala. The violence, which erupted during the bandh call issued by the BJP and allied organisations on January 3, saw not just damage of public property but also the loss of a[Read More…]
To Shri Pinarayi Vijayan Chief Minister of Kerala CC To: President of India, Chief Justice of India, Governor of Kerala Over 200 women’s activists, dalit activists, adivasi activists, human rights groups, social organisations, cultural personalities and well known citizens demand the dismissal of the priests in Sabarimala over violation of constitutional rights and return the shrine to adivasis. Sir, Adv.[Read More…]
A Six Hundred Twenty Kilometer long human chain was created yesterday in Kerala against the attempt to communalise the environment in the state particularly related to the issues of Sabarimala which the Hindu organisations have been violently protesting against the Supreme Court order of allowing the women to enter into the temple. That even after 71 years of our independence,[Read More…]
After the historic ‘Women’s Wall’ that challenged Brahmanic Patriarchy two young women entered the Sabarimala temple early morning today. Bindu and Kanaka Durga, both in their early 40s, entered the hilltop shrine around 3.45 am. This is the first entry of women after the Supreme Court ordered the end of a decades-old ban on women of menstrual age entering the[Read More…]
About 3-5 million women formed a wall across Kerala to protect to protect Kerala’s renaissance values and for women empowerment. About three million women stood shoulder to shoulder across Kerala and formed 620 KM “wall” from Thiruvananthapuram to the northern district of Kasaragod. They also pledged to protec the renaissance values of Kerala. The wall was organised against the backdrop[Read More…]
In rural Andhra Pradesh, there is a proverb that is reportedly used by rapists against their victims, “Allow me to rape you — or I’ll cut my own organ [presumably, the penis].” The saying reflects deep-seated misogyny and chauvinistic tendencies. The threat of self-immolation now emerging from Thiruvananthapuram against the Supreme Court order that allowed women of all age groups[Read More…]
Shashi Tharoor, in an article published in The Print on 10th November, has made some arguments against the appropriateness of the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala. In making his case, he criticises the firm position of the Left-led state government on the issue and calls it misplaced. It may be recalled that on 3rd October, the prominent Congress leader had welcomed the judgment and said that “every time[Read More…]
The Nair community is one of the first communities in Kerala to get educated and attain middle class status. Nairs started getting western education in the 19th century itself and got appointed to clerical positions in Malabar. In Travancore it took a little while longer post the Malayali memorial (1891). Educated Nairs agitated against Marumakkathayam and started getting into civil[Read More…]
An ashram in Kerala, founded by a preacher who supported the Supreme Court verdict allowing the entry of women of menstruating age to Sabarimala temple, was attacked by unidentified persons yesterday. Two cars and a scooter belonging to Swami Sandeepananda Giri’s School of Bhagavad Gita on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram were set on fire at around 2:30 am. The attackers[Read More…]
From Hindu Code Bill to Sabarimala via Roop Kanwar ’s Sati — keeping women subjugated under the cloak of tradition It was mid-eighties when a eighteen year old Roop Kanwar’s burning on the pyre of her husband – under controversial circumstances – had made national headlines. There was national outrage over the incident because more than 150 years after the[Read More…]
In the centuries old struggle for justice and dignity, the question of women has always been at the centre, because in spite of forming half of humanity, they have always been wronged by the other half of it. Condemned as weak and inferior, their role was at most, that of being vassals to their self-proclaimed superiors. In our part of[Read More…]
The controversy on women’s entry to the Sabarimala temple has once again drawn attention to the intricacies of social change. One speaks of social change in general, not merely of gender equality. One cannot but support the aspiration for equality that Sabarimala represents. But one is also left with the impression that it is one more case of people from[Read More…]
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has stated that the agitation to prevent entry to women of all ages to Sabarimala temple as per the order of Supreme Court of India is an ‘upper caste conspiracy’. No one has made more truer statement and realistic assessment about the situation in Sabarimala than the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister also categorically stated[Read More…]
Can there be more shame that the apex court’s order is being openly violated. The mob which has gathered denying women’s entry to Sabarimala temple is just following the ‘historical’ truth that ‘religion’ can’t change. Despite court order, the devotees wont allow as it is the only thing where they dictate things. There is a campaign in the country. Women[Read More…]
The Nair Service Society (NSS) is supporting the most destructive anti-women Anti-Shudra Manuvadam in the name of Shabarimala temple’s sanctity . The Nair men for centuries surrendered the Nair women’s self respect to the Brahmin males in worst Manuvadi system called Sambandam. The Brahmin men exploited the Nair women worse than the slave masters exploited the African American women[Read More…]
The only code of law for Hindus is Manu Smriti. IX.3 of Manu Smriti says “Na stree svaatantryam arhati” (a woman does not deserve freedom). Manu Smriti is the code of the four fold Varna system, namely Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vysya and Shudra. Hinduism is in fact is rooted in this pyramidal varna system, Brahmins being at the top. Manu Smriti[Read More…]
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Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
