These Ignorant People Think Women’s Entry Into Sabarimala = Kerala Flood

Support of court and political leaders behind the access of women in Sabarimala temple is held responsible for flood in Kerala by district president Prabhakaran.

While hundreds of people have died in the monstrous floods in Kerala, and many thousands more have been displaced, many are busy displaying their ignorance, callousness and patriarchal rubbish.

The Hindu Makkal Katchi was busy criticizing the entry of women in Sabarimala temple, citing it as the reason behind the natural calamity. To play the role of saviour to thousands of Keralites, they have offered a special prayer at the Ramanathaswamy temple. The party’s district president Prabhakaran claimed that political leaders and the court enabling women able to enter the Sabarimala temple led to the flood.

He even urged Kerala Government to pass a resolution in the legislative assembly to terminate the entry of women and update it to the Supreme Court, as per the article cited above. Of course, it didn’t occur to him that the Kerala Government has many more urgent things to do, notably, organizing flood rescue and relief.

The ban on entry of women aged 10 to 51 into the temple on the grounds of their menstruation exposes the fact that every religion is based on male chauvinism. This act of excluding women from their fundamental rights is based on the patriarchal belief that ‘austere’ men would be tempted by women in this age group, and that women are incapable of remaining pure for 41 days of penance before the pilgrimage! The gurus of patriarchy issue such  instructions under the ‘don’t-ask-for-logic’ genre.

Now this group of egoistic ‘patriots’ has come up with the conclusion that a natural mishap like a flood has been caused by God’s ‘anger’ at women entering the temple, whereas the genuine (and scientific) reason behind the flood is that Kerala has so far received 37.5% of its usual annual rainfall in just two and a half months. The Hindu Makkal Katchi was of course not the only culprit; a quick look at social media posts on the Kerala floods is enough to throw up many such callous remarks.

Can we deduce that the so-called religious members need to devote more time in brushing up their knowledge in subjects like Geography rather than making bizarre accusations against women for natural calamities like floods?

Shreoshree Sengupta

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