Excluding menstruating women from the shrine also violates Article 17 — the Constitutional provision prohibiting untouchability
Nearly a century ago, the princely state of Travancore was convulsing with the question of entry of lower castes into the temple at Vaikom. As holy a sage as Sree Narayana Guru, the saint of the Ezhavas, had been |BS| prevented from using the roads around the Vaikom Shiva temple. Upon the request of some citizens of Travancore, Mahatma Gandhi had sent Congress workers, including EV Ramaswami Naicker (Periyar), to help in the Satyagraha, demanding equal entry to the temple.
The Maharaja of Travancore at the time was Shri Chitra Thirunal – then 12 years old. His step-mother and regent, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi opposed equal temple entry. President K R Narayanan was to later recount, “During the Vaikom Sathyagraha, Mahatma Gandhi visited Kerala. At that time, Sree Chithira Thirunal was a young man, and had not ascended the throne. Gandhiji asked, ‘When you attain majority and when you assume full authority, will you allow Harijans to enter the temple?’ The twelve-year-old Maharajah said without hesitation: ‘Certainly’. This was not the result of anybody’s advice. This arose from his own mind; from his own thinking.”| Sabarimala Verdict
In 1936, aided by his Diwan Sir C P Ramaswami Aiyer, the Maharaja opened temples to all Hindus. The neighbouring Maharaja of Cochin, in response, declared all people from Travancore as untouchables, but temple entry for all in Travancore became a fact.
Religion and our Founding Fathers
The father of India’s Constitution, Dr B R Ambedkar himself had engineered a number of ‘Dalit temple entry movements’ in colonial India. “The issue is not entry, but equality,” Ambedkar has famously said. The question of religion was a vexed one in the Constituent Assembly. There was sharp disagreement on whether the right to religion would include a limited right of ‘religious worship’ or a more expansive right of ‘religious practice’.| Business Standard
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