Suffrage to women only came about inthe 1900s, nearly half a century after grandiose declarations of individiual sovereignty and equality had begun in the West. Closer home, the Hindu Code Bill, proposed by the first Law Commission under Dr Ambedkar, was anathema, for it proposed equal rights for women. Then President Dr Rajendra Prasad dug in his heels and Dr Ambedkar finally resigned. Patriarchal interlocutors would not permit equality. The difference, though, is that traditional gender-based practices abroad have been hard fought by women themselves. Here, women did not fight for equality, they usually acquiesced.
Indian society at large seems almost a ntithetical to proactive reform and social reformers an extinct lot.
The interlocutors of Sabarimala Ayyappan are prime examples of this malaise. Civil society groups aggrandising as protectors of the Lord himself, with the temple management decreeing for the Lord himself.
Dr Ambedkar’s proposals for equality didn’t become laws until 2005. Those who cede liberty for tradition set India back immeasurably. And subverting the Supreme Court verdict is drag that Kerala and its people are placing on the Indian republic.
The writer is an urban activist
