Should courts intervene in religious matters

canada goose clearance sale Awful religious practices need to be abolished. Or gifted with a wickedly brilliant sense of humour. Why else would they canada goose outlet trillium parka black protest against the Supreme Court’s order to allow https://www.gooseoutletvip.com the entry of all women, including those in the menstruating age of 10 to 50 years, into the Sabarimala temple of Lord Ayyappa, the son of Lord Shiva and Mohini, the female manifestation of Lord Vishnu? Instead, they should be sending the judges bouquets and blessings. canada goose clearance sale

Because, with one 4 1 Constitution Bench order, however well meaning, the Supreme Court has gifted Hindutva something two generations of RSS Jan Sangh BJP leaders had failed at: Creating a base, a political justification to grow in Kerala. This court canada goose victoria parka outlet has brought them to their last frontier.

The last frontier, because in Tamil Nadu, any of the two contending parties, the DMK and AIADMK, can partner the BJP in a coalition.

It is only canada goose outlet paypal in Kerala that both of the rival coalitions the Left canada goose outlet in new york Democratic Front, with the CPI M, and the United Democratic Front, with the Congress, detest the BJP equally.

The RSS has been fighting for a foot hold, and its activists have been caught in a murderous blood feud with those of the Left. Yet, barring the constituency of Thiruvananthapuram, where it came close to surprising Shashi Tharoor of the Congress, it was unable to build a Hindu vote.

This court order has given Kerala, and the RSS/BJP, their first issue over Hindu sentiment. Can they exploit it to build a mass appeal, or will the redoubtable Malayali scepticism see through it? You will need to talk to people more knowledgeable about Kerala’s canada goose outlet toronto location unique politics.

What you can see, however, is that the Hindutva forces have seen an opening. The RSS and its affiliates have rallied women workers from all over the region and beyond not just Kerala to build this furious protest in Sabarimala.

cheap canada goose uk If many of these women seem to speak Hindi with Sanskritised purity and diction, you know they have been schooled in the RSS system. They are in Kerala in force now, and why should they not be there! cheap canada goose uk

Politics and democratic competition can’t just be confined to one Left and the other to the left of this Left. Welcome the Hindu Right in Kerala! And thank you so very much, Your Libertarian Lordships!

Sabarimala is a lesson in how unintended consequences can follow an intervention by an all powerful institution which clinically applies principles of the law and Constitution or as it interprets them even to issues of faith.

Such an application would have to presume that faith, any faith, is rational. That’s a tough one.

Is the idea of divine avatars rational?

Canada Goose Outlet Or hundreds of manifestations of the same God or Goddess? Canada Goose Outlet

It can get so complex that even the handlers of Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi’s social media end up describing Kali as Goddess Durga. Of course, She won’t mind, and, in any case, it is the same Goddess.

Canada Goose Online But can you produce a peer reviewed research paper backing the idea of multiple manifestations of any divine figure? Or virgin birth? Or a God, namely Ayyappa, born out of the union of Shiva and Mohini as the female manifestation of Vishnu? Canada Goose Online

Will a court ask for evidence if the Holy Quran was actually Allah’s word to the Prophet?

canada goose Or the many tribal faiths, animism, worship of the sun and the moon, the customs of sacrifice? canada goose

We are a complex society canada goose outlet montreal where countless faiths, beliefs and customs co exist, where somebody paints a little lime or saffron on a tree or a rock, canada goose outlet phone number or puts a few asbestos sheets over an abandoned grave, and countless start praying to it.

Will the courts entertain questions about these?

Can a Christian woman approach the Supreme Court, asking it to order the Catholic faith to give women equal rights and positions in their clergy? A UPSC style body to select Christian priests?

canada goose coats on sale Can a Hindu woman ask that the judges order the RSS that women should be admitted to its highest all male councils? It will be wonderful to see a woman heading the RSS, a ‘Sarsanghchalika’, and, who knows, it may happen someday. It would never happen on any court’s orders you can be sure. canada goose coats on sale

The reason we are able to co exist, mostly peacefully, is that as a people, we Indians let our neighbours be. And as a State, by and large, we have been minimally invasive on issues of faith.

buy canada goose jacket The Hindu Code Bill followed enormous debate and still remains contentious. canada goose outlet official I say with great humility that the reform canada goose outlet toronto in Hindu personal laws and customs that Jawaharlal Nehru brought in through parliamentary debate and majority, the finest Supreme Court benches over generations would not have been able to. buy canada goose jacket

The Shah Bano judgement was overturned by Parliament. The same court has now proclaimed triple talaq illegal and because the politics of the ruling party today is different, it is making it a criminal offence.

Canada Goose Parka But do you really see police in our various states entering households, arresting and prosecuting people? The mayhem it will cause in an already insecure community that finds itself under siege? Canada Goose Parka

Triple talaq is a terrible, medieval canada goose outlet idea. Many Islamic countries and societies have dumped it. Indian Muslims too should do it. But the impetus must come from reform within, not from police armed with criminal law sanctified by a ‘liberal’ court.

uk canada goose We understand the justification behind the order on Sabarimala, that this was about individual liberty uk canada goose.