Nassim Nicholas Taleb has written a brilliant book called 'Skin in the game' as means of sniffing out BS. Let us apply his analysis to Sabarimala.
In the jungle, where survival of the fittest & natural selection are the rules (Matsya Nyaaya), if a predator catches the prey, it eats and can survive. If the prey escapes, it gets to live. Both the predator & prey have their own 'skin in the game'.
Are you a Sabarimala devotee? If yes, you have skin in the game. Are you not? But do you still like to loftily preach to the devotees as to what they should & should not do? Then, you have no skin in the game.
Do you claim to be a devotee? Oh, your heart is so overflowing with Bhakthi (devotion) for Swami Ayyappan? You really really want to worship in his presence? Do you know the Vritam (austerity/penance) that the devotees take?
This is a 41 day vritam. Are you willing to avoid meat, alcohol, a comfy bed & sex for 41 days? (These are elements of Yama, the first Anga of Patanjali's Ashta-anga Yoga). Are you willing to sleep on the floor? Walk barefoot in the mountain path with stones & thorns? Wear the black devotional dress without footwear everywhere, be it work, school or home? Take part in Ayyappa Bhajans & devotional remembrance for 41 days? Address everyone as Swami as a sign of the divinity within them? Be addressed as Swami as a sign of the divinity within you? No? Too difficult? You have no skin in the game.
What about civil rights of women? There are seven Hindu temples that have restrictions on men. https://www.mynation.com/news/sabarimala-hindu-temples-india-chakkulathukavu-temple-kottankulangara-devi-temple-mata-temple-pgqoep There are six Hindu temples that have restrictions on women. Millions of others, including other Ayyappa temples have no such restrictions. In Chennangur & Kamakya, there are rituals followed & worshipped of the mensturating goddess. Did you even know all this? Now that you do, what do you want to do? Ignore the temples that have restrictions on men? Then, you are a hypocrite. Do you want all of them to lift restrictions? Tolerance, by definition means tolerating opinions & beliefs that are different from yours. If you want your will to be imposed, you are intolerant. If one, even one woman Ayyappa devotee wants to do the vritam & go to the temple, she has skin in the game and this is a civil rights issue. None of the petitioners or the judges or the government implementing the order or the activists who entered or attempted to enter were Ayyappa devotees. None of them observed the 41 day vritam. They have no skin in the game.
Look at the women who were secretly escorted by the police to the temple & hailed by the media. They were Maoist communists. They admitted on public TV that they had not undergone the 41 day vritam. They had no skin in the game. Do you think that any of the media folks who hailed these women even have the ability to undergo this vritam? No skin in the game.
Other countries proudly celebrate their different traditions. Greece bans women in Mt.Athos (a Christian tradition). https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36378690 Japan bans women in Mt.Omine & worked with the UN to declare it a UNESCO heritage shrine (a Shinto/Buddhist tradition). https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/10/japanese-sacred-island-where-women-are-banned-gets-unesco-world-heritage-listing?__twitter_impression=true India has such unique traditions with a few odd temples among millions with special traditions for men & women. Shouldn't we be celebrating it rather than destroying it? Reform, by definition, means changing something practiced by the majority of the population. By attacking one temple with a unique tradition, congrats, you have reformed 0.0001% on the overall practice.
How did this come about? Barkha Dutt, a star journalist who justified the atrocities on Kashmiri Pandits and was heard power-brokering in the infamous Radigate Nira Radia tapes has been attacking Sabarimala for decades. She injected Sabarimala into a debate on women in Islam where she was classically put down by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. A couple of women in a legal org (headed by a Muslim) were influenced by her writing & decided to file a case. None of them were devotees. No skin in the game. One of the petitioners, after learning about the other unique temples with restrictions on men, tried to withdraw her case. But the court proceeded anyway. Did the court have skin in the game? Let's see.
The court comprised of five judges of whom four were men & one was a woman. Only the woman judge had skin in the game. The woman judge ruled sensitively that this petition shouldn't have been admitted in the first place. Her sane voice was drowned out by the four other men. Three of them were from the North with no idea about Sabarimala's traditions. One of them was a conservative Keralite Christian, who has spoken multiple times on Christian causes. No skin in the game for the 4 male judges.
There is a different kind of skin in the game at play here. Some are profoundly ignorant and are unable to think in nuances of gray, they think in a dumb black & white scheme (my views are correct, anything else is wrong). (Taleb postulates that the radical monotheists think in black and white, while the Pagans are more sensitive & can think in nuances). Others are aware of the counter points but they deliberately ignore it to peddle an agenda, such as many English journalists & the international media. Note how the mainstream media studiously ignored the Hindu women protesting for Sabarimala. https://twitter.com/Kuvalayamala/status/1080240438592917506 Still others are radical monotheists (Christians/Muslims) & atheists (EVRites) who want to mock & destroy the Hindu traditions owing to their ideological or religious beliefs. Some of the prominent voices celebrating the desecration are Kerala communist minister Thomas Isaad, journalist Faye D'Souza, Rediff journalist Syed Firdaus Ashraf, MK Stalin.
In Catherine Nixey's, a Darkening Age, there's a picture of 'St.' Apollonia destroying a Pagan temple to convert it to a church.
Queen Eudoxia desecrated the Gaza Zeus Marnas temple, converted it into a church and used the sacred slabs as pavements to step on. Pagan women avoided stepping on these stones until eventually the tradition was killed. https://twitter.com/TrueIndology/status/1080531859946131456 A similar response is already being seen in Sabarimala. https://twitter.com/surnell/status/1081391680077643777 The old gods' & goddesses' (Athena, Serapis, Aphrodite, Poseidon, Apollo) temples were destroyed & converted to churches in Europe. The desecrated statues would be buried under the altar. The French East India company governor's wife, Madame Dupliex, led the desecration & destruction of the Vedapuri Ishwaran temple in Puducherry in 1748 & converted it into a church. https://ishwarsharan.wordpress.com/part-one/chapter-fourteen/ https://twitter.com/IndianInterest/status/1018861603880513536 Multiple temples were desecrated & converted to churches in the inquisitions (eg: Goa-thousands, Sri Lanka-Koneshwaram/Munneshwaram temples, Chennai-Kapaleeshwarar temple, Vel Ilankanni Amman temple). In the 1950s, the Sabarimala temple was set on fire by Christians & its Vigraha destroyed. The Vigraha was sculpted again. In 1980s, Christians encroached on Ayyappan's sacred grove of Nilakkal & built a church. https://twitter.com/TrueIndology/status/1053133115265335297 The irony is that their own scriptures have issues. https://twitter.com/ShefVaidya/status/1081186808124166144 On the contrary, the Hindu scriptures have verses celebrating women. http://vedham.blogspot.com/2018/10/hindu-women-of-india.html How about some introspection? Can the liberal Christians rein in the radical evangelicals?
Why are black burqa clad women protesting for Sabarimala? https://twitter.com/sahilsc1/status/1080379272982757378 One of the women said that her husband asked her to. https://twitter.com/ARJUNNA24900662/status/1082229488191062016 Do you even know that the black burka was invented only in the 19th century by Ahl-E-Hadith? What do you think this symbolizes? https://twitter.com/TrueIndology/status/827223641578422272
For the Muslims who are attacking Sabarimala, introspect, why are mensturating women forbidden circumambulating Kaaba during Haj and required to have a Mahram (male relative)? https://twitter.com/TrueIndology/status/1080551831548227584 Also, consider the thousands of destroyed & desecrated temples converted into mosques with the vandalized deity buried under the steps for the faithful to trample over. Why not introspect rather than attacking Sabarimala? Can the liberal Muslims rein in the radicals & leave the Hindus at peace?
Erode Venkataramaswamy Naicker (EVR) broke Ganesha statues, took processions of pictures of Rama garlanded with slippers, attacked Cho Ramaswamy's press & burned all copies of his magazine Tughlaq for daring to publish it. He called to treat Tamil Brahmins as Germany's jews & burn them. https://twitter.com/JagatGuruDas/status/1026878760166076417 https://twitter.com/JagatGuruDas/status/1027447902073847809 https://twitter.com/ARanganathan72/status/971391932671938560 He is hailed as Thanthai Periyar (Great father). His statues and portraits adorn Tamil Nadu & parts of India, including outside temples. Any criticism of him or even a drunken desecration of his statues is met with immediate arrests. Here is EVRite, K. Veeramani wanting to serve beef in Sabarimala. https://twitter.com/shakkuiyer/status/1082172754684723200 What does beef have to do with women of certain age entering Sabarimala? The agenda is simple. To destroy Hinduism. Here is atheist politician MK Stalin delightfully making plans for further desecration. https://twitter.com/umagarghi/status/1082266916402544640 What does an atheist who hates Hinduism have to do with worshipping in Sabarimala? No skin in the game. Can the liberal atheists rein in the radical atheists and be tolerant of religious beliefs?
The Chakra news once tried an experiment. When reporting Hindu temples being desecrated by radical Islamists in Bangladesh, they provided that news to several international media. Ignored. They changed the source to say that a Church or a mosque had been attacked. Immediately, outlets responded requesting more information. Why? The radical forces that ruled the world with iron fisted intolerance are ruling the media & setting the narrative. They portray the aggressors as victims & ignore the real victims. They then use their own flawed data to generate reports & further disenfranchise the victims. Sadly, Hindus are funding some of these Hinduphobic media channels such as BBC, WaPo, NYT & NPR.
When the US constitution was about to be written, the competing Christian sects worried & wrote to Thomas Jefferson as to which one would gain prominence. What if my competing sect comes to power? He wisely decided on secularism, which means separate of church & state. India truly needs to become secular. We see a blatant trampling of Hindu traditions by a government that claims to be secular but is not truly secular. No skin in the game.
What business does an atheistic Hinduphobic communist government have in administering Hindu temples? The Kerala communist government has used temple funds to pay its lawyers to fight against Hindu rights. It has also used temple funds to fund the temple security to attack & arrest devotees, vandalize their vehicles & smuggle in the non-believing women. By allowing governments to control their temples, Hindus are funding their own persecution.
Note how the same communist government dealt with issues with other religions. When two women attempted to enter the Vavar mosque, the women were arrested. https://swarajyamag.com/insta/whither-gender-equality-and-religious-freedom-three-women-activists-arrested-by-kerala-police-for-attempting-to-enter-vavar-mosque They chose to not implement the court verdict in the Jacobite/Orthodox church where the court ruled that both sects could worship at a contested church. They chose to drag their feet in the nun rape case of Francis Mulakkal, delaying an arrest until the protests reached a crescendo. They also chose not to appoint a public prosecutor in this nun rape case. On the other hand, they arrested thousands of people including women for Sabarimala protests. The irony is that the Communist party didn't admit women into the Politburo (highest body) until 2005. https://twitter.com/TrueIndology/status/1056411832422825984
There is discrimination in the treatment of minorities as well. Hindus are a minority in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Lakshadweep, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir. In all these states, almost all of the minority scholarships are allocated to the majority, mostly Muslims & Christians, with 0 allocated to Hindus. https://twitter.com/TrueIndology/status/892000240626155523 When this was challenged in court, the court simply referred it to the minority commission occupied by mainly Muslims & Christians. Classic conflict of interest. They simply sat on it & did nothing. 'Skin in the game' for their own benefit.
In Kerala, with the demographics of around 30% Muslims, 30% Christians, 30% communists & 10% Hindus, Hindus are clearly the minority. Temple land is encroached upon by lofty competing religious structures & institutions that don't pay rent. (Eg: https://swarajyamag.com/culture/two-temples-near-kanchi-in-ruins-despite-owning-hundred-of-acres-even-as-tenants-flourish https://twitter.com/aswathy_pm/status/993523942668161024) Being a minority amongst an intolerant majority is the reason their sacred lands & beliefs are being trampled upon with impunity.
After the Sabarimala 'victory', the next target is Agastyarkoodam, where the rights of the Adivasi Kani tribes following unique customs are being taken away. The pilgrimage starts at Bonakkadu. Again, radical Christians planted a cross here, rioted when questioned and the church conducts huge events here. https://twitter.com/Kuvalayamala/status/1082624048276951042 This simple technique has been used to occupy prime forest land. The Gadgil report which calls for environmental protection is being opposed by those who have illegal structures. The British gave away cheap land to churches & missionary institutions on a 99 year lease in 1893 which has expired & not yet been returned. https://twitter.com/noconversion/status/699783766928183296
The way forward is simple. I request all reasonable people to support calls for justice. In all places where Hindus are the minority & being persecuted (eg: Indian provinces, Pakistan, Bangladesh), Hindus need to be declared such & protected as a minority. Report on their sufferings. Don't ignore it. Demand a report on all temple lands in the country and how they are being used. Demand governments to hand over control of Hindu temples to the Hindus, when they don't manage structures of other religions. Demand to see and analyze financial audits of your local temples. Many local temples' funds are mismanaged. RTI queries show spending temple funds on high-end SUVs & air-conditioning. US temples have funded Hinduphobic chairs in universities (such as the Livermore temple funding UC-Berkeley's Dr.Goldman who refused to help Hindus in the California textbook controversy). Other temples fund their trustees' overseas trips. Eternal vigilance is required to stop corruption.
Demand that desecrated deities under church altars & the steps of mosques across the world be excavated & handed over to the respective faiths. This is the least that can happen. Allowing this to continue is a gross injustice & indignity. However, the intolerant governments, the courts & the media will not yield. Hindus, after fighting with their lives to gain freedom from the colonial British, have handed over political power in a platter to the very forces that seek to destroy them. Only political awareness, sustained protests & unity will help Hindus survive this onslaught. We should all become like Rama's squirrel building a bridge. We are all busy, but should do whatever little we can to advance the cause of Dharma. I request well meaning people across faiths to help. May Swami Ayyappan help us in this Dharmayuddham.
Swamiye Sharanam Ayyappa.
