 "Illustration by Ajay Mohanty")
If Trupti Desai says she will do it, she probably will. Founder of the ‘Bhumata Brigade’, she is a wife, a mother, and a feminist. “Our struggle is against injustice against women, subjugation of women and corruption,” she says. Bhumata Brigade does have some male members but it is the Bhumata Ranragani Brigade which takes up specifically women’s causes, such as the temple protest.
Its vice-president Pushpak Kevadkar runs a motor driving school. Durga Shukre is a homemaker. Priyanka Jagtap, 22, is preparing for the Maharashtra Public Services Commission examination, having joined the group when it was started. These four make up the core group at the forefront of agitations.
Many would call Desai a rabble-rouser. Or a trade unionist in the tradition of leaders like Datta Samant or George Fernandes. She is unshakeable in her belief that women can and should go everywhere. It was this belief that propelled the Brigade to demand the right to enter the garbhagriha of the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. Desai saw no logic or merit in the argument that men could enter the shrine after paying Rs 11,000 but women were barred from entry. “We are also devotees of Shani and we just want the same rights as men for women of all castes.”
“She’s crazy,” said Rajkaran Sharma of Chitrakoot, a rotund, reasonable priest, with whom it is not impossible to negotiate religious rites (at a particularly longwinded ceremony, he asked apologetically whether it was okay to continue or should he cut it short). But, Sharma is very clear what religious convention and ritual mean, what ceremonies should be done by women and what can only be done by men. “Next, she will want women to perform the kanyadaan,” he said of Desai’s campaign. With short hair, a jacket and only sometimes a bindi, Desai makes it clear that she is a woman on her own terms. “This (temple entry) is not about fighting religion; it is about equality,” Desai told an interviewer. “They are saying their religious sentiments are hurt. How have they been hurt? Have we ever said there is no god? But, we have the right to access him as much as men.” This is not the first time Desai has tangled with authority. She launched a movement against the Pawar family-run Ajit Cooperative Bank over an alleged scandal in 2008. Around 29,000 people who thought they’d lost their money, kept in the bank, got it back after Desai launched an agitation against the banking practices of the organisation. Then, too, she got death threats.
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At the Shingnapur Shani temple entry, she was heckled, manhandled and threatened. But, religion as a means of liberation is a potent weapon and Desai is persuasive enough to have talked many women into joining the Bhumata Brigade and storming the temple. Maharashtra Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis finally had to publicly endorse the entry of women in the garbhagriha of Shani Shingnapur; they were allowed in only after that.
The Brigade’s next target was Mumbai’s Haji Ali mosque. The Indo-Islamic architectural structure contains the tomb of Sayed Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari. And, women are barred from entering the sanctum sanctorum. The Brigade went to the high court there, which ruled that the ban on women contravened their fundamental rights and that the trust had no right to prohibit women’s entry into a public place of worship.
After the Haji Ali victory, Desai declared that Sabarimala in Kerala would be the next target — and, that in its own interest, it should open its doors for women. Although the Brigade’s plan for storming the temple isn’t clear, the announcement has set off an intense debate in Kerala. It is likely to be a life-altering moment for a state which is highly literate. Some people think that Desai will win this battle as well.
