From the two ends of India, two case studies for government on how not to handle the interface with religious custom. In Jammu and Kashmir, a probe has been ordered into allegations that the Shivlinga at Amarnath was manmade this year and that official representatives on the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board were in the loop. In Kerala, the state government has flinched from involving itself in any way whatsoever amidst the furore about a supposed “defilement” at Sabarimala. This week, an actress, Jayamala, said she had visited the shrine two decades ago and touched the idol. The Tranvancore Devaswom Board, which manages the shrine, is outraged at this breach of rules barring women in the 10-50 age group.For a secular democracy, government must be very careful in what and how it involves itself in religious matters. It must, in fact, be seen to be above meddling in matters of faith. Whether there was connivance in bringing snow from the upper reaches to the cave at Amarnath will be established by the investigation. But a lesson should be instantly taken from the episode, and the process must be reformed so that government functionaries are extricated from the absurdity of having to vouch for the natural formation of the Shivalinga. Government cannot be guarantor of religious customs. The secular and sacred aspects of administering the yatra — or any other event — have to be separated.This is something the Kerala government, too, does not seem to have understood. By distancing itself from the current controversy, it is abdicating its secular duty to fight caste and gender discrimination. Temple entry has been a key axis on which the larger battle for equality has been fought. It is a battle that has been won by modernising forces with the active support of civil society and government. To remain quiet and neutral at this juncture would implicate the state government in an appalling expression of patriarchy and casteism. The freshly installed Marxist regime must know that a gesture of support to rationalism can tilt the scales in favour of reform. Anything less will stack it on the side of superstition and orthodoxy.
