Sacred Sins

 

Book

Title: Sacred Sins: Devadasis in Contemporary India

Author: Arun Ezhuthachan

Translator: Meera Gopinath

Publisher: Hatchette India, 2023

Pages: 239

India has never been magnanimous to women. Ancient India was quite brutal in the treatment of women with such practices as sati and devadasi. If a woman was unfortunate to outlive her husband, she had to immolate herself on her man’s funeral pyre. The men who made that rule made sure that the rule, like many others of the kind, had divine sanction. The husband’s death when the wife is still alive indicates the sins of the woman’s vagina. The punishment decreed by the gods is the woman’s death. After her death, she will be made a goddess!

Adolescent girls were dedicated to temples in the name of devadasis, maids of gods. These girls were expected to live their life worshipping goddess Durga in her various avatars though it could be any other deity as well. In reality, however, these girls were exploited sexually by upper caste men. The girls came from impoverished low caste families that couldn’t afford to care for girls whose marriages would be expensive affairs.

The inhuman practice of sati was abolished in 1829 by the British government in India. The Devadasi system was abolished in independent India. Many other evil practices such as the caste system were also abolished, but quite many of them continue to be in practice. Even the devadasi system didn’t end altogether with the abolition.

The Supreme Court of India passed an order on 12 Feb 2016 asking the Karnataka government to ensure that not a single girl was made a devadasi on the full moon night of the month of Magha, as it used to be done hitherto. The order was motivated by a feature that had been published in the Sunday magazine of the Malayala Manorama newspaper on 2 Feb 2014. That feature, titled What have we done to be made devadasis?, was written by Arun Ezhuthachan, a Manorama reporter.

Ezhuthachan’s interest in Mangaluru’s dance bars, particularly the girls who danced there, was aroused by the abolition of dance bars there in 2008. What did these female dancers do once the bars were shut down? They turned to prostitution, as Ezhuthachan discovered soon. What struck him more is the fact that Divya, the sex worker he made an appointment with, had started her ‘career’ as a devadasi.

Are there devadasis still in India? Ezhuthachan’s investigations threw up many surprises. The pilgrimage town of Uchangi in Karnataka initiated adolescent girls as devadasis every year on the full moon in the month of Magha. It was illegal since Karnataka had banned the devadasi system in 1982. “Bans exist only on paper,” as a local man instructs Ezhuthachan. “Can the government prohibit divine customs?” 

Powerful men decide which custom is divine and which diabolic, according to their choice and convenience. The devadasi system served the purpose of these upper caste men whose lust required satiation all too frequently. The devadasi system, in other words, was prostitution with divine sanction.

Ezhuthachan continued his investigations. This book being reviewed here is a product of his enquiries. Originally written in Malayalam, this book won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 2019. It was translated into English in 2023 by Meera Gopinath. Both Ezhuthachan and his translator have done a remarkable job.

The devadasi system is not practised anymore in most parts of India. But Ezhuthachan’s researches take him to the notorious red-light areas of India such as Sonagachi in Kolkata and Kamathipura in Mumbai. The very size of Sonagachi’s sex market will astound us: 12,118 sex workers offer their services in 1083 buildings! Most of these women were abandoned by their families either as children dedicated to temple service or as young widows.

There are also other places such as Vrindavan in Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) and Puri in Odisha where the women have better fates. They are not sexually exploited, not apparently at least. This book takes us also to a few other places where sex and spirituality and sheer commerce mingle seamlessly.

Poverty is the main cause of such evils. The caste system ensures that the low caste people remain inescapably poor. The entire system is made in such a way that the upper caste men [men, I repeat] are the ultimate beneficiaries. Even little girls who haven’t attained puberty are at the mercy of these powerful men who pretend to have divine authority to do whatever they wish.

India claims to be doing a lot for the empowerment of women. In spite of all the hullaballoo and deafening slogans, child marriages are taking place in many states where the present ruling party has much influence. If they can’t be made devadasis, they will be made child-brides. One way or the other, the girl has to be got rid of as early as possible. Empowerment remains in catchy jingles and beautiful billboards.

A lot of human suffering, especially female suffering, remains unseen and untold, as the book concludes. India has a long way to go in spite of all the noise she has been making in the last ten years.