This paper examines the discourse of the Ready to Wait (RTW) campaign, led by highly-educated professional neo-savarna women in Kerala, against litigation to open the doors of Kerala’s Sabarimala shrine to women of menstruating ages, hitherto barred from the pilgrimage. The term savarna refers to the privileged caste-communities that, from pre-colonial times, controlled land and other material resources and ritual practices, and continued to do so to a large extent even later. Avarna refers to those oppressed groups that laboured for the savarna and were subjected to degradation through such practices as untouchability and unseeability, and whose exclusion from social power continues in different ways despite these groups having achieved economic presence and education. Following a Supreme Court verdict in September 2018, which struck down the Sabarimala taboo, Kerala was shaken by violent protests led by neo-savarna and SanghParivar organisations. Through a close reading of the Facebook engagement of a Right to Wait campaigner, I seek to make sense of the particular sorts of ‘dissonance’ these organisations seem to be creating within the male-defined space of Hindutva, the specific caste politics they represent, as well as their articulation and disarticulation with a discourse on women’s empowerment and feminism. I argue that it is time that we seriously theorise the power relations between the savarna and avarna women under brahminical patriarchy, instead of focusing singularly on the subordination of upper-caste women by the male brahminical elite.

中文翻译：

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在喀拉拉邦捍卫阿查拉姆、女性气质和新萨瓦纳权力

本文考察了准备等待 (RTW) 运动的话语，该运动由喀拉拉邦受过高等教育的专业新萨瓦纳妇女领导，反对向迄今禁止朝圣的经期妇女打开喀拉拉邦萨巴里马拉神殿大门的诉讼。萨瓦纳这个词指的是特权种姓社区，从前殖民时代开始，他们就控制着土地和其他物质资源以及仪式习俗，并且在很大程度上甚至在以后继续这样做。Avarna 指的是那些为热带草原劳动的受压迫群体，并因不可接触和不可见等做法而遭受退化，尽管这些群体已经获得经济存在和教育，但他们仍以不同的方式被排除在社会权力之外。在最高法院于 2018 年 9 月作出判决后，打破了萨巴里马拉的禁忌，喀拉拉邦被新萨瓦纳和桑格帕里瓦组织领导的暴力抗议所动摇。通过仔细阅读 Facebook 上一位等待权利活动家的参与，我试图理解这些组织似乎在印度教男性定义的空间内制造的特殊类型的“不和谐”，他们所代表的特定种姓政治，以及他们与妇女赋权和女权主义话语的衔接和脱节。我认为，是时候我们认真地将婆罗门教父权制下萨瓦纳和阿瓦纳妇女之间的权力关系理论化，而不是仅仅关注男性婆罗门精英对上层种姓妇女的从属地位。通过对等待权利活动家在 Facebook 上的参与的仔细阅读，我试图理解这些组织似乎在印度教男性定义的空间内创造的特殊类型的“不和谐”，他们所代表的特定种姓政治，以及他们与妇女赋权和女权主义话语的衔接和脱节。我认为，是时候我们认真地将婆罗门教父权制下萨瓦纳和阿瓦纳妇女之间的权力关系理论化，而不是仅仅关注男性婆罗门精英对上层种姓妇女的从属地位。通过对等待权利活动家在 Facebook 上的参与的仔细阅读，我试图理解这些组织似乎在印度教男性定义的空间内创造的特殊类型的“不和谐”，他们所代表的特定种姓政治，以及他们与妇女赋权和女权主义话语的衔接和脱节。我认为，是时候我们认真地将婆罗门教父权制下萨瓦纳和阿瓦纳妇女之间的权力关系理论化，而不是仅仅关注男性婆罗门精英对上层种姓妇女的从属地位。他们所代表的特定种姓政治，以及他们与妇女赋权和女权主义话语的表达和脱节。我认为，是时候我们认真地将婆罗门教父权制下萨瓦纳和阿瓦纳妇女之间的权力关系理论化，而不是仅仅关注男性婆罗门精英对上层种姓妇女的从属地位。他们所代表的特定种姓政治，以及他们与妇女赋权和女权主义话语的表达和脱节。我认为，是时候我们认真地将婆罗门教父权制下萨瓦纳和阿瓦纳妇女之间的权力关系理论化，而不是仅仅关注男性婆罗门精英对上层种姓妇女的从属地位。