Thrissur Pooram reduced to a ‘festival of men’? The debate on reclaiming spaces

The discussion on gender inequality was sparked after actor Rima Kallingal observed that Pooram was a 'male dominated festival'.
Thrissur Pooram reduced to a ‘festival of men’? The debate on reclaiming spaces
Thrissur Pooram reduced to a ‘festival of men’? The debate on reclaiming spaces

Last week, Malayalam actor Rima Kallingal started a debate on reclaiming spaces by calling the Thrissur Pooram a festival that has been reduced to a ‘festival of men'. Rima, a vocal women's rights activist wondered why a festival as large and vibrant as the Pooram mostly had only men in attendance.

"Big festivals abroad always see both men and women celebrating. It (the festival) is about coming together. But here, there is no coming together as there are only men," Rima said in an interview to Asiaville Malayalam.

While the actor faced flak for the comment with several people disagreeing with her views, what Rima raised is a legitimate concern about female participation in festivals like the Pooram, which is at least 2 centuries old and witnesses one of the biggest gatherings in all of Asia.

Thrissur Pooram, known as the mother of all temple festivals in Kerala, draws huge crowds from all over the state every year. Some of the biggest attractions of the Pooram include the Kudamattam (umbrella ceremony), the fireworks and the Ilanjithara me-lam  The two day festival began on May 13, Monday and concluded on Tuesday. Lakhs of people attend the festivities every year.

Girls who grew up in Thrissur (like me) are used to warnings of the perils of walking into the crowd to witness the Pooram festivities.

"You won't come back in a single piece," were statements often made by members of the family. There have been instances where 'well meaning' older men in the Pooram premises have forced women to exit the crowd as it was 'not safe for ladies'.

Even as Rima’s statements invited quite an amount of trolling on her social media pages, another woman, a journalist, posted her experience at the Pooram.

"We were physically abused at least 5 times while standing with a small group of people. Initially, we ignored it thinking it was due to the crowd. But as the inappropriate touching continued, we started reacting. Even as we identified the men and yelled at them, bystanders would only ask us if 'we had come alone'. Not one person came to our defence and there were no police officers to lodge a complaint with”, Akshaya, wrote on her Facebook page.

The post concluded stating that, "Women also wished to celebrate by standing in the crowds with dignity and freedom."

While many acknowledged the concern, Rima's statement, which sparked the whole debate, also had several detractors who argued that the festival was not male dominated. Actor and model Maya Menon took to Facebook to disagree with Rima's observations.

"If you were a Thrissur native in the truest sense you would never had made such a claim. Both men and women do attend Pooram but women choose to stay away due to some personal reasons. Nobody is restricting women from going for Pooram. Your statements prove that you have never been there," Maya wrote on her Facebook page.

Bebeto Thimothy, another Thrissur based Facebook user took on those (like Maya) who said that women too enjoyed Pooram and celebrated along with men. Bebeto argued that while women did attend the festivities, they almost always celebrated from the periphery, mostly due to male dominance in crowds.

"How many women have you seen standing right in front of the celebrations? Majority will be sitting under trees or standing in front of shuttered shops. They will always be in the periphery of thick crowds. Have you ever wondered why they stand aside or are made to stand aside?That is male dominance," he wrote.

For others who passionately argued 'Not all men', Bebeto clarified that it was not an individual that the debate about reclaiming spaces was targeting, but the system of male dominance. This very system, the user argued, created anxiety of sexual abuse in women as they entered a crowd.

"Only when the people of our land learn to respect personal spaces will the male dominance in our society be addressed," Bebeto wrote.

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