In 2000, he led a campaign demanding entry for women into the Shani Shingnapur temple.

The trail-blazing activism by rationalist firebrand Narendra Dabholkar, who was >killed by right-wing elements, and his Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS) to combat the ban on women entering temples was a vital phase in the organisation’s untiring efforts to strive for gender equality in Maharashtra.

While the struggle commenced with the usual raucous noises from the right-wing patriarchy, it culminated on a happy note with these very sections joining in the cause to uphold the dignity of women across the State.

In 2000, several progressive sections, including activists, socially-committed theatre and film artists and grassroots leaders led by Dabholkar, actor Shriram Lagoo and farmer leader N.D. Patil led a march from Pandharpur to Shani Shingnapur in Ahmednagar to protest against the ban which saw the participation of a large number of women activists.

However, the right-wing political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena, along with several fringe ‘Hindutva’ groups, prevented the campaigners from entering the iconic temple. After heated arguments with district officials intent on averting trouble, the campaigners were thrown into jail for the next two days.

While the then “secular” Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government maintained a studied silence on the incident as well as on the treatment meted out to the campaigners, Dabholkar took the fight to the Bombay High Court, determined to end the ban.

“His predominant reasoning was that if women have been accorded equal rights in our Constitution, why should this ludicrous gender discrimination barring entry to women in temples be allowed to persist?” recounts Hamid Dabholkar, the activist’s son.

In 2011, in an obvious effort at garnering goodwill by appearing to fight for women’s equality, the BJP and Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena worked for ensuring the entry of women into the legendary Mahalaxmi temple in Kolhapur district. In a single stroke, a 2,000-year-old tradition, emblematic of overweening patriarchal codes, bit the dust.

“The opening up of the Mahalaxmi temple vindicated the decade-long struggle led by Dr. Dabholkar and the MANS. It has proved that irrespective of ideological labels and political brownie points, different people can rally together for a just cause,” said Hamid Dabholkar.

He said the awareness among women that the 2000 campaign created helped evolve a favourable climate where today hundreds of progressive people can vent their ire when someone comes up with a shocking proposal such as “women can be allowed into the Sabarimala temple only if they are ‘clean’”. Even today, the website of the Shani Shingnapur temple, in its rules of worship, mandates that while any male devotee can go up to the platform wearing a wet cloth, women can offer worship only without mounting the platform.

“While the recent event at Shani Shingnapur is shocking, we are confident that our campaign begun in 2000 will once and for all do away with the ban on women entering temples. The legal case is now in its final stage and we are hopeful that the High Court delivers a brave and just verdict,” said Milind Deshmukh, one of Dabholkar’s close associates.