Sabarimala: Can respecting beliefs and reforming practices go hand-in-hand?

If belief and practice in religions were unrelated - it would be reasonable to expect that one could find two different faiths that nevertheless have the exact same or similar practices

This is the first of a two-part series.

The Sabarimala controversy, like many other such matters of ‘faith’, seems to be boiling down to a question of ‘belief’ – more even than ‘tradition’, because ultimately, ‘belief’ decides ‘tradition’. Take the Ramjanmabhoomi issue, for instance: the Hindu-right has been asserting with increasing insistence of late that a Ram temple will be built on the contested site, regardless of any judicial order on the matter, because it is a matter of respecting the religious ‘beliefs’ of the ‘Hindus’. This matter too is currently being heard in the Supreme Court (SC).

This could be one