In India, there’s a powerful factor that overarchingly defines the collective experience of those who bleed, because it is deeply rooted in culture, class, and caste — and that is religion. Religion has always played a key role in the temporary displacement of menstruators from places of worship and kitchens, barring them from keeping fasts, and banishing them to verandahs, outhouses, and rudimentary ‘menstrual huts.’
These humiliating practices, based in superstition that period blood is impure, are often willingly enforced by upper caste gatekeepers of religious patriarchy, that sometimes also includes women, perpetuating a toxic cycle of othering.
Period And Prayer
Just how deep this prejudice runs through Indian society was revealed recently by the results of a survey conducted by Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and Youth Ki Awaaz on ‘menstruators’ behaviours, attitudes and practices during periods.’ The survey found that 49.2% or nearly half of the 11161 respondents believed that praying is something that should not be practiced when one is on their periods. The survey also found that at 49%, students made up the majority of the respondents.
The data related to praying is especially alarming, not only because beliefs, if held by the majority, tend to dangerously pass for the rule of law, but also because a large section of India’s educated young population thinks personal religious practices and periods are interlinked. As routinely happens in conversations of these kinds, women are bracketed together to homogenise the period experience, when in reality, the bodily rights of a large section Savarna women, controlled in the religious context by ritualistic practices obsessed with purity, and their temporary othering, do not compare with Dalit women’s who are still treated as outsiders in any mainstream conversations on period leave, poverty or worship.
When Religion Shuts You Out: The Story Of Brahmanical Patriarchy & Caste
Journalist Arpita Chakrabarty, a Hindu by religion, remembers her harrowing experience after she lost her mother. “Recently, during my mother’s funeral rites, I was asked again and again by my aunts and cousins if I was on my menstruation. The priest too hinted on the same thing, indirectly. I was not bleeding, but if I were, I would have lost the right to perform funeral rites, thanks to my period,” she says.
Padmini Baruah, a half Assamese graduate student of the Fletcher School in the US, raised in Assam, also remembers “bizzare” early menstruation memories. “When I first began menstruating, I was subject to a set of practices that can only be described as outright bizarre. I was segregated for three days and not allowed to come in contact with the male members of my family. I was not allowed to eat anything except sprouts. On the fourth day, I was dressed as a bride and ritually ‘married’ to a banana plant.”
“There was an elaborate reception and I received presents from the guests. I was 13 at the time, and this was traumatising at several levels,” says Baruah.
Nikaytaa (identifies herself by first name) was around 17 when her menstrual cycle started. “…Once my period started, I was not allowed to enter the Pooja room. If either my sister or I were on our period, we would be allowed inside the Pooja Ghar but were not to touch the main thaali with the prasad, flowers etc. I was to learn later that we were allowed in the Pooja ghar to prevent my dad and brother from knowing we were menstruating,” she said.
Her experience was worse at her grandmother’s house, where she was not allowed to visit the kitchen during her cycle, keep her plate in the sink, or get a glass of water for herself. “Women are the gate-keepers of Brahmanical patriarchy,” she says.
“The mental exhaustion of remembering the do’s and don’ts paled in comparison to the exhaustion caused by the menstrual cycle itself. It took me some time to realise that such practices of upper-caste Brahminical households are actually oppressive. They are designed to limit the sexual freedom of Hindu women by making them feel guilty of their own sexuality and biological processes,” she says.
Within Hinduism, restrictions can transcend across caste hierarchies. Sunita Devi, a Dalit reporter from Uttar Pradesh, speaks about her experience, “When I was 10 or 15 years old, I have personally witnessed Dalit women on their periods in many homes not allowed to cook or climb onto the platform of the local wells to draw water or visit places of worship,” she says. “I didn’t have my mother growing up (who had passed away) so I had no choice but to cook for everyone and my periods weren’t that much of an issue. But Dalit women have always worked in fields during their periods. Though restrictions are gradually easing with time,” she says.
Dalit rights activist, Beena Pallikal, however points out that the restrictions could be a result of a section of Dalit Hindu homes adopting Savarna religious practices over time. “This is not culturally part of Dalit practices…. the purity and pollution aspect is definitely propagated by the dominant caste society.” Pallikal says her colleagues working in Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh confirm that from not touching bottles of pickle, wearing new clothes during periods to not being allowed to cook, some of these practices are very much part of Dalit Hindu homes as well.
When Religion Mixes With Sanctions of Society
There are, of course, exceptions that bypass cultural taboos through empathy and education but even in those, fear of social sanction plays a significant role. Srestha (who agrees to be identified only by her first name), says she has had a much better experience negotiating periods at her home than many, given that her parents are healthcare professionals, but would desist participating in prayer outside for fear of what ‘others’ may say.
“My mom never forbade me to go near the thakur ghor (puja room) while I was on my periods. She never really explicitly prohibited me from attending pujas when I was menstruating. She was more scared of what other people might think of it, and so I never participated in pushpanjali (common Durga puja ritual).” she said.
If women gate-keep Hindu rituals at home, many also open up the space for others. “One day during a pooja that the family was partaking in, my aunt handed me over the aarti thaali – I hesitated and mouthed ‘chums’ which she brushed off and thrust the thali in my hands anyway… That changed my relationship with not just the elder women in my family but with the existence of God or lack thereof,” says writer and producer Sejal Pandey.
Politics & Religion: When Greater Good Transcends Personal Rights
One issue that rocked the period debate in 2018 was the entry of menstrual age women into the ancient Sabarimala temple, home to the presiding deity of Lord Ayyappa, in Pathanamthitta District of Kerala. It split public opinion on women’s bodily autonomy and their right to pray during periods. Actor turned politician Khushbu Sundar says she believes in the cause of women’s rights, but maintains that on a sensitive subject like Sabarimala, religious harmony should not be disturbed.
“You can pray to God anywhere. Why disturb the harmony of those who do not want this to happen? We can definitely withhold ourselves. Nobody is saying don’t pray, just don’t come to the worship places. I don’t think there is anything wrong in understanding this,” she says.
“You can’t change the mindset of people overnight.” But what happens if a majority of people’s beliefs start deciding the rights of a few?
“A woman has all the right to live her life the way she wants. I stand for basic fundamental rights of women. But what is it we are gaining (by going to a temple during periods)? This is something we can stay away from. We are not losing anything. Going to a temple will not show empowerment. There is a lot more to women,” she says.
Beyond Hinduism: The Story Of Other Religions
While the restrictions may vary in form, other religions too have their fair share of menstrual taboos, though the restrictions may vary across cultures and religions.
Pallikal, who comes from a Christian background, says she’s never seen any space held off from menstruating women in churches.
Even though Sikhism does not have a religiously mandated concept of ‘impurity’ and therefore doesn’t place restrictions on menstruating women, often cultural biases can colour religious practices, poet and activist Harnidh Kaur points out.
“Sikhism doesn’t have any restrictions on menstruating women. In fact, multiple verses in the Guru Granth Sahib reiterate the dignity of women, especially during the cycle,” says Kaur. “Of course, culture and religion can often end up being at crosshairs. Culturally, many Sikh communities may try to push restrictions on women, but it’s not a religiously mandated concept of ‘impurity’- it’s something we’re trying to change everyday because all our sisters deserve the dignity and honour our religion promises them,” she says.
Similarly, Islam places restrictions on menstruating women when it comes to praying or fasting, but not beyond. Rana Safvi, a historian, says, “In Islam, women on their periods can’t pray or fast. They are also not allowed entry into mosques. But restrictions are only limited to religion, not kitchens or social and domestic responsibilities. It’s more like they are excused from praying. They have to make up for fasts later.”
Beyond cultural enforcement, the relationship of many menstruators with religion is a deeply complex structure of agency, education, capitulation to religious policing for fear of safety, body politics of control, and unquestioning faith. It’s why many educated menstruators pass on prejudices and taboos to their daughters. It’s why gates of religious places of worship are vigorously guarded against so called defilement by period blood, the very thing that gives life.
“Women are to consider themselves as tools of reproduction, in service of the family patriarch. Their sexuality is something to be utilized exclusively by men, as per their convenience. The nitty-gritties of women’s biology is something even the Gods won’t recognise, leave alone accept,” Niyaktaa says.