Mobs greet women at temple
Pilgrimage path has become conflict zone
NEW DELHI • Before Hindus can climb the 18 golden steps leading to the Sabarimala Temple, a centuries-old hillside shrine in southern India, there are customs to observe.
Devotees fast for 41 days, avoiding alcohol and tobacco. They prepare bundles of goods to be tied to their heads, filling pouches with jaggery, flattened rice and turmeric powder. And they observe a ban on women of childbearing age from visiting because the shrine’s deity, Lord Ayyappa, is celibate.
Last month, after India’s Supreme Court struck down that ban, furious protests burst the calm surroundings at the Sabarimala Temple, located in a forested patch of the state of Kerala.
When the temple reopened for six days on Oct. 17, for the first time since the court’s decision, the pilgrimage path became a kind of conflict zone, pitting traditionalists against police officers who vowed to enforce the law and protect any woman who wished to visit.
At least 12 women attempted the journey. Each was met with a mob that variously shouted in her face, pummeled the police, set vehicles on fire, hurled rocks and blocked the steep, five kilometre trail leading to the temple by lying on its slippery stones. All of the women were forced to turn back.
Now, with the temple closed again for about two weeks before its peak season starts, officials are scrambling to figure out what to do. On Tuesday, India’s Supreme Court announced that it would hear petitions next month challenging its ruling. The court did not elaborate; some lawyers said it was too early to say whether the justices had been swayed by the protests but that a reversal of the ruling seemed unlikely.
For now, Krishna Kumar, a commanding officer posted near the temple, said the focus was on law and order.
“This is a huge problem,” Kumar said, “a very huge challenge for the police.”
Bhakti Pasrija Sethi, a lawyer who was involved in challenging the ban, said she was baffled by the backlash, saying the dismantling of exclusionary rules in other places of worship, like the Haji Ali, a mosque and tomb in Mumbai, or temples in west central India, were not met with the same level of vitriol.
In any case, she said, there was evidence that women had peacefully visited the Sabarimala Temple decades ago for rice-feeding ceremonies, which mark a baby’s first intake of solid foods. Other temples dedicated to Lord Ayyappa also allow women to enter, she said.
“They are giving superstition the cover of religion,” Sethi said of the protesters. “What they are doing is not religion. The Hindu religion is not teaching you violence.”