Sabarimala closes doors, stares at Nov challenge
ON MONDAY, TWO WOMEN, INCLUDING A DALIT ACTIVIST, TRIED TO ENTER THE TEMPLE BUT HAD TO GO BACK DUE TO PROTESTS
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Kerala’s Sabarimala temple closed its doors till next month on Monday after a five-day ritual, but strong protests by traditionalists made sure female devotees between 10 and 50 years could not enter the hilltop shrine despite last month’s Supreme Court order that allowed women of all ages to pray at the holy site.
At least 12 women, including journalists and activists, tried to trek to the temple nestled in the greenery of the Western Ghats during this period; two of them were just 50 metres away from the sanctum sanctorum. In the end all of them were turned away by a wall of resistance mounted by protesters who claim women of menstrual age cannot enter the shrine because the presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is considered celibate.
In New Delhi, the top court hinted that it will decide on Tuesday when or whether to take up a clutch of petitions against its September 28 judgment that said divinity and devotion cannot be subjected to the rigidity and stereotypes of gender.
Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), responsible for the administration of the 800-yearold temple, said it will file a status report in the Supreme Court after the recent protests in which devotees clashed with police, damaged buses and even intimidated journalists.
The next challenge for the temple administration will be a three-month annual pilgrimage season beginning in the second week of November.
According to TDB, 35 million visited the temple last year in this period.
Kerala’s Left government has faced criticism by the opposition Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, as well as some fringe groups, over the handling of the emotive and religiously sensitive issue, but chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has stressed that his administration is committed to implementing the top court order.
Braving heavy rains on Monday, two women, including a Dalit activist, tried to enter the temple even as police promised them protection. In a story familiar by now, they too had to retreat in the face of angry protests.
Tension continued to stalk the base camps of Nilakkal and Pamba, from where the 5-km trek to the shrine begins, despite authorities imposing restrictions under Section 144 of CrPC that prohibits the gathering of more than four people.
Bhanumati Amma, a 62-yearold woman who has been camping near the 18 holy steps that lead to the sanctum sanctorum, said, “If a woman enters the temple, she will have to go over my body.”