Protests as women enter holy temple
Violence erupted in southern India on Wednesday after two women defied traditionalists to enter one of Hinduism’s holiest temples for the first time since a landmark court ruling.
Police fired teargas, stun grenades and water cannons as clashes between rival groups erupted across the southern state of Kerala. Several officers were reportedly injured.
In September, the Supreme Court overturned a decadesold ban on women of menstruating age – deemed as those between 10 and 50 – setting foot inside the gold-plated Sabarimala temple.
In recent weeks, Hindu traditionalists – backed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party – have prevented attempts by women to access the hilltop site.
But in a surprise pre-dawn operation on Wednesday, police enabled two women to penetrate the temple and then leave again undetected.
Video images showed Kanaka Durga, 42, and Bindu, who has only one name, wearing black tunics with their heads bowed as they rushed in.
“We did not enter the shrine by climbing the 18 holy steps but went through the staff gate,” one of the women said.
Kerala’s chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said: “Women entered the shrine. Police are bound to offer protection to anyone wanting to worship there.” As soon as breach news spread, the head priest ordered the shrine closed for a purification ritual.
It reopened after an hour. Later, violent clashes were reported between scores of people chanting slogans in front of the state parliament in Thiruvananthapuram.
Police also charged at protesters who were trying to enforce a shutdown of shops in the area called for by the Sabarimala temple-hierarchy.
Modi’s government did not immediately react, but activists celebrated.
“Watching the visuals of them making their way into the shrine makes me cry in joy – how long it has taken for us to claim space, to write our way into history,” feminist author Meena Kandasamy wrote on Twitter.
Rahul Easwar, a right-wing activist in Kerala, condemned the state authorities for helping organise the secret operation.
“Such cheap tactics are unbecoming of a state government,” he said on Twitter.
September’s verdict was the latest progressive ruling from the court, with judges also overturning bans on gay sex and adultery last year.
In rare comments regarding the Sabarimala temple on Tuesday, Modi appeared to support the ban, saying the matter was related to tradition.