[The court’s ruling set off intense protests in Kerala and became a crucible for women’s rights, religious belief and state power in India. Since the verdict, no woman between the ages of 10 and 50 has managed to enter the temple, despite at least a dozen attempts. Meanwhile, women who have publicly stated their intention to visit the shrine have faced intimidation and threats.]
By
Rajeev Ramachandran and Joanna Slater
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Hindu
devotees wait in queues inside the premises of the Sabarimala temple in
the
southern state of Kerala, India, on Sunday. (Sivaram V/Reuters)
|
SABARIMALA,
India — When a famous Hindu
temple in southern India opened recently for its annual pilgrimage, it looked
less like a place of religious devotion than a spot primed for trouble. More
than 15,000 police officers monitored the area and devotees filed through a
thicket of barricades to reach the shrine.
The heavy security had a single purpose:
preparing for the moment when women once barred from the temple might attempt
to enter.
It has
been more than 50 days since India’s Supreme Court issued a historic ruling
giving all women the right to worship at the Sabarimala temple, a centuries-old
shrine that sits inside a tiger reserve in the state of Kerala and draws tens
of millions of visitors a year. The temple is devoted to Lord Ayyappa, a god
considered celibate, and women of menstruating age had been prohibited from
entering.
The court’s ruling set off intense protests
in Kerala and became a crucible for women’s rights, religious belief and state
power in India. Since the verdict, no woman between the ages of 10 and 50 has
managed to enter the temple, despite at least a dozen attempts. Meanwhile,
women who have publicly stated their intention to visit the shrine have faced
intimidation and threats.
On
Friday evening, the temple marked the start of its main two-month-long
pilgrimage season, after previously opening for two short stretches in October
and November. Trupti Desai, an activist from the state of Maharashtra, had
announced that she would arrive in Kerala early Friday with several other women
and that they would attempt to enter the temple the following day.
Desai never made it out of the airport in the
city of Kochi, which is nearly 100 miles from the temple. Taxi drivers refused
to pick up Desai and her group, fearing possible violence directed at them. A
crowd of more than 1,000 protesters assembled outside the exits to the airport,
clapping and chanting hymns to Ayyappa, preventing Desai from leaving the
arrivals area.
Many of the protesters were women opposed to
the Supreme Court’s interference in matters of Hindu observance. This protest
is about “saving our faith and that is why I came,” said Indira Krishnakumar,
who traveled to the airport from the nearby city of Ernakulam. If these women
“are to reach the temple, they will have to walk over our bodies.”
But the protests are also political. The
Bharatiya Janata Party — which holds power at the national level but only a
single seat in the Kerala legislature — has seized on the temple controversy as
a chance to present itself as the defender of Hindus and their faith. The BJP’s
leader in Kerala earlier this month called the issue a “golden opportunity.” At
Friday’s protest at Kochi airport, several state BJP leaders delivered
speeches. Eventually, after being stuck for the entire day, Desai boarded a
flight back to Maharashtra but vowed to return.
[Kerala, one of the few places where a
communist can still dream]
So far, the state government in Kerala has
pledged to uphold the court’s verdict but has refrained from enforcing it
fully, fearing clashes between protesters and police officers. Last month, the
police arrested more than 2,000 protesters at Sabarimala. On Saturday, they
arrested the leader of a right-wing Hindu group who had arrived at the temple
in the middle of the night in defiance of official restrictions. They also
arrested a senior BJP leader.
Police say that about 800 women between the
ages of 10 and 50 have registered online to visit the shrine during the
pilgrimage season, but none so far have requested official protection for the
trek, which involves a nearly three-mile walk to reach the temple. Temple
authorities, meanwhile, intend to ask the Supreme Court on Monday for more time
to implement the verdict. The Supreme Court has also agreed to hear petitions
challenging its ruling in January.
On Saturday, to reach the temple, devotees
braved bus delays and a call by right-wing Hindu groups to close all roads,
shops and businesses. “It is sad that Lord Ayyappa had become [the center] of a
controversy, but he will be here with us every step of the way,” said
Bhagyalakshmi, a 62-year-old devotee who uses only one name. She declined to
give her views on the conflict but said that she is positive that whatever
happens will be the god’s will.
Younger women devotees are still awaiting
their chance. Reshma Nishanth, a 32-year old teacher from the city of Kannur in
Kerala, has spent recent weeks making the traditional preparations for the
Sabarimala pilgrimage, including observing a 41-day fast. But after she
announced her intention to make the sacred journey, activists from right-wing
Hindu groups came to her house and even followed her to the railway station
Saturday.
“It has become more and more difficult with
[these] hooligan elements,” she said. “Those who create violence in the name of
God are not devotees at all.”
Slater reported from New Delhi
