Since September, all women are allowed access to the Sabarimala Temple in the state of Kerala. Activists tried until last Wednesday again and again in vain to get to the shrine for the god Ayyappa. They are held by angry Hindu hardliners who sometimes engage in violent clashes with the police. There were hundreds of arrests and now a death.
The Federal Foreign Office advises India travelers that they "should inform themselves about possible planned protests, stay away from them and obey the instructions of local security forces." The British Foreign Office also recommends that its citizens be attentive and avoid large crowds. The Indian state is popular with tourists at this time of the year.
On Wednesday, for the first time, two women secretly gained access to the temple - sparking angry protests from Hindu traditionalists, including women, in several cities. The two 42-year-olds continued to be under police protection on Friday. Shortly after the visit was made, the supreme priest ordered the temple to be closed to carry out a "cleansing ritual". After an hour he was reopened.
On Thursday, a third woman, a Sinhalese, has been praying in the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala, according to police. "She is 47 years old and came as a believer," said police officer Balram Kumar Upadhyay on Friday the news agency AFP. This again provoked fierce protests in several Indian cities. According to Upadhyay, the police were informed about the visit and were watching the situation.
A dead man in clashes
Nearly 1,370 people were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday in clashes between Hindu hardliners and the police. One person was killed and 15 others injured. The police used tear gas, water cannon and stun grenades.
Stone-throwing demonstrators reportedly destroyed the windows of 99 buses, causing damage estimated at 33.5 million rupees (421,000 euros). Twenty offices of the Kerala ruling Communist Party of India were attacked after party summons. Following the violence on Thursday, the police imposed a curfew in the towns of Palakkad and Kasargod.
Numerous conservative Hindu movements and the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi objected to the Supreme Court ruling. Kerala Prime Minister Pinarayi Vijayan accused the BJP and the Hindu hardline group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of wanting to turn the Sabarimala temple into a "combat zone". Women who demanded access to the temple would be attacked, criticized Vijayan. Zorn also directed against journalists and the police.
During the protests, self-made explosives were thrown into the homes of politicians, the police said on Saturday, according to Indian media. First a member of the Communist Party was affected, then a BJP politician and an RSS member. There were neither injuries nor damage.
The Sabarimala Temple on a mountain in south Indian Kerala is one of the holiest temples of the Hindus. The country's Supreme Court overturned the ban on women between the ages of 10 and 50 to the temple in September following a year-long legal battle. This was based not only in Hinduism the assumption that menstruating women are "impure". Add to this the traditional belief that Ayyappa lived in celibacy.