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NEW DELHI (AP) – A temple in southern India, one of the largest Hindu pilgrimage centers in the world, opened its doors to women of childbearing age on Wednesday to comply with the decision of the Supreme Court, but women were unable to enter the protesters fought in street fighting with the police to prevent them from entering.
As the doors of the Sabarimala Temple opened, a crowd of worshipers rushed to the temple. About 1,000 policemen used truncheons to try to control protesters, who attacked and damaged police and television vehicles, and urged devotees to take on the feat.
Police arrested 11 protesters while they were trying to block the passage of some women.
Pooja Prasaanna, of Republic TV channel, said the protesters threw stones at a police van where she and her crew members had been sheltering after their car was were targeted and had seized batons carried by police officers who had tried to protect them.
The New Delhi television channel reported that about twenty protesters surrounded a bus in which a Newsminute News reporter was traveling and attempted to get her out. The journalist was hit by angry protesters who insulted him, NDTV reported.
The entry of women aged 10 to 50 in the centenary temple was banned informally for many years, then by law in 1972.
In 1991, the High Court of Kerala upheld the ban. The Supreme Court of India lifted the ban last month, saying that equality was the rule, regardless of age and sex.
Temple management and protesters say that the unmarried nature of the temple deity, Lord Ayyappa, is protected by the Indian Constitution. Some religious figures consider that women who have their period are impure.
Meghna Pant, an activist, said that the celibacy of the deity was not more important than the equality of women. "Who are the men to decide where women can go or not?" She said.
Proponents of the ban were irritated by the state government's decision not to seek a review of the Supreme Court's decision.
Rahul Easwar, a temple attorney, urged dedicated women not to enter the temple and to give the temple authorities another petition before next week to file a petition for review in the Supreme Court.
Sabarimala is surrounded by mountains and dense forests, at the location of the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Nearly 50 million worshipers visit the temple each year.
A number of temples in India have banned women, saying the policy was aimed at preserving the purity of their sanctuaries. Operators of a state temple in northwestern Rajasthan believe that the Hindu god Kartikeya insults women who enter the temple instead of blessing them.
Indian secular courts have recently intervened in cases in which the beliefs of a religion were considered discriminatory.
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