India temple turned into fortress for gender battle

PAMBA, India: Indian police mounted a major security operation Friday to prevent hardliners blocking women from entering one of Hinduism´s holiest shrines despite a court order. Police in riot gear had escorted two out of a handful of women wanting access to within 500 metres (yards) of the temple but were forced to turn around.

Some 2,000 people were later arrested. The temple, reached via a long trek through a tiger reserve up a long mud path that devotees are meant to walk barefoot, opened again late Friday a day ahead of a two-month Hindu festive period. Among the several hundred thousand devotees who have registered online to visit between now and mid-January are 700 women.

This time Kerala´s communist government is determined to ensure there is no repeat of October´s ugly scenes. More than 3,400 police, many in riot gear, lined routes to the temple on Friday. “We will deploy over 15,200 police around the temple for the entire season up to January 15,” Kerala police spokesman Pramod Kumar told AFP.

Press reports said the police were even considering using helicopters to take women to the site. Activists say that the ban at Sabarimala reflects an old view that connects menstruation with impurity. The traditionalists argue that women are allowed in most Hindu temples and the practice at Sabarimala is part of their tradition, and not anti-women.