Angry villagers blocked a group of women activists from entering the inner sanctum of a temple in Maharashtra yesterday, despite a court order mandating Hindu women’s right to worship.
The Bombay High Court said on Friday women had a fundamental right to enter temples and directed authorities not to bar them from any Hindu place of worship across Maharashtra.
Buoyed by the court order, a group of about 30 women activists tried to enter the shrine of Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district yesterday.
But hundreds of villagers - both male and female - who believe in the centuries-old tradition of barring women from entering the shrine formed a human wall, forcing the female protesters to retreat.
“The honourable court has recognised our right to pray. Police must provide us protection and allow us to enter the shrine,” Trupti Desai, the activists’ leader, told TV channels.
“We will not leave without entering the platform (where the Shani idol is kept),” she said amid chaotic scenes on the temple grounds.
The chaos degenerated into a free for all with the resolute activists being pushed around, roughed up and assaulted by the villagers, and police virtually barricading the temple complex.
In the ensuing melee, in which some village and temple administrators reportedly joined, Desai sustained minor injuries while a former legislator Bhanudas Murkute was beaten up.
A determined Desai warned if the women were stopped, she would lodge a complaint against the officials.
“Why is police remaining silent? Was Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis lying when the assurance was made before the court? He should have issued the necessary orders as submitted to the court; why was it not done? Should we lodge a police complaint even against Fadnavis?” she asked.
Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Women’s Commission president Chitra Wagh cancelled her proposed symbolic trip to the temple after a request by the temple administration, and as “I did not want to create a law and order situation.”
A few Hindu temples in India ban women from entering the inner sanctum, with Kerala’s famous Sabarimala temple barring all female worshippers aged between 10 and 50 years.
The court also said on Friday that state authorities must implement a 1956 law on Hindu worship, which stipulates that a person who prevents women from entering a temple can be imprisoned for six months.
The court’s directive came after Desai challenged the ban and called it “a symbol of gender inequality” that should not be tolerated in the 21st century.
Activists including Trupti Desai gather as they attempt to enter the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar, some 200km east of Mumbai yesterday.
