For months, attempts to enact that ruling had been thwarted, with female devotees blocked entry to the temple site by angry mobs.
That changed on Wednesday, when two women made history by slipping into the shrine before daybreak, flanked by plainclothes police deputed to protect them.
Ever since the court handed down its order, advocates for gender equality — both in and beyond Kerala — have been calling for it to be implemented. They see the restriction on the entry of women between ages of 10 and 50 as one of the many vestiges of discrimination against women in India.
But religious conservatives and their backers insist that, no, this isn’t about gender equality — it’s about the limits of law. For them, the court had no business intervening in the issue, which they see as a matter of religion and faith.
It’s a view endorsed by the country’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who leads the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
To be sure, he’s not alone. Other voices from across the political spectrum have echoed this line, including local and national leaders of the Congress, the principal opposition to Modi’s BJP.
With India just months away from a general election, the issue has, perhaps inevitably, become more and more politicized, as national parties eye the votes of conservative Hindus who oppose the court’s ruling.
Not everyone shares that view. The local communist politicians who govern Kerala state, from the Communist Party of India-Marxist, have backed the court order — and helped organize the human chain protest.
Divisions over the issue have already turned fatal. A BJP supporter was killed during protests in Kerala’s capital over the entry of the two women, as activists from the Prime Minister’s party clashed with those allied with local communist leadership. Kerala remains tense, with security forces out in large numbers in an attempt to maintain peace.
And later this month, the argument returns to court, when Supreme Court judges review petitions calling on them to revisit their September ruling. The hearing is set for January 22.
Whatever they decide, one thing seems clear: Many people, on one or the other side of what’s become an increasingly fractious public argument, will be left disappointed.
Source : Nbcnewyork