One of two women who entered Kerala's Sabarimala temple before daybreak on January 2 has allegedly been attacked by her mother-in-law. The woman, Kanakadurga, returned to her home in Perinthalmanna early on Tuesday morning. Sources close to her family said she and her mother-in-law fought over the fact that she'd entered the temple, whose deity, Lord Ayyappa, is considered by devotees to be eternally celibate. Kanakadurga's mother-in-law allegedly hit her on the head, but she was not seriously injured. She was taken to the Perinthalmanna taluk hospital, and is in stable condition. Until the Supreme Court struck down the Sabarimala temple's entry ban on women aged between 10 and 50 last year, Kanakadurga would have been unable to visit. And for months after the top court ruled against the ban, protests prevented women of most ages from travelling to the Sabarimala temple. But Kanakadurga and Bindu went to the shrine this month. Their visit sparked protests in Kerala. Both women spoke to India Today TV on the day of their visit to the temple. "We followed our legal right as women," Kanakadurga said. A QUICK RECAP: The mother-in-law of Kanakadurga, one of two women who entered the Sabarimala temple in the first week of 2019, allegedly attacked her. But she was not seriously injured. The Supreme Court struck down the Lord Ayyappa shrine's entry ban on women aged between 10 and 50 last year. Inputs from Shalini Lobo<doc-sep>According to the temple's mythology, Lord Ayyappa is an avowed bachelor who has taken an oath of celibacy. Devotees say the ban on women of "menstruating age" was in keeping with the wish of the deity who is believed to have laid down clear rules about the pilgrimage to seek his blessings.<doc-sep>Kanaka Durga, who returned to her husband’s house at Angadipuram in Malappuram district on Tuesday (15 January), was reportedly hit on her head by her mother-in-law. When Bindu Ammini and Kanaka Durga announced their decision to attend the Aarppo Arthavam, an event celebrating menstruation, at Kochi last week, many expected the right-wing activists to mob the venue and unleash their ire on the duo for defying the ban on menstruating women from entering the Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa temple. The organisers were surprised to see that the activists who had unleashed a reign of terror after the two made history by becoming the first women to enter the temple after Supreme Court lifted the ban on 28 September made no effort to even stage a protest outside the venue. Emboldened by this, the two who had gone into hiding since entering the temple on 2 January returned home. While Bindu was given a warm welcome at her home and at her workplace, Kanaka Durga was greeted by angry family members. Kanaka Durga, who returned to her husband’s house at Angadipuram in Malappuram district on Tuesday (15 January), was reportedly hit on her head by her mother-in-law. According to Perinthalmanna police, the 42-year-old woman is undergoing treatment at Perinthalmanna district hospital for the injury she has suffered in the attack. Sources in the police station said that they have registered a case under section 341 and 324 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) on a complaint lodged by Kanaka Durga and the investigation was going on. Meanwhile, her mother-in-law has also got admitted to the same hospital alleging that she was attacked by Kanaka Durga. She alleged that Kanaka Durga had attacked her when she asked her not to enter the house. However, police said they had not received any report from the hospital authorities in this connection. Kanaka Durga was not immediately available for comments. She was quoted by Manorama News channel as saying that she was beaten with a wooden rod by her mother-in-law when she went to her husband’s house in the morning. She said that she had pain all over her body. However, Bindu who was with Kanaka Durga at an undisclosed destination for the last two weeks said the incident was not serious. “I could not talk to Kanaka Durga after the incident. However, I have learnt from her friends that the attack was a natural reaction. The orthodox family has not been able to come to terms with her action of breaking the temple’s customs and rituals,” Bindu said. Family members of not only Kanaka Durga’s husband but also her own family were against her decision to go to Sabarimala. She left her husband’s home in the second week of December saying she was going to Thiruvananthapuram to attend a meeting. When she did not return after a few days, her husband filed a missing person complaint. The family was shocked when media flashed reports about her attempt to visit the hill shrine on 24 December along with Bindu. The two, who came within 500 metres of the temple, were forced by the police to turn back following protests. They reluctantly returned after police promised to help them enter the temple later. Kanaka Durga’s brother Bharat Bhushan had alleged conspiracy by the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Kottayam Superintendent of Police Harinshakar in taking his sister to Sabarimala. Bhushan told the Times of India that Kanaka Durga had been kept at a hideout in Kannur for one week after the failed attempt and police had not allowed the family even to contact her. Bharath Bhushan alleged that police officer did not respond to the repeated pleas of her relatives to reveal the location where she was kept under custody. He had expressed suspicion that she was kept under the protection of CPM workers somewhere in Kannur, with the support of police. Family of Kanaka Durga is a traditional CPM supporter and they are also active workers of Nair Service Society (NSS). Bharath Bhushan said that the entire family and relatives of Kanaka Durga are unhappy over the latest developments and they are against violation of the rituals. Kanaka Durga, a commerce graduate, is a strong CPM supporter. She is associated with Purogamana Kala Sahithya Sangham (PuKaSa) and a member of Valluvanad Samskarika Vedi based in Angadippuram. She has written many articles in magazines and weeklies under the pen name Durga Areekode and Durga Angadippuram. She is currently working as assistant manager of Civil Supplies Corporation outlet at Anamangad near Perinthalmanna. Bindu and Kanaka Durga made the bold attempt to enter the temple after about a dozen women beat a retreat following protests by right-wing activists, including BJP and RSS workers. Before them all the women who reached the base station at Pampa were blocked by thousands of protestors and their houses were attacked. Many were also blocked on the way. Trupti Desai, a gender equality campaigner who came from Mumbai, was not even allowed to step outside the Kochi airport. The two had expected attack from the protestors when they come out of the hiding. Bindu, who returned to her home on 14 January, said she was surprised that none of the protestors had tried to trouble her after she reached home. On the contrary, she was hailed by people in her neighbourhood and workplace. Bindu, who is working as assistant professor in the legal studies department of Kannur University, said the she had gone to her office by foot and none had raised any protest against her on her way. “My fellow teachers and students in the office showered me with praises,” she said. Activists had hailed the two women for the courage they displayed in defying the protestors. Social reformer and spiritual leader Swami Agnivesh described the entry of the two women in the temple as an act of exemplary bravery against the obscurantist, discriminative custom imposed on Sabarimala by Brahmanical patriarchy. He alleged that the resistance against the entry of women was spearheaded by the BJP and the Sangh Parivar for their political gains. Swami Agnivesh said that the BJP campaign is part of a desperate attempt by the RSS and the BJP to infiltrate into Kerala to compensate for the huge erosion in their popularity in North India. “Kerala is paying the price for Modi’s lust for power and the maniacal desire to hang on. I have good reasons to believe that the Sangh Parivar will meet it with its Waterloo in ‘God’s own Country‘. Ironically, the slap on its face will be dealt not by a decorated military leader, but the discriminated-against women of Kerala, who have gained for themselves a voice and a mission that their counterparts in India need to emulate,” Swami Agnivesh said.<doc-sep>
Protesters forced two women in their 30s to turn back halfway from the hilltop shrine of Sabarimala in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta on Wednesday, days after two others became the first to offer prayers at the shrine in centuries. Reshma Nishanth and Shanila Sajesh, residents of Kannur, covered almost half of the 5.5-kilometre trek to the temple but were intercepted by angry devotees in the morning. Live Updates Dressed in men’s clothes, they used the lean time early in the morning to dodge protesters and started trekking at 5am. Both of them said they came after police promised protection. They managed to trek for some time but were identified and encircled by the protesters as they walked up. Police then arrested five of the protesters and the women continued trekking for some time. They were stopped in Neelimala as large numbers of protesters lay on the path leading to the temple to stop them from going further. The drama continued for two hours and police removed them forcibly. Police pleaded helplessness as the situation turned tense, saying it was beyond their control and took the women to Pambha, the base camp, after they were blocked. State’s temple minister Kadakampally Surendran said preventing the women, who came after taking the vow and fasted for the pilgrimage, was “really deplorable”. Surendran said the government did not want to create a scene so police took utmost restraint in handling the protesters. “We don’t need any certificate from Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi whose party is on a mission to annihilate people in the name of the cow,” the minister said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on Kerala government on its handling of the Sabarimala controversy, saying the Communists didn’t respect India’s culture and spiritual traditions. He also slammed the Congress for taking multiple stands on the issue. Modi hit out at the LDF government led by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the opposition spearheaded by the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in the state, said both the fronts were two sides of the same coin. “We know that the Communists do not respect India’s culture, history, and spirituality,” Modi said at a public meeting in Kollam. Turning to the Congress, he said: “They say one thing in Parliament and another in Pathanamthitta.” He added that “they are only different in name but are similar when it comes to corruption, casteism, communalism and in damaging the cultural fabric of Kerala.” Modi said at a public rally in the state capital, his first in south India with barely three months left for the crucial general election, that the state government’s conduct on Sabarimala will go down in the history as one of the most shameful. Both the CPI(M) and Opposition Congress criticised the Prime Minister’s comments on Sabarimala. The Supreme Court in September last year allowed women of all ages to worship at the Sabarimala shrine, overturning a centuries-old traditional ban on women of childbearing age from entering the temple. Female devotees aged between 10 and 50 had for decades been barred from the shrine on grounds that the presiding deity Lord Ayyappa is a celibate, and the top court’s ruling enraged traditionalists in Kerala. The Left Democratic Front government led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said it was determined to uphold the court verdict. On January 2, two women in their 40s became the first to worship at the shrine on Wednesday, triggering unrest in many parts of Kerala. One of them, Kanaka Durga, was attacked by her mother-in-law on her return home on Monday. She was admitted in a hospital at Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district.