Almost three months after the Supreme Court passed the judgement allowing women of all ages to enter Sabarimala temple in Kerala, Bindu Ammini and Kanakadurga became the first women, below the age of 50 years, to climb the hill shrine and offer darshan. This comes hours after more than 30 lakh women had lined up on the streets of Kerala to form a Wall of Renaissance on Tuesday.

Once the Kerala Chief Minister confirmed the reports of two women in their forties visiting the shrine under police protection, tension hung heavy in the air across Kerala, with the temple priests even performing a ‘purification’  ritual. Soon, protests started erupting in several districts of Kerala, including violent protests in Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad, with the police resorting to tear gas and water cannons. The Sabarimala Karma Samithi even called for a state-wide, dawn-to-dusk hartal on Thursday.

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