How religion and women's rights clash at Sabarimala: NYT journo's story

'In India, the people's belief is more important than any law,' said Devidas Sethumadhavan, a district officer in Kerala for the RSS

As a woman and a man climbed a steep trail on Thursday leading to one of Hinduism’s holiest temples, a mob multiplied with frightening speed.

From a point farther up the path, several hundred men screamed at the woman, insisting that she immediately turn back from visiting the Sabarimala Temple, a centuries-old shrine in southern India. When the pair of visitors, both journalists for The New York Times, decided to descend, the crowd rushed at them, hurled rocks and pummeled two dozen police officers.

“Madam, you don’t be afraid, O.K.?” Habeeb Ullah, one of the police officers, told one of the journalists,