Nine small steps taken by a woman to enter and offer prayers at a famous Shani shrine at a village in Ahmednagar district in 'breach' of the age-old practice of prohibiting entry of women has prompted the temple committee to suspend seven security men and the villagers to form purification rituals.
The woman climbed the security barricade to the 'chauthara' (platform) where the idol is installed and offered prayers yesterday, before disappearing in the crowd.
Startled by this 'breach' of the age-old practice of prohibiting women from offering prayers to the Shani idol, the temple committee swung into action today and suspended seven security personnel.
Villagers also performed a 'dudh abhishek' (milk purification) of the idol today and observed a 'bandh' in the morning to protest the incident.
However, the woman's action has been lauded by various quarters, including women and social organisations.
"She should be felicitated for doing what she did," Congress MLA from Solapur Praniti Shinde said.
"I will raise the issue in the Winter session of Legislature, beginning in Nagpur next month," Praniti, daughter of former Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, said.
"We welcome the daring shown by the woman in offering prayers. The incident is revolutionary. The 'chauthara' should be thrown open for women," said Ranjanan Gavande, Ahmednagar district unit president of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (committee for eradication of blind faith).
Social activist Mangal Khinvsara said, "Constitution Day was celebrated recently and the woman who breached the security wall to offer prayers has only embodied the spirit of Constitution which ensures gender equality."
The idol of 'Shani Devsthan', a black rock over five feet tall, installed on a platform without a roof, sits at the heart of the Shani Shingnapur village in Ahmednagar district.
It is this temple that strengthens the local tradition of not installing doors and locks to the village houses. Once a humble affair, the temple has now grown into a large trust with extensive property and donations that run into lakhs.
But it still does not have a door, much like most homes of the 4,000-odd residents of the village, where empty door frames mark the entrance to houses.
The Bhumata brigade, a women's outfit spearheading the
campaign against the ban on female devotees entering the sacred platform at Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis seeking his support to the move, after police foiled their attempt to storm the shrine.
The rights group's high-voltage campaign was stalled on the Republic Day when police stopped the marchers at Supa village, 70 km away from the shrine.
Political parties and spiritual gurus across the country have also backed their campaign, with Congress saying that it is the "pious duty" of whole society to support such a move.
A group of Muslim women on Thursday staged a protest in Mumbai demanding entry into a restricted area of the Haji Ali dargah.
Several activists belonging to Muslim women rights groups held placards demanding entry for females into the core area of the historic dargah, alleged it was "male patriarchy", and not religion, which was imposing restrictions on women.
They also said the practice went against tenets of Islam and the Indian Constitution.
A Muslim women's rights group is locked in a legal battle with trustees of the Haji Ali dargah, which has barred women's entry into mosque's mausoleum.
A petition challenging the Haji Ali Trust's decision to ban the entry of women in the sanctum sanctorum of the dargah (grave of a male Muslim saint) is pending before the Bombay High Court.
On January 18, the HC said it would wait for the Supreme Court's ruling on entry of women in Sabarimala temple of Kerala before deciding on the plea related to the dargah.
At Sabarimala, which attracts millions of devotees during the peak pilgrim season in November to January, women of menstrual age are not allowed to go up the holy hillock and worship.
A few years back, a huge controversy erupted after a Kannada film actress claimed that she had worshipped at the hillshrine in the prime of her youth.
