Editor's pick of the day - Tensions high in Kerala as Sabarimala Temple opens gates for all believers

Women's bodies have been treated as battlefields for as long as we can remember. Regardless of cultural and religious contexts, a woman is hardly, if ever, more than an interpreted idea of purity and impurity.

While on the one hand, females are celebrated as goddesses and forces of creation in our country, they are also the ones regarded as second-class citizens, often not even allowed to be born. If India is a bundle of contradictions, exhibit A is its relationship with women.

As the #Metoo upheaval rages across our news feeds, and crimes against women spiral out of control, somehow, the headline of the day is whether women of menstrual age will be allowed into Sabarimala by the protesting devotees. 

Even as we were putting this podcast together, tension was rife in Kerala at Nilakkal, the main gateway to Sabarimala, after police personnel dispersed protestors opposing the entry of girls and women of menstrual age into the shrine. This is unfolding despite a historic Supreme Court ruling last month that lifted a centuries-old ban on girls and women of menstruating age from visiting the temple.

Kerala's Sabarimala temple is scheduled to open today for devotees, in the backdrop of the judgement. The custom, as you probably know, was challenged by a clutch of petitioners who argued that women cannot be denied the constitutional right to worship. The events of today constitute the crux of our Pick of the Day.