Group of male devotees protest dress code, enter temple without removing shirts in Kerala

Pathanamthitta (Kerala): A group of people entered a Lord Ayyappa temple here on Sunday without removing their shirts, protesting against the long-standing practice that requires male devotees to do so before entering the shrine.

Visuals showed the protesters — members of the SNDP Samyuktha Samara Samithi — forming a queue in front of the shrine in Perunadu managed by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) and offering prayers without removing their shirts.

The protest went off without incident, as neither the police nor the temple management objected.

The protesters later demanded a permanent end to the practice of requiring male devotees to remove their upper garments.

"The protest was peaceful. The temple management had already clarified that they had no objection if anyone entered the shrine without removing their shirts, though devotees traditionally followed the practice," a police officer said.

The protest took place months after a prominent monk called for the practice to be abolished in all temples across the state.

Swami Satchidananda, head of the renowned Sivagiri Mutt founded by social reformer Sree Narayana Guru, had described the practice as a social evil and urged its abolition, last year.

He claimed that the tradition of removing upper garments was originally introduced to verify whether men wore the "poonool" (the sacred thread worn by Brahmins).

The Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam is an organisation representing the numerically strong Ezhava community.