Tourists in India warned to avoid crowds as tension over temple ban mounts.

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UK tells holidaymakers to ‘remain vigilant’ amid simmering row about women’s access to Sabarimala shrine in Kerala.

Hindu activists in Delhi burn an effigy of the Keralan chief minister in a protest over allowing women to enter Sabarimala temple. Photograph: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images
▼ Britain has warned tourists visiting the southern Indian state of Kerala to be vigilant and avoid large crowds after sporadic violence in recent days over the admission of women to one of Hinduism’s holiest temples.
In updated travel advice, the Foreign Office advised UK nationals in Kerala, popular with tourists particularly at this time of year, to “monitor media reports closely, remain vigilant and avoid large public gatherings”.
The Sabarimala temple has been at the centre of a prolonged  showdownbetween traditionalists and authorities since September, when India’s top court overturned a ban on women of menstruating age – deemed as those aged 10 to 50 – setting foot inside.
After several weeks of hardliners preventing women from accessing the hilltop temple, at times violently, earlier this week two women managed to sneak inside before dawn and become the first to worship there since the landmark ruling.
A third woman from Sri Lanka said she entered the temple on Thursday night but this was disputed by the temple authorities, who performed a “purification” ritual after the two other women made their way into the shrine.
The entry of the women has sparked days of clashes across Kerala involving enraged Hindu devotees, (▪ ▪ ▪)

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