“BHAGYALAKSHMI” TEMPLE AT CHARMINAR
This is one classic example of how the Hindutva forces upon Muslims an agenda entirely of Hindutva’s choosing. I was visiting Hyderabad during the period 1953-1990. This temple did NOT exist at the Charminar. Either there was or someone then placed a stone [about 2’x2′] at one sharp corner of Charminar [nearly as Harathi Srinivasa Dikshit endorses elsewhere on this page]. And this obviously became a bone of contention. Either it suited the governments to let the dispute grow or they lacked the courage to remove this. If I remember right, one day a bus – perhaps driven by a Muslim driver – hit that protruding stone which rolled off a few feet.
The Hindutva forces created a furore and circumscribed the entire area till the location of the fall of the stone. Even then it was merely a single stone fencing. By and by they went on adding to it, and now what you have is a proper temple, and a completely illegal structure. Worse, as far as I remember, there is, inside the Charminar, a proper mosque built along with the structure. But in the name of archaeological preservation, Muslims are not allowed to pray there.
Those who blame Babri as an illegal structure, have in our day and time, erected a completely illegal structure with THE SOLE OBJECTIVE OF CREATING COMMUNAL DISCORD. I stand by every word of this accusation on the basis of my personal observation and memories. And remember, I have been an adversary of the MIM all through. No wonder this has come as a handy tool for polarization to the Muslim communalist party, MIM. And on this count, at least I cannot blame them. They have almost 100% support. [Sometimes I should wish to think that it is the MIM which is funding the Hindutva to do so, for nothing could have come to their hands more fittingly!]
I invite Hyderabad specialists like Geetali Tare, Sudheer Kumar, Harathi, @ikram ahmed etc to share their memories of the evolution of this temple. And then I invite all TAHZEEBians to opine how to deal with this situation. If we have enough responses perhaps we can develop an electronic petition for the courts and the government. I am pasting two more pictures from the Hindu, [reproduced by @ikram ahmed] comparing Charminar with and without that temple. And the third one, is of the temple as it now stands. Since the Hindutva has promoted the Dalit brethren to do this, how earnestly I invite the reaction of our Dalit members to join this discussion.
Please share this post specially with our Dalit brethren. It has been the policy of the Hindutva elements [and these are soft saffronites within the Congress] to set the Dalits against Muslims. They typically would allot the main playground in a Muslim locality [as they did in Asifnagar where we used to play as children] for a Dalit housing colony. This the Muslims would oppose, and the communities would be at loggerhead. The upper caste Hindus would stand aside and laugh while these poor Hindus and their equally poor Muslim brethren would keep fighting. Now, imagine, Muslims fighting for the removal/curtailment of this temple… will be seen as transgressors and intolerant, and even if it is eventually removed, after a long long struggle, it will be projected by the BJP as major appeasement of the Muslims. It would have anyway antagonized the Dalits no end.
The nation would have conveniently been distracted from the agenda of empowering Muslims, and instead kept them busy with non-issues. This sadly is their ‘smart’ strategy. These anti-Indians, unfortunately, halt India’s progress in the process.
