From: Outlook
hyderabad: charminar row
Mushroom Minarette
The ‘shrine’ by the Charminar offended for years as the city’s heritage bosses didn’t react
Madhavi Tata
It has been for Hyderabad what India Gate is for Delhi and the Howrah Bridge is for Calcutta, a symbol of the city’s rich heritage. The 56-metre-tall Charminar, built in the late 16th century, graces almost every brochure about Hyderabad; the area around it is described as a bargain-seeker’s paradise. Now, it has become ground zero for the city’s latest communal conflict. The bone of contention is the small temple constructed beside the Charminar, and abutting on one of its four minars.
Even in 2010, the temple was much smaller, the police presence minimal. The structure, with its surrounding bamboo poles and canopy, is difficult to miss now, and a police checkpost tells of the simmering tension in the area. Large trees that flanked the Charminar police station and kept it out of view have been cut down, as if to afford a better field of view and deter trouble-mongers. Small traders like Sheikh Abdul Ghani say the Bhagyalakshmi temple’s size has increased over the last one-and-half years: “Woh grill aur canopy, lakdi, poore dedh saal mein aaye.”
An 8-by-10-feet structure flanked by bamboo frames with a tarpaulin-covered roof almost stuck in front of the Charminar’s south-eastern minar, the controversial Bhagyalakshmi temple is protected by a 24-hour police checkpost, and is open from 5 am to 10 pm. A company of 85 RAF men, 20 APSP officers, and mobile police vans patrol the area.
“I’ve visited the Charminar since the late ’50s; there was no temple. A small shrine had come up only in the late ’60s.”Anuradha Reddy, State INTACH convenor
The 10-feet-high temple has a steady stream of visitors, mostly local Marwaris from Ghansi Bazaar, Hussani Alam, Ali Jah Kotla and nearby areas—mostly goldsmiths and small traders. Some tourists to the Charminar also visit it. On Fridays, the rush of devotees is high. The temple has two parts, one occupied by the goddess’s idol, the other a storage room. It also has running water and electricity. On the inner side of the same south-eastern minar, next to the entrance, is the Hazrat Ghouse-e-Azam Dastagir chillah, where Muslims offer prayers. The minar and the temple face the Nizamia General Hospital.
On the night of October 31, the lime screen (or jaali) on the roshan daan of the minar was broken to accommodate the fixing of a tin roof for the temple. Trouble brewed soon afterwards. In the violence that followed over the next two weeks, vehicles were burnt, people assaulted and shops closed down.
A well-known ASI stipulation prohibits the building of any kind of structure within 100 metres of a protected monument. But the Bhagyalakshmi temple seems to have slipped through such a stricture, helped, no doubt, by the apathy and negligence of authorities.
