Bhagyalakshmi, Hyderabad

The Bhagyalakshmi temple at the southeastern leg of the Charminar at Hyderabad, Telangana — a 20th-century Shakti shrine (installed around 1960s but claimed in modern Hindu tradition as a pre-Charminar foundation). The temple's position directly against the 1591 Charminar's southeast pillar makes it one of India's most politically-contested religious sites — the 2012 Communal Riots in Hyderabad centred on the question of whether the Bhagyalakshmi shrine's expansion (adding permanent walls to what had been a wayside shrine) legally violated the Charminar's protected monument status. The temple is central to the Hyderabad Hindu identity politics of the AIMIM-BJP contests. The All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and BJP politics in Hyderabad make the shrine a lightning rod of urban communal politics. ASI protection applies to the Charminar but the temple sits in a disputed zone.