Destruction of some Hindu temples and heritage sites in south India between 2011-2020 - A study
Research and author: Ameen Ahmed Background India is a land of temples. There are hundreds of thousands of them across the nation's landscape. While some are new, there are many that are centuries old. If you are a hiker/ trekker who likes to climb the many hills in the old Mysore region of Karnataka state, you cannot miss seeing old temples, forts and other historical structures, that have been dug up by treasure hunters. This vandalisation and destruction, has in recent years been given political colour in many states of south India. A political party and its affiliates attributed the vandalising of Hindu temples across Andhra Pradesh in 2020 to anti-Hindu religious bigots. Subsequent investigation by the state police revealed that the same was not due to bigotry but a variety of other reasons. Of the twenty eight cases of idol desecrations six were for treasure hunts (1). This essay studies instances and causes of damage to Hindu heritage sites in south India between 2011 and 20