The Kashi Vishvanath temple and Gyan Vapi mosque compound in Banaras (Varanasi) in north India, is the prism through which in this talk I discuss heritage paradoxes, experiences of insecurity and inter-religious relationships in Hindu nationalist India. The Kashi Vishvanath temple is a major pan-Indian pilgrimage destination thronged by thousands of Hindu devotees daily. Around fifty meters from it, stands the Gyanvapi mosque—a Mughal imperial structure that is today a lively place of worship for local Sunnis. Due to its controversial history, the site is a longstanding target of campaigns to ‘reclaim’ supposedly originally Hindu places of worship and since the 1990s Gyanvapi has been explicitly targeted with destruction by Hindu nationalists. As a consequence of these campaigns, the mosque and, progressively the whole neighbourhood around the temple-mosque compound, became heavily policed. Access to both places of worship is regulated by security measures at various checkpoints; though, as my research suggests, the hyper-securitisation of the mosque barely seem to mitigate experiences of insecurity among local Muslims. In addition, in 2017 a controversial and ambitious development project began being implemented around the site by the muscular Hindu nationalist government with the stated objective of creating a new ‘heritage zone’ around Kashi Vishvanath, and is likely to further marginalise Muslims. Combining textual and visual analysis with ethnographic research conducted at the site since 2013 I trace a multi-layered history of sharing and contesting at the site, and the progressive making of Gyanvapi as, what I call, an ‘unperceived mosque’

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