Gods in the commons: Noida’s norms ‘on paper’, temples on the ground |
On a bright February morning in Sector 15-A, one of Noida’s oldest and most affluent neighbourhoods, around 50 residents gathered in Vrindavan Park for what they called a picnic. They carried posters asking to protect the environment and wore T-shirts that read, “Let the parks be.” The amenities surrounding them – a synthetic-floor basketball court, a swimming pool, a club – spoke to the comfortable lives of those who live here.
There was a dispute that brought them out: a group of residents, backed by their RWA, had approached the Noida Authority to request that a portion of this park be set aside for a temple. The authority had agreed, carving out a 300-square-metre plot and inviting bids for its auction as a religious site.
Other residents – the ones now gathered in the park – had responded by filing a petition in the Allahabad High Court to have the auction stayed. What divided this largely Hindu, upper-middle-class enclave was the question of whether a community park built in 1981 should become a temple in 2024.
Sector 15-A is not a story about one park or one temple. It is a window into something that has been quietly reshaping the social geography of urban India’s newest residential colonies – the slow, sometimes forceful conversion of shared space into sacred space, from Sector 137 to Sector 75 to Greater Noida’s Tech Zone 4.
There is a pattern that is sustained, in part, by a governance gap. Under the Uttar Pradesh Apartment (Promotion of Construction, Ownership and Maintenance) Act, 2010, a temple can only be built in a housing society after the Apartment Owners Association (AOA) holds a general body meeting and secures the approval of residents. In practice, Rajesh Sahay, Secretary General of the Noida Federation of Apartment Owner Associations (NOFAA), acknowledges, this process is routinely bypassed. “There are a few societies where the builder provides the temple in the beginning itself. But there have also been cases where due to the lack of an AOA, some residents take on the responsibility of constructing a temple,” he says. Even where an AOA exists, he adds, the authority can only intervene if someone files a formal complaint. “Otherwise, there is no action.”
‘We prefer the green cover’
The Sector 15-A dispute is by now widely reported.
Resident Siddhant Bhagwat Sharma, who has lived there for 25 years, said: “Over 95 percent residents here are Hindu. No one has a problem with a temple. But we prefer the green cover over any structure.”
Temple supporter Shivani Chaturvedi, a resident since 1998, objected: “Why is the issue of trees and environment only being raised when there is a question of a temple?”
Trust secretary Abhinav Jain, whose Sanatan Dharm Seva Samiti applied for the auctioned plot, blamed the opposition on property anxiety: “It is a difference of ideology. They feel beggars will come and garbage will be spread and ultimately, their house prices will go down.” Another resident alleged a political dimension, claiming a target of 128 temples had been set across Noida and Greater Noida ahead of the 2027 elections – an allegation the trust denied.
On February 27, a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court comprising Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Kunal Ravi Singh directed the Noida Authority to file a detailed affidavit placing all relevant records before the court. The matter continues to be heard.
Most incidents across Noida’s housing societies never travel this........