Indian religious and political sphere showcases multiple identities while expressing the significance of the Hindu religion and traditions. However, there is an undifferentiated religion within all Indian Hinduism. This religion is of local deities of lower castes. These local deities are referred to as Mother goddesses, having regional significance. Regional religious rituals gained significance among the practitioners because of political interference. The process of Sanskritization, modernisation and contributions of the neo-rich has brought changes in the local deity religious structures and rituals. Such changes differentiate the worship patterns in terms of civilised, and uncivilised. The neo-rich mainly formed not only from the sub-castes of Shudras, but also from upper castes. In contemporary India, particularly in South India, there appears appropriation and assimilation of that local religious elements into the dominant Hindu religion of the Brahmins. There is overwhelming support from the neo-rich for the phenomenon and perpetuation of their hegemony. It is evidenced by monopolising the worship of the mother goddess in multiple ways. The neo-rich also has the tendency to use their positions to exploit community resources for their self-identity in a wide variety of contexts. This paper explains the processes of religious proliferation, structural changes, and exploitation of such religious resources for the vested interests of the neo-rich, based on the empirical study carried out on Local Deities of Hyderabad, Telangana State.
