‘Mosque Man’: India’s Hindu architect designs dozens of mosques

Self-taught architect Govindan Gopalakrishnan claims to have built more than 100 mosques, four churches and a temple.

New Delhi, India – With dozens of mosques, four churches and a temple to his credit, Govindan Gopalakrishnan, 85, is hardly your typical architect. Instead, what has driven the octogenarian – popularly known as the “Mosque Man” – in his career spanning six decades is his love for “the oneness of humanity”, as he puts it. The elderly builder, who keeps copies of Quran, Bible and the Hindu scripture Gita at his modest home in India’s southern city of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, says he is a firm believer in religious harmony.