Handmaiden of Hindutva
This is the right occasion to assess the Archeological Survey of
India’s dubious activities
OMAR KHALIDI
Justice D V Sharma’s judgment in the Ayodhya title suit last week claimed that ‘the disputed structure was con- structed on the site of the old structure after demoli-
tion of the same. And that the Archaeological Survey of
India has proved that the structure was a massive Hindu
religious structure.’
Justice Sharma was referring to a 2003 report of dubious
value. The ASI claimed that the bases of the pillars that
held up the temple were in fact not pillar bases at all. The
Siva shrine at a lower level adds no strength to the claim of
a Ram temple. The terracotta from different levels has been
so jumbled that it can be linked to no particular stratum
and period. Moreover, the presence of animal bones and
have no excuse for deferring any longer the overdue explo-
ration of the Ganges Valley. After all if the Indus gave India
a name, it may almost be said that the Ganges gave India a
faith.”
OMAR
KHALIDI
A policeman on patrol in Ayodhya, September 22
ADNAN ABIDI/REUTERS
glazed earthenware found at the site makes it difficult to
claim that a Ram temple existed on this site between the
12th and 16th centuries.
The ASI’s role in marshalling dubious evidence in support of the existence of a Ram temple at Ayodhya is the
right occasion to assess its activities as a handmaiden of
Hindutva.
Four traits that mark archaeology
Four characteristics mark Indian archaeology since colo-
nial times: It is a monument-specific archaeology based on
geographical surveys, literary traditions and Orientalist
scholarship. These characteristics combine to form a tradi-
tionalist, location-driven excavation agenda that privileged
some sites to the Hindus without regard to the historical
provenance of any site or monument.
Taken together, the four characteristics privilege ancient
references to monuments, whether in legend or literature,
as authentic, while all medieval and modern ones are perceived as tales of depredations.
The ASI’s colonial origins are transparent in its philoso-
phy and operation. Mortimer Wheeler, ASI’s director-gen-
eral between 1944 and 1948, advised Indian archaeologists
that ‘Partition has robbed us of the Indus Valley… We now
His student B B Lal (ASI director, 1968 to 1972) took his
advice. He excavated the Gangetic sites in search of evi-
dence for the mythical periods described in the epics
Mahabharata and Ramayana identifying two kinds of pot-
tery — painted gray ware as an indicator of the former and
northern black polished ware of the latter. He then
attempted to match archaeological sites with places named
in the epics.
Omar Khalidi, scholar and staff member at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
is the author of Khaki and Ethnic Violence in
India and Muslims in Indian Economy
