Archeological Survey of India has served the agenda of Hindu right for rewriting history ever since 1947: Scholar

Somnath in ruins

By A Representative
In what appears to be one of the strongest critiques of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI), the huge organization which seeks to preserve the country's historical monuments, a London School of Economics (LSE) blog has found nothing new with regard to the reported decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to appoint a committee headed by KN Dikshit, ex-Joint Director General of ASI, to "help" government rewrite "certain aspects of ancient history.”
If the aim of the committee is said to be to find "archaeological and DNA evidence" to establish the Hindus as the descendants of the original inhabitants of the territory and to make a case for factual proof for the existence of the Hindu myths, the blog, by Rachel A Varghese, a Jawharlal Nehru University (JNU) scholar, says that ASI was used immediately after Independence exactly for this.
Citing the case of Somnath Temple in Gujarat, the scholar, who studied archaeology in Portugal and Italy, andrecently submitted her doctoral thesis at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, says, the removal of the ruins of the temple to ‘reconstruct’ the temple in its ‘original’ form was "against the principles that govern protection of such monuments, one of the primary functions of ASI."
Pointing out that "there was resistance from some quarters of the archaeology department to the removal of the ruins", yet, "the ruins were replaced by a new structure", Varghese says, this was done to satisfy Congress leader KM Munshi's "Hindu nationalist view that the raid on the temple by Mahmoud of Ghazni in 1024 was a wrong done on the people (read Hindus) of India by the Muslims."

Drawing a parallel with the committee formed by Modi, Varghese says, "Soon after independence, an advisory committee was formed in 1949 which included the then Director General of the ASI to decide on the matter of ‘reconstruction of the temple’."
Calling it "explicit manipulation of history and archaeology by the Hindu Right in India", the scholar says, it was also meant to establish "intimate association that archaeology has had in the creation of a particular imagination of the nation based on religious identity in India." Thus, "the archaeology of Indus Valley sites" has been used for "identity assertions", with the pre-historic population "being dubbed varyingly as Indian, Aryan, Dravidian, Hindu or Tamil."
Calling it a "nationalist obsession of attributing ‘Indian-ness’ to the Indus sites", the scholar says, this prompted "large scale excavations for new sites in the western states of India following independence, the Tamil assertions of the Dravidians being direct descendants of the Indus population and the attempts to link the Vedic Aryans to the Indus Valley civilization."
Asserting that "this should be understood in the atmosphere of majoritarian and exclusionary politics of the Hindutva, whereby Aryan equated to Hindu becomes the original inhabitants of India", leading to "Muslims and the other minority groups being automatically cast as aliens", Varghese says, ASI's role becomes clear when it examined the Ayodhya case.
Thus, "ASI was asked to give a definitive answer to a legally formulated question of whether or not a temple existed at the site of the Babri Masjid, which was demolished to build the mosque. If one examines the excavation report that the ASI submitted to the court in the Ayodhya case, one finds that the institution also shares with the judiciary positivist notions of archaeology as a science which can make claims to such ‘truths’..."
Now, according to the scholar, things have gone so that ASI's projects include locating "the places mentioned in the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana." There is Saraswati Heritage Project "that aims to identify the archaeological sites on the banks of the mythical river Saraswati, mentioned in the Rigveda."
"In a more recent instance, ASI is reported to have allowed excavations at Barnava in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh at a site which is popularly held to be the ‘Lakshagriha’ (literally house of lac) mentioned in the Mahabharata", the scholar says, adding, earlier that were "excavations at Ayodhya by BB Lal as part of the Ramayana Sites Project" to "prove" that there existed a "temple below the Babri Masjid."
Emphasizing that this had "a direct influence on the right wing assertions in the early 1990s,that led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992", the scholar believes, "The court-ordered excavations by the ASI at Ayodhya also have to be seen in the context of such established traditions of archaeological practice in India."

Comments

Uma said…

That K. M. Munshi was a right-wing Hindu is rubbish. What ASI does or does not do, I don't know, but our monuments and their suuroundings are in a sorry state and a shame for the country

May 17, 2018

The Editor Times said…

Hindutva has no face value. so that they're decorating their face to survive.

May 27, 2018

From Kerala to Bangladesh: Lynching highlights deep social faultlines

By A Representative The recent incidents of mob lynching—one in Bangladesh involving a Hindu citizen and another in Kerala where a man was killed after being mistaken for a “Bangladeshi”—have sparked outrage and calls for accountability.

What Sister Nivedita understood about India that we have forgotten

By Harasankar Adhikari In the idea of a “Vikshit Bharat,” many real problems—hunger, poverty, ill health, unemployment, and joblessness—are increasingly overshadowed by the religious contest between Hindu and Muslim fundamentalisms. This contest is often sponsored and patronised by political parties across the spectrum, whether openly Hindutva-oriented, Islamist, partisan, or self-proclaimed secular.

When a city rebuilt forgets its builders: Migrant workers’ struggle for sanitation in Bhuj

Khasra Ground site By Aseem Mishra* Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is not a privilege—it is a fundamental human right. This principle has been unequivocally recognised by the United Nations and repeatedly affirmed by the Supreme Court of India as intrinsic to the right to life and dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution. Yet, for thousands of migrant workers living in Bhuj, this right remains elusive, exposing a troubling disconnect between constitutional guarantees, policy declarations, and lived reality.

Aravalli at the crossroads: Environment, democracy, and the crisis of justice

By Rajendra Singh* The functioning of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has undergone a troubling shift. Once mandated to safeguard forests and ecosystems, the Ministry now appears increasingly aligned with industrial interests. Its recent affidavit before the Supreme Court makes this drift unmistakably clear. An institution ostensibly created to protect the environment now seems to have strayed from that very purpose.

'Festive cheer fades': India’s housing market hits 17‑quarter slump, sales drop 16% in Q4 2025

By A Representative Housing sales across India’s nine major real estate markets fell to a 17‑quarter low in the October–December period of 2025, with overall absorption dropping 16% year‑on‑year to 98,019 units, according to NSE‑listed analytics firm PropEquity. This marks the weakest quarter since Q3 2021, despite the festive season that usually drives demand. On a sequential basis, sales slipped 2%, while new launches contracted by 4%.

'Structural sabotage': Concern over sector-limited job guarantee in new employment law

By A Representative The advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA) has raised concerns over the passage of the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (VB–G RAM G), which was approved during the recently concluded session of Parliament amid protests by opposition members. The legislation is intended to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Safety, pay and job security drive Urban Company gig workers’ protest in Gurugram

By A Representative Gig and platform service workers associated with Urban Company have stepped up their protest against what they describe as exploitative and unsafe working conditions, submitting a detailed Memorandum of Demands at the company’s Udyog Vihar office in Gurugram. The action is being seen as part of a wider and growing wave of dissatisfaction among gig workers across India, many of whom have resorted to demonstrations, app log-outs and strikes in recent months to press for fair pay, job security and basic labour protections.

India’s universities lag global standards, pushing students overseas: NITI Aayog study

By Rajiv Shah A new Government of India study, Internationalisation of Higher Education in India: Prospects, Potential, and Policy Recommendations , prepared by NITI Aayog , regrets that India’s lag in this sector is the direct result of “several systemic challenges such as inadequate infrastructure to provide quality education and deliver world-class research, weak industry–academia collaboration, and outdated curricula.”

The rise of the civilizational state: Prof. Pratap Bhanu Mehta warns of new authoritarianism

By A Representative Noted political theorist and public intellectual Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta delivered a poignant reflection on the changing nature of the Indian state today, warning that the rise of a "civilizational state" poses a significant threat to the foundations of modern democracy and individual freedom. Delivering the Achyut Yagnik Memorial Lecture titled "The Idea of Civilization: Poison or Cure?" at the Ahmedabad Management Association, Mehta argued that India is currently witnessing a self-conscious political project that seeks to redefine the state not as a product of a modern constitution, but as an instrument of an ancient, authentic civilization.

Search This Blog