Citation

Johnson-Roehr S. Int. J. Herit. Stud. 2008; 14(6): 506-523.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13527250802503266

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article argues that that the discipline of archaeology as practised by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) significantly contributed to communal violence in post-Independence India. The essay investigates several legacies handed down from the colonial ASI to the post-Independence ASI, with a goal of explaining the contribution of archaeology to the ongoing disturbances at Ayodhyā in Uttar Pradesh. The colonial ASI was marked by four characteristics: it was a monument-based archaeology based on geographical surveys, literary traditions and Orientalist scholarship. These four characteristics combined to form a traditionalist, location-driven excavation agenda that privileged specific holy sites in the post-Partition era, sustaining the violent disagreements between Hindu and Islamic populations of India and Pakistan.