Abstract
Archaeologists increasingly find themselves confronting members of local communities, raising the question: who owns cultural heritage and the interpretation of archaeological data? In this paper I introduce geographic information systems as a method to gain insight on archaeology. I argue that visualizing where and when archaeologists carried out fieldwork is a first step to understand how and why social tensions emerge and to address what we have yet to know. Through the case of post-colonial India, I present innovative spatial approaches to the history of recent archaeology and aim to create the conceptual space to understand how societal factors such as political instability and social unrest, national styles of science, competing research traditions and culture influenced Indian archaeology.
Highlights
The year 2012 marked twenty years since the infamous razing of the Babri Masjid, a medieval mosque in the northern city of Ayodhya, and the loss of human life in its wake
In the aftermath of seemingly state-sponsored violence in Ayodhya (Ratnager 2004: 241), how do we pull focus from a state-oriented view of Indian archaeology and broaden our perspective on the interests of local communities in archaeology? How do we deepen our understanding of how local conditions influence knowledge-making in post-colonial India? Geographic visualization methods, as I will demonstrate below, offer exciting possibilities to expand our view and shed light on the influence of beliefs and values on archaeological practices
The demolition of the Babri Masjid at the hands of kar sevaks, and the loss of human life in its wake, provides an opportunity to examine the relationship between archaeology and Indian society
Summary
The year 2012 marked twenty years since the infamous razing of the Babri Masjid, a medieval mosque in the northern city of Ayodhya, and the loss of human life in its wake. Carla Sinopoli (2006: 327), for example, remarked that Indian archaeology was a “marginal intellectual pursuit” whose role, as a result of the conflict in Ayodhya, shifted “to a central player in debates about India’s past and the nature and future of the contemporary Indian state” These views influence our understanding of events like the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The history of archaeological practice in India offers a way to begin to understand the unthinkable loss of human life in Ayodhya that has happened This perspective sheds light on what archaeologists in India believe and why, what matters most in Indian society and how these ideas make real impacts. Geoprocessing of the data is performed on ESRI’s ArcGIS 9.3
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
