%0 Journal Article
%T The Archaeological Survey of India and Communal Violence in Post-independence India
%J International journal of heritage studies
%D 2008
%A Johnson-Roehr, Susan
%V 14
%N 6
%P 506-523
%X 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.<p />
%G 
%I Informa - Taylor and Francis Group
%@ 1352-7258
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13527250802503266