Aryan Books

THE BATTLE FOR ANCIENT INDIA: An Essay in the Sociopolitics of Indian Archaeology

By :- Dilip K. Chakrabarti

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Type: English

Pages: x+174

ISBN-13: 978-81-7305-341-2

Place: New Delhi

Edition: 1st

Publisher: ARYAN BOOKS INTERNATIONAL

Size: 15cm x 22cm

Product Year: 2008

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A number of issues regarding the study of ancient India have recently emerged in the public domain. The most important of them are the Sarasvati Project, Aryan invasion theory, the textbook controversy in India and California and the language of the Indus civilization. The intensity of debate on each of these issues is reminiscent of religious clashes. Much of this debate is also not limited to professional historians and archaeologists. The mass of data and opinions, which are currently available on the internet and have frequently been published in the media, can no longer be ignored by anybody interested in ancient India. Some professional analysis of this development has long been called for. This book is in response to this need. It first states the author?s position on each of these issues, but more importantly, critically examines their rationale. By studying the socio-political implications of some of the current assumptions of Indian archaeology and by noting their associations with different scholars and scholarly groups, it demonstrates that even the apparently remote conclusions about India?s prehistoric, protohistoric and early historic past have sub-texts of various kinds and that these sub-texts have different socio-political implications and agendas.

Preface and Acknowledgements 1. Introduction I. The Theme II. The Author?s Own Approach and Beliefs III. The Idea of India as a Colonized Land throughout History 2. ?Sunrise? in the West: Different Strands of Indian Prehistoric and Proto-historic Studies I. The General Background II. The Theme of ?Sunrise in the West? III. Comments on Certain General Trends of Publications in Indian Prehistory and Protohistory 3. The Sociopolitics of the Indus Civilization Studies I. The Framework of the Ancient Indian Past before the Discovery II. The Discovery and the Early Hypotheses of the Excavators III. The Period between the Discovery and Associated Reports, and the Publication of Marshall?s Mohenjodaro Report in 1931: R.P. Chanda IV. The Formulation of the Dravidian Hypothesis: Suniti Kumar Chatterji V. Observations on Chanda and Chatterji VI. John Marshall?s ?Mohenjodaro and the Indus Civilization? (1931) VII. The Basic History of the Idea of Harappa-Vedic Relationship: B.N. Datta to P.V. Kane and Others VIII. More on the Dravidian Premise or the Question of the Dravidian Authorship of the Indus Civilization IX. The Current Politics of the Indus Civilization Studies 4. The Sociopolitics of Some Debates in Early Historic Archaeology I. The Literature on the NBP II. The Beginning of Writing III. The Role of Iron in the Second Urbanisation 5. Summary and Discussion Appendix Bibliography Index

Dilip K. Chakrabarti is Professor of South Asian Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology of Cambridge University. He has been awarded D.Litt. (Honoris Causa) by M.J.P. Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, where he delivered the University?s Convocation Address in 2006. The Asiatic Society (Calcutta) awarded him its S.C. Chakrabarti Memorial Medal in 2007.

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