Introduction to the colonial interlude

The final section of the handbook addresses an under-researched theme relating to irreversible changes introduced by the colonial state from the 18th to 20th century with reference to the protection and preservation of the Hindu temple as also its study. The nineteenth-century colonial legislation based on a Victorian understanding of Hinduism transformed traditional mechanisms of maintenance of the shrine by fragmenting ownership and control of temple resources and administration. This was further exacerbated by the often-illegal collection of Hindu icons and images meant for worship in temples and their transportation and public display in museums in Europe to highlight the colonial ‘civilising mission’ in the subcontinent. Religion itself became highly politicised on account of criticism by missionaries and the development of what historians refer to as the racial theory of Indian civilisation, which was firmly entrenched both in Britain and in India. This theory stressed, that India’s civilisation was produced by the clash and subsequent mixture of light-skinned civilising invaders (the Aryans) and dark-skinned barbarian aborigines (often identified as Dravidians)

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