Conjuring a river, imagining civilisation

Saraswati, archaeology and science in India

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3865156
AutoresAshish Chadha (University of Rhode Island, autor de correspondencia)
Año2011
Volumen45
Número1
Páginas55-83
Fecha de publicación2011-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaContributions to Indian Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0069-9659 • E-ISSN: 0069-9667
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/006996671004500103
OpenAlexW2045741961
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas47

The depiction of the river Saraswati as an empirical centre of the Harappan civilisation has been marked by intense debate in recent years. Taking the short-lived Saraswati Heritage Project (2002-04) initiated by the Archaeological Survey of India as a case study, this article examines the epistemological emergence of the river and interrogates its historical and ideological relationship to the Harappans and the Aryans. It argues that the epistemic trajectory of Saraswati from a literary entity to an empirical category followed four phases. First, it emerged as a mythical river of colonial Indology; then, as a civilisational river of colonial archaeology; subsequently, as a hydrological body of postcolonial geology and, finally, as an empirical fact of postcolonial archaeology and history. Contrary to historians who attribute the resurrection of the Saraswati solely to the growing influence of Hindutva ideologies, this article argues that the Saraswati is also an epistemic product of the disciplinarian discourse of colonial Indology and postcolonial science. It contends that its ideological and political valence has to be located in the larger discursive universe of colonial and postcolonial scientific practices and not solely attributed to Hindutva

Archaeology · Art · Civilization · Colonialism · Depiction · Hindutva · Ideology · Literature · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · History · Law · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies