Academic’s research reveals ASI inconsistencies


A Ph. D. scholar at Columbia University, Anand Vivek Taneja’s research reveals the “systematic governmental erasure of Muslim sites of memory”, particularly by the Archaeological Survey of India, which has suffered from what he calls "institutional amnesia." The organization, celebrating its 150^th anniversary this year has failed to merge its pre-Independence records with the present ones and has distorted crucial information relating to medieval Muslim sites and their various uses.
“The threat of Hindu right-wing violence against Muslim religious sites makes the ASI change its colonial policies and stop access to many monuments under its jurisdiction, which were prayed in before Partition and Independence. I used the Chief Commisioner's Records which give a very detailed picture of sites in Delhi between 1911 and 1947. The contrast between these records, and the ASI's post-colonial records, especially with regard to the same monuments is striking. These documents are full of instances of the active religious use of mosques in Delhi protected by the then ASI,” he explains.
A striking example is Sultan Ghari’s tomb in Mahipalpur, which a pre-Independence ASI publication mentions held an annual 'urs. A few years after Independence, the ASI denied permission for the 'urs, saying that there has been no worship at the site "for a very long time." Archival evidence for Maulana Qasimi's account of the Tughlaq mosque being buried to make way for the Lalit Kala Academy were found on a pre-1947 map of Delhi. Similar claims made on Oberoi Hotel and Delhi Public School being built on Waqf land are yet to be verified.