Last week saw the CM of Tamil Nadu laying the foundation stone for an open-air museum at the Keeladi archaeological site, another for a museum at Gangaikondacholapuram and launching a website on the Keeladi excavations. TN archaeology has never had it so good as far as Government support is concerned. But the heavy political overtones of the event coloured everything. That what should have been a matter of national rejoicing, especially the news on the Iron Age findings at Sivakalai, was reduced to a regional event, shows how much politics, at Centre and State levels have entered even matters such as archaeology.
That the Keeladi excavations, stunning though their findings are, having been the subject of much politics is well known. This is unfortunate but true. The excavations began in 2015 and when the second season ended there were accusations levelled against the Archaeological Survey of India for transferring the officer in charge chiefly with a view to scuttling the work done so far. This it was felt was essentially to deny Tamil Nadu its true historic legacy. The Central Government was quick to deny it and from then on the issue assumed political and regional colours. The matter went to court and since then, it is the TN State Department of Archaeology that is carrying on all investigation.
If indeed the accusations against the Central Govt. and the ASI are true, it is all most unfortunate. That what should have been seen as a matter of national pride should have been governed by petty regional insecurities is not edifying. On the rebound, Keeladi has benefitted, for the TN Government, like its counterparts in other States and the Centre, is not known for going out of the way to support archaeological research. But stung to the quick by the Centre’s perceived indifference, it was quick to act. Work on Keeladi and sites such as Sivakalai in Thoothukudi have progressed briskly.
While it is truly delightful that the Iron Age, based on scientific research is now shown to have originated worldwide from this region, we cannot overlook the fact that funding for such studies has come only because the State Government is in proactive mode and is keen to score points against the Centre. The statement by the CM on the occasion of releasing the Iron Age findings reflected all of this – that Iron Age began on Tamil soil (it was not Tamil soil during the Iron Age) and that all these findings were due to the Dravidian Model Government.
An academic finding needs to be broken to the public with less overtones but then politicians will be politicians whether it be Centre or State. After all we have a party at the Centre that forever considers the Mughals and the previous incumbents in power post-Independence to be the root cause of all trouble. And we are forever seeing not-so-well researched revising of history. So why should TN be any different?
The problem with such strong identification of a project with one political entity, in this instance the DMK, means that it is a certainty for cold storage when another political outfit comes into office. And what happens then? While history can be open to interpretation, archaeology sadly cannot. It happens to be a science. It would be best that all political entities bury their differences and celebrate what is being found. But then that would be an ideal world would it not? In the meanwhile, let Keeladi and other such archaeological sites get the attention they deserve. And may we get to see the excavations, museums and publications completed before attention shifts elsewhere.