Mrinalini Rajagopalan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226283470
- eISBN:
- 9780226331898
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226331898.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter traces the representation of iconoclasm in the Qutb Minar and the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque from the colonial past to the postcolonial present. As a group of Islamic monuments built from ...
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This chapter traces the representation of iconoclasm in the Qutb Minar and the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque from the colonial past to the postcolonial present. As a group of Islamic monuments built from the fragments of Hindu and Jain structures, modern histories of the Qutb complex have cast it as symbolic of the violent intrusion of Islam into the subcontinent. Such representations, articulated variously by colonial authorities, global preservation bodies, Hindu nationalists, and the secular nation-state, have positioned the Qutb Complex precariously between national and international reverence and religious reclamations that appear as modern iconoclasms themselves.Less
This chapter traces the representation of iconoclasm in the Qutb Minar and the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque from the colonial past to the postcolonial present. As a group of Islamic monuments built from the fragments of Hindu and Jain structures, modern histories of the Qutb complex have cast it as symbolic of the violent intrusion of Islam into the subcontinent. Such representations, articulated variously by colonial authorities, global preservation bodies, Hindu nationalists, and the secular nation-state, have positioned the Qutb Complex precariously between national and international reverence and religious reclamations that appear as modern iconoclasms themselves.
Nayanjot Lahiri
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190130480
- eISBN:
- 9780190993870
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190130480.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Indian History, Social History
This chapter explores the various dimensions of the professional life of an Archaeological Survey of India’s Superintendent of Archaeology ranging from conserving monuments to undertaking field work, ...
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This chapter explores the various dimensions of the professional life of an Archaeological Survey of India’s Superintendent of Archaeology ranging from conserving monuments to undertaking field work, from dealing with antiquities in the field to engaging with village and city folk, bureaucrats and politicians. Unlike university men and women, such government people were public archaeologists in the sense that they dealt with all kinds of grass roots challenges that monument administration and research involved. Deshpande’s early years in different parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka was centrally of this type, with the conservation of Gol Gumbad being a professional landmark. About a decade after this, his conservation work at another renowned medieval complex, Delhi’s Qutb Minar would earn the Archaeological Survey laurels. It was also during these years that Deshpande’s abiding obsession with shrines and monasteries in the Western rock-cut caves began and included work at Bhaja, Pitalkohora, Ajanta and Ellora where apart from making new discoveries, he also undertook extensive conservation work.Less
This chapter explores the various dimensions of the professional life of an Archaeological Survey of India’s Superintendent of Archaeology ranging from conserving monuments to undertaking field work, from dealing with antiquities in the field to engaging with village and city folk, bureaucrats and politicians. Unlike university men and women, such government people were public archaeologists in the sense that they dealt with all kinds of grass roots challenges that monument administration and research involved. Deshpande’s early years in different parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka was centrally of this type, with the conservation of Gol Gumbad being a professional landmark. About a decade after this, his conservation work at another renowned medieval complex, Delhi’s Qutb Minar would earn the Archaeological Survey laurels. It was also during these years that Deshpande’s abiding obsession with shrines and monasteries in the Western rock-cut caves began and included work at Bhaja, Pitalkohora, Ajanta and Ellora where apart from making new discoveries, he also undertook extensive conservation work.
Mrinalini Rajagopalan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226283470
- eISBN:
- 9780226331898
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226331898.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Building Histories traces the lives of five monuments in Delhi—Red Fort; Rasul Numa Dargah; Jama Masjid; Purana Qila; and the Qutb Complex—from the mid-nineteenth century to the twentieth century. ...
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Building Histories traces the lives of five monuments in Delhi—Red Fort; Rasul Numa Dargah; Jama Masjid; Purana Qila; and the Qutb Complex—from the mid-nineteenth century to the twentieth century. Each monument is explored in an individual chapter, which considers the various appropriations of its history, function, and symbolism by state (colonial and postcolonial) and non-state actors. The starting point for this discussion is the mid-nineteenth century when institutionalized preservation cemented the histories, uses, symbolism, and stewardship of monuments within a rigid archive policed by colonial and later national bureaucracies. Yet this archive was and continues to be constantly interrupted and challenged by affect—the emotive economy generated around the monument at various points in time. It is at this intersection of archival “truths” and affective “passions” that the book charts the changing lives of these five monuments. In doing so it reveals the profoundly mutable histories of these monuments—histories that transformed non-linearly over time; histories generated by unexpected co-optations and urgent inhabitations; and histories authored by various actors often with competing agendas. Building Histories is a book about the histories of buildings; it is also a meditation on the building of histories through these monuments.Less
Building Histories traces the lives of five monuments in Delhi—Red Fort; Rasul Numa Dargah; Jama Masjid; Purana Qila; and the Qutb Complex—from the mid-nineteenth century to the twentieth century. Each monument is explored in an individual chapter, which considers the various appropriations of its history, function, and symbolism by state (colonial and postcolonial) and non-state actors. The starting point for this discussion is the mid-nineteenth century when institutionalized preservation cemented the histories, uses, symbolism, and stewardship of monuments within a rigid archive policed by colonial and later national bureaucracies. Yet this archive was and continues to be constantly interrupted and challenged by affect—the emotive economy generated around the monument at various points in time. It is at this intersection of archival “truths” and affective “passions” that the book charts the changing lives of these five monuments. In doing so it reveals the profoundly mutable histories of these monuments—histories that transformed non-linearly over time; histories generated by unexpected co-optations and urgent inhabitations; and histories authored by various actors often with competing agendas. Building Histories is a book about the histories of buildings; it is also a meditation on the building of histories through these monuments.
