ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the fate of Indian Islamic monuments after India gained freedom from British colonial rule on August 15, 1947. In the aftermath of 1947, the state clearly straddled a fine ethical line between a thorough presentation of the enormity of the trauma that accompanied the Partition and a selective rendering of India's liberation and independence. Islamic monuments in several parts of India were under siege in 1947—from looters, trespassers, refugee camps, as well as from the callous acts of omission and commission of various government departments. If looters targeted Delhi's mosques and tombs, it was the state administration in some states that oversaw more organized campaigns of destruction. This was true, for instance, of the princely states of Alwar and Bharatpur in Rajasthan. The chapter offers normative reflections on the dilemmas which are faced by archeologists in situations when archaological sites are under siege, and the solutions for those dilemmas.