Comment by _mdlf | Hacker News Reader

Comment by _mdlf | Hacker News Reader

Governments at odds with archeology to protect the origin story of the country is common across the world.

In India, as recent as latter part of this decade archeologists found gold mine of evidence for >2100 year old Tamil civilization at Keezhadi including Roman artifacts[0].

There was no evidence of Hinduism found, for the matter of fact no religious artifacts of known organised religions was found there.

The archeologist who made the discovery was transferred and the excavations was halted. Fortunately, Tamil civilization is still very much in existence in the state of Tamilnadu,India; so the matter was taken to court and the court has now ordered continuation of excavation at Keezhadi & ordered the original archeologist back to the site[1].

But there has been numerous hurdles since, a blatant obstruction by the central government.

India is a culmination of several such civilizations, but the ruling party wants to project India as a 'Hindu Nation' which magically originated before any other civilization in the world. Unfortunately, they have the popular support for obvious reasons (You'll likely witness in the comments ).

Wiki[2].

[0]: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/keezhadi-hittin...

[1]: https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/keezhadi-excavations-h...

[2]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeladi

Now that the BJP has found an ally in the AIDMK and Nitish kumar, I am hoping that they will take their foot off the Hindutva pedal.

It is ironic, that in its efforts to serve as opposition to Islam, Hindu ideologues are reforming Hinduism to fit a more abrahmic/western definition of religion.

If Hinduism is to be thought as the culture and beliefs of people living in the Indian subcontinent around 1000AD (the earliest origins of the Sindhu -> Hindu name). Then it completely separates itself from any scripture based religious belief system.

If the original scriptures of the Sanathan Dharma are to be used as guide books to define Hinduism, then the modern cultural beliefs of each region in India have diverged enough that they bear no resemblance to the original scriptures. The most egregious would be that beef, was seen as purely a food item. In addition, these scriptures were studied and followed mostly by the upper class. So, it is hard to make it apply to the whole country.

I don't see light at the end of the the tunnel, but the hypocrisy of the reformists is certainly hilarious.

It went from hilarious to dangerous,when democracy in the country itself is under threat.

There are a few fascinating notable exceptions. Israel and Egypt in particular support and sponsor archeology - probably for some similar and some diverging reasons.

Egypt surely deserves an applause for keeping archeology separate from prominent religious sentiments & capitalising it in the tourism Industry.

India had all the potential to do the same, considering it is home to at-least half dozen civilizaltions; but extremist ideologies is a vote winner.

When the current ruling party came into power, they tried to undermine Taj mahal by removing its name from the tourism list[0]!

[0]: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/taj-mah...

This really makes me wonder why controlling the understanding of anything older than 3000 years ago is such a big deal. Isn't there a statute of limitations on this kind of thing?

It might be tied to the ancient notions of lineage that have somehow persisted into the modern era and for bettet or fot worse link the ancient with the modern.

Do you have sources or evidence for any of those claims?

It's to manufacture legitimization for all kinds of claims.

One of the most notorious examples for this is probably Israel [0].

[0] https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/the-twisted-logic-of-the...

For an interesting take on the ancient history of conflict among Semitic tribes, I recommend Matthew Woodring Stover's Jericho Moon. The ancient Hebrews come across a lot like marauding Bedouin tribes.

> Governments at odds with archeology to protect the origin story of the country is common across the world.

Couldn't agree more. Just look at Auschwitz and the other concentration camps. Only government-approved scientists are allowed onto those sites.

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