Suraj Bhan (1931–2010) was an Indian archaeologist and professor of archaeology. He was part of a panel of academics which contested the
Vishva Hindu Parishad
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) () is an Indian right-wing Hindu organization based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is ...
's claim that the
Babri Masjid was built on top of a
Râm temple.
Life and career
Suraj Bhan was born in March 1931 in
Montgomery (now in
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
) to a peasant family of
Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
.
[
He studied Economics and Sanskrit for a B.A. and M.A. at the ]Delhi University
Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...
. Subsequently, he joined the Archaeological Survey of India
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexande ...
(ASI) in 1956 as a technical assistant. He studied Archaeology and Culture for a second M.A. degree in 1960 and, in 1972 also received a Ph.D. degree from the M. S. University
The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, formerly Baroda College, is a public university in the city of Vadodara, in Gujarat state, India. Originally established as a college in 1881, it became a university in 1949 after the independence of ...
, Baroda
Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...
. He went on to a teaching career first at the Punjab University and then in at Kurukshetra University, carrying out archaeology of prehistoric sites in Haryana. He rose to become the Dean of the Faculty of Indic Studies before retiring in 1991.
Archaeological work
Bhan's early research was on the archaeology of prehistoric sites along the old river channels of Sarsuti
The Sarsuti river, originating in Sivalik Hills and flowing through the palaeochannel of Yamuna, is a tributary of Ghaggar river in of Haryana state of India.B.K. Bhadra and J.R. SharmaSatellite images as scientific tool for Sarasvati Paleochann ...
–Ghaggar
The Ghaggar-Hakra River is an intermittent river in India and Pakistan that flows only during the monsoon season. The river is known as Ghaggar in India, before the Ottu barrage, and as the Hakra in Pakistan, downstream of the barrage, ending ...
and Chautang
The Chautang is a seasonal river, originating in the Sivalik Hills, in the Indian state of Haryana. The Chautang River is a tributary of the Sarsuti river which in turn is a tributary of the Ghaggar river.
Origin and route
The Chautang river i ...
rivers in Haryana. In 1968, he excavated the Indus
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...
culture site of Mitathal. His thesis on the "Historic Archaeology of Saraswati and Drishadavati Valleys" earned him a PhD in 1972. In 1975, Bhan published his major report, ''Excavations at Mitathal and Other Explorations in the Sutlej-Yamuna Divide'', which became a fundamental reference for the study of Indus and post-Indus cultures.[
In 1987, Bhan was invited to give the presidential address to the Archaeology section of the Indian History Congress, where he came out strongly against the tendency among some archaeologists to identify the Indus Valley Civilisation with the Vedic cultures.][ His paper in ''The Making of History'' volume (2002) countered arguments made by archaeologists, ]B. B. Lal
Braj Basi Lal (2 May 1921 – 10 September 2022) was an Indian writer and archaeologist. He was the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) from 1968 to 1972 and has served as Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced ...
, S. P. Gupta et al. for an Aryan
Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...
link to the Indus Valley Civilization.[
In 1996, he was awarded a senior fellowship by the ]Indian Council of Historical Research
The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is a captive body of the Ministry of Education, Government of India established by an Administrative Order. The body has provided financial assistance to historians and scholars through fellowshi ...
(ICHR) and a year later, he was appointed as a member of the ICHR council. Irfan Habib
Irfan Habib (born August 10, 1931) is an Indian historian of ancient and medieval India, following the methodology of Marxist historiography in his contributions to economic history. He identifies as a Marxist and is well known for his strong ...
, in his obituary of Bhan, believed him to be a man of "impeccable personal ethics, which matched well with his professional probity."[
His academic work was said to bear a deep imprint of ]Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
. He was also involved with the work of Communist Party of India (Marxist)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...
in Haryana and took particular interest in the People's Science movement.[
]
Ayodhya dispute
Suraj Bhan played a significant role during the Ayodhya dispute
The Ayodhya dispute is a political, historical, and socio-religious debate in India, centred on a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. The issues revolve around the control of a site traditionally regarded among Hindus to be the ...
, supporting the case for the Babri Masjid. He along with historians, Ram Sharan Sharma
Ram Sharan Sharma (26 November 1919 – 20 August 2011) was an Indian historian and Indologist who specialised in the history of Ancient and early Medieval India. He taught at Patna University and Delhi University (1973–85) and was visiting f ...
, Dwijendra Narayan Jha
Dwijendra Narayan Jha (19404 February 2021) was an Indian historian who studied and wrote on ancient and medieval India He was a professor of history at Delhi University and a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research. Some of his bo ...
and M. Athar Ali
M. Athar Ali (18 January 1925 – 7 July 1998) was an Indian historian of Medieval Indian History. Throughout his career Ali was known to hold a strong stance against Hindu and Islamic extremism. He was a professor at the Centre for Advan ...
, were a group of four academics who submitted a document titled ''Babari Mosque or Rama's Birth Place? Historians Report to the Nation'' to the Minister of Home Affairs
An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...
in May 1991. Bhan contributed towards the archaeological component of the report. The authors claimed to have scrutinised the evidence provided by the Vishva Hindu Parishad
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) () is an Indian right-wing Hindu organization based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is ...
(VHP) and the Babri Masjid Action Committee
Babri Masjid (IAST: Bābarī Masjid; meaning ''Mosque of Babur'') was a mosque in Ayodhya, India, at a site believed by many Hindus to be the birthplace of Hindu deity Rama. It has been a focus of dispute between the Hindu and Muslim communi ...
(BMAC) and rejected outright the idea of the mosque being the site of Rama's birth or of the possibility of it having been built atop a pre-existing temple. The authors dismissed the claim by B. B. Lal
Braj Basi Lal (2 May 1921 – 10 September 2022) was an Indian writer and archaeologist. He was the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) from 1968 to 1972 and has served as Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced ...
, a former director of the ASI, that he had discovered pillar bases next to the Babri Masjid during his excavation in the 1970s. However, they did so while noting that they were not given access to Lal's excavation notes. Bhan would later testify in the Allahabad High Court that the report had been hurriedly compiled "under pressure" from BMAC.
In October 1992, the four historians wrote in the CPI(M)'s weekly newspaper, People's Democracy, reacting to the booklet ''Ram Janmabhumi Ayodhya: New Archaeological Discoveries''[
] stating that the VHP protagonists had indulged in "indiscriminate PWD-like excavation." Bhan had earlier also contested statements by S. P. Gupta that the black basalt pillars in the Babri Masjid were once part of a Hindu temple.
The Babri Masjid was demolished
Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a ...
on 6 December 1992.
Suraj Bhan deposed as an expert witness
An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as ...
in the Allahabad High Court on behalf of the pro-mosque parties in 2000, 2002, and again in 2006. He was the only one of the four authors of the ''Historians Report to the Nation'' to do so. On 5 March 2003, the Allahabad High Court ordered the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to excavate the site of the Babri Masjid in order to determine whether a temple-like structure had been demolished before the construction of the mosque. Suraj Bhan joined Irfan Habib
Irfan Habib (born August 10, 1931) is an Indian historian of ancient and medieval India, following the methodology of Marxist historiography in his contributions to economic history. He identifies as a Marxist and is well known for his strong ...
and others in issuing a press statement denouncing the move. The ASI proceeded with its excavations and submitted its findings to the court in September 2003. Its report revealed the presence of a circular shrine, dateable to 7–10th century and a "massive structure", 50 metres by 30 metres, built in three structural phases during the 11–12th century.
Bhan who had visited the digs in June 2003 criticised the ASI for conducting extensive horizontal diggings which destroyed all the Mughal period remains at the site when limited vertical trenching was all that was required. Questioning the methodologies employed to date the underground structure, he accused the ASI report of being an attempt to push back the antiquity of Ayodhya and thereby the Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
to . He proclaimed with certainty, that the "massive structure" found by the ASI was not a temple and that it was likely a Sultanate period mosque.[
Bhan appeared in the Allahabad High Court to state his professional opinion that the conclusion of the ASI report regarding the existence of any temple beneath the Babri mosque was baseless. While he was present at the excavation for only three days, he claimed that the ASI did not properly record the glazed ware, glazed tiles and bones found at the site. He made other observations such as on the use of lime mortar which he believed dated the underground structure to the Sultanate period. He also claimed that the shortcomings of the report could not be made good and alleged that the ASI lacked objectivity, professional integrity, and scientific rigour. Under examination, Bhan clarified that he was only an archaeologist and not an art-historian or medieval historian.
In its 2010 verdict on the Ayodhya dispute, the Allahabad High Court criticised the professionalism of the expert witnesses who had appeared on behalf of the pro-mosque parties. On Suraj Bhan, the court felt that he had made vague statements and had failed to provide a proper reason to challenge the conclusions of the ASI. It dismissed as baseless his technical observations on matters such as the use of lime mortar which had been established to have been in use in India from at least 600 BCE, well before the Sultanate period. The court noted that Bhan had a predetermined attitude against the ASI and noted that rather than being condemned, the Survey deserved commendation and appreciation.
]
Works
* "Excavations at Mitathal (Hissar), 1968." Journal of Haryana Studies 1.1 (1969): 1–15.
* "Changes in the course of Yamuna and their bearing on the protohistoric cultures of Haryana." Archaeological congress and seminar papers. 1972.
* "Siswal, a pre-Harappan site in Drishadvati valley." (1972): 44–46.
* "The sequence and spread of prehistoric cultures in the upper Sarasvati Basin." Radiocarbon and Indian Archaeology (1973): 252–263.
* ''Excavation at Mitathal (1968) and Other explorations in the Sutlej-Yamuna divide''. Kurukshetra University, 1975.
* (with Jim G. Shaffer) "New discoveries in northern Haryana." Man and Environment 2 (1978): 59-68.
* "Recent trends in Indian archaeology." Social Scientist (1997): 3–15. .
* "Aryanization of the Indus Civilisation." ''The Making of History: Essays presented to Irfan Habib'', pp. 41–55. Anthem Press, 2002. .
See also
* Archaeology of Ayodhya
* Ram Janmabhoomi
Ram Janmabhoomi (literally, "Rama's birthplace") is the site that is hypothesized to be the birthplace of Rama, believed to be the seventh avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu. The Ramayana states that the location of Rama's birthplace is on the ...
*Siswal
Siswal is a village in Hisar district, Haryana, India. It located 28 km from Hisar city. It is a site of Chalcolithic age. It is a typesite for ''Siswal culture'', dating from around 3800 BC, also known as Sothi–Siswal culture.
Location
The ...
References
; Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhan, Suraj
20th-century Indian archaeologists
Scientists from Haryana
Delhi University alumni
Kurukshetra University faculty
1931 births
2010 deaths
Analysts of Ayodhya dispute
People from Sahiwal District
Punjabi people
Historians of India
Indian social sciences writers
Indian scientific authors