Guest Post by Mohan Rao

Just read Sowmiya Ashok’s The Dig: Keeladi and the Politics of India’s Past (2025) and I have some thoughts to share.

This is a book I have deeply enjoyed reading. It is written in a very enjoyable, easily readable style, bereft of jargon and comprises the journalist author’s research over a period of time to the excavations at Keeladi in Tamil Nadu and the immediate alarm bells it set off in distant Delhi, where the BJP had just taken power. The pathway to a Hindu Rashtra must begin with a rewriting of Indian history and archeology.

Beginning with Keeladi, the author covers other sites in Tamil Nadu and their exciting discoveries, and the politics that ensue between Tamil identity and Hindutva. Continue reading Thoughts on Keeladi and Harappa – on reading Sowmiya Ashok’s The Dig: Mohan Rao →