An excellent history of archeological inquiry in India, with special focus on the Indus civilization and how perspectives like Gordon Childe's and other outdated ideas helped shape inquiry and debate for a long time. >

This volume explores multiple perceptions of Indian history and scholarship produced through archaeological fieldwork and related photography during the colonial period. The focus is on John Marshall, the man who really made the Archaeological Survey of India the formidable player it became in the reconstruction and preservation of Indian history. He announced and fostered the discovery of the ancient Indus civilization, even as the hard work on the ground was done by a handful of Indian archaeologists. >