Monumental Heritage of Mandu: Challenges for Archaeology in South Asia

The abandoned medieval city at Mandu, in central India, is on the threshold of major changes propelled by tourism-related developmental agendas of the state and private investors. Since the late 1990s, there has been a rapid transformation of what used to be a sleepy village with the ascription of an urban status through the amalgamation of the earlier Mandav village with neighbouring hamlets dispersed on the plateau. We discuss in brief the history of Mandu, with a focus on the built monuments, and the city’s abandonment and re-occupation over time. We also raise certain issues related to heritage in Mandu with the possibility of including Mandu in the tentative list of World Heritage Sites. We argue that the people who reside in Mandu remain marginal to heritage practitioners, the state, through the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), and archaeologists. It is imperative that archaeologists recognise the validity of local communities using and transforming the landscape, and need to design research projects that are more inclusive and collaborative. Only by unsettling archaeology, can archaeologists move towards practices that promote the values of social justice.