#GemsofASI #Decolonisation
https://x.com/i/status/2019649501519310947

We protect European gravestones as monuments of national importance.

The same Europeans who suppressed our independence.

Meanwhile, 40,000-year-old rock art crumbles under open sky because documentation budgets don't exist.

We maintain their memory better than our own ancestors. 🪦

Who decided which stones deserve protection?

#GemsofASI MNI356

1/ Why must a temple have pillars and gates to be called a temple?

At Lohani Caves, Mandu, an 11th–12th c. Shaiva rock-cut shrine is legally classified as a cave.

Simplicity read as absence.
Openness read as incomplete.

In Indian tradition, it was neither. 🪨

#GemsofASI MNI1549

https://x.com/i/status/2019718241057415198

GDP measures cash flow.
Civilisation is measured by what you choose to remember—and what you allow to rot.

Modernity without self-respect is just a rented costume. 🗿🔥

#UncropTheTruth #Decolonisation #GemsofASI MNI2541

https://x.com/akshaytandur/status/2018681543154098651?s=20

And why does heritage funding move in jolts instead of strategy?

Stone remembers.
Neglect also leaves layers.

The question is not whether Naranag is important.
The RTI proves the problem is priorities. 🏛️⚠️

#UncropTheTruth #Decolonisation

#GemsofASI MNI866

https://x.com/i/status/2018157307310522532

ASI uncovers vulva motifs in Odisha, dated 10,000–15,000 years old—predating even the Baghor shrine.

Rock art whispering ancient fertility rites, etched in stone before civilizations rose.

But wait: report surface that we 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 this treasures by chance. Why no scientific method to systematically find ancient sites?

Heritage buried under neglect, or are we afraid of what we'll unearth? Who's really in the dark here? 🏛️🕰️

#Archaeology #GemsofASI

https://x.com/i/status/2018210300034752778

State protected monuments without a national map

1/
India has thousands of monuments protected under State laws. These sites are legally notified, regulated, and restricted, yet they do not appear together in any single national record.

#GemsOfASI #18

1/ 15th century. Vijayanagara fortifies Madakasira. Turns it into military nerve center.

For 300 years, the empire controls vastu, trade routes, ocean commerce.

Your textbook gave it 3 lines. Mughals got 3 chapters.

Why? Colonial historians wrote from Delhi. Ignored the South.

#GemsofASI #MNI24

#GemsOfASI #17 — INTACH and the illusion of reform

At many protected sites, repairs are delayed for years while reports are prepared and approvals move slowly. Walls weather, water seeps in, and temporary measures become permanent fixtures.

#IndianHistory #IndianArchaeology

1️⃣ Masjid-e-Moth, South Delhi. 1505 CE. Sultan Sikandar Lodi's reign.

One generation before the Mughals arrived. The last mature breath of Lodi architecture, before imperial excess rewrote what a mosque should say about power. 🕌
#GemsofASI MNI385

1/7 ಕರಡಿದುರ್ಗ ಕೋಟೆ. Bear Fort.

2 km SW of Uchangidurga, Davanagere Karnataka. No plaque. No history book. ASI protected?

Just steep granite, collapsed walls, and silence.

This is what heritage neglect looks like. 🏰
#GemsofASI #MNI992

6/
The lesson isn't imitation.
It's intent.

Until India rewrites heritage law—recognising living use as preservation, not pollution—institutional outcomes will diverge further.

Next: #GemsOfASI #17 — ASI, INTACH, and the myth of non-governmental reform.

1/
Why Europe rewrote its heritage law, and India did not.

Europe faced dead monuments.
India faced living temples.

Both inherited empire.
Only one adapted the law.

🧵 #GemsOfASI #16

Why India still digs like 1901.

ASI vs Europe. Systems, not sentiment. 🧵
#GemsOfASI

Khilji placed Ganesh ji upside down in drains at Qutub Minar.

Now reports emerge: ASI built public toilets over Ganesha temple at Jogeshwari Caves exit.

One was an invader.
The other is our conservation authority.

Who's protecting what exactly? 🏛️
#GemsofASI
https://x.com/MiPsyGi/status/2004608600959053946?s=20

#GemsOfASI #15
Colonial laws, modern courts

1/
Much of India’s heritage is still governed by laws drafted during the colonial period.
These laws were written for a different society, a different political context, and a different idea of monuments.
They continue to shape decisions today.

ASI maintains a British victory "Obelisk" . Over Srirangapatna. Built 1907. 🏛️

Britishers erected it celebrating conquest. Marking territory.

It stands protected by ASI today. While countless temples crumble undocumented. A monument to occupation gets institutional care.

Who decides which history deserves protection?

#GemsofASI #MNI992 @ASIGoI

#GemsOfASI #14
Theft, loss, and inventory failure

1/
When artefacts disappear from protected monuments, the response is usually administrative.
Files are opened, reports are written, and records are updated.
By the time this happens, the loss has already occurred much earlier.

8/
Community custodianship is not nostalgia.
It is a conservation strategy.

Until ASI formally integrates local communities into protection frameworks — with training, authority, and accountability — monuments will continue to decay quietly, surrounded by fences, guarded only by paperwork.

Next: #GemsOfASI #14 — Theft, loss, and the limits of inventory control.
Previous: #GemsOfASI #12 — Ritual bans, policing faith, and administrative overreach.

#UncropTheTruth #Decolonisation

#GemsofASI #13

1/ Community custodianship removed. Decay accelerated.

For centuries, India's monuments survived not because of departments.

They survived because of communities.

Priests. Caretakers. Villagers. Guilds.
Daily acts of maintenance kept stone alive.

Then we professionalized protection—and removed the protectors.