Linguistic Hegemony and Latent Typology: The Case of Harappan Script Scholarship

Abstract

Harappan script scholarship is an archaeological discourse debating on the linguistic nature of the undeciphered signs, popularly known as Indus script. The article argues existence of linguistic hegemony in this scholarship and explicates its root causes, phases, consequences, and the present state of research. The phases are a result of combined influence of multiple parallel developments in the socio-political atmosphere, archaeological theory, technological innovations and changing mindsets. Following the antiquarianism during colonial time, the post-independence motion of imbibing ‘scientific’ approach in all academic faculties persuaded the archaeology domain to become more ‘processual’ and thus produce more ‘reliable’ knowledge. Harappan script decipherment studies based on statistical analysis of sign concordances manifest this scientific turn. These were rooted in the ideas of language and nation relationship, notional needs of developed past, and script considered as ‘essential feature’ of civilisation. The consequence is latency in typology studies of the artefacts which generally forms the basis for material interpretation epistemologies in archaeology. The recent advances in technology, accompanied by postmodern thought elaborate on the materiality, contextuality and typology to some extent. Thus, the hegemonic position assumed by the linguistics has posed serious constraints in this scholarship.