The Archaeology Section of the Department of History has been in existence since the 1950’s.

It was established by Professor Nurul Hasan during his headship (1958-1971). Even before
being established as a Section, the work of explorations had been going on since the time of
Sir Syed himself. At the behest of Nurul Hasan, Professor RC Gaur was given the charge of
the section and he diligently organised all the archaeological material collected by Sir Syed
Ahmad Khan: thus was created a Sir Syed Museum of Archaeological Material which became
an important component of the newly established Archaeological Section of the Department of
History. In 1956 the Department was upgraded as a Centre of Advanced Study with the thrust
area as Medieval Indian History. The Archaeology Section, the Chemical Lab and the
Cartography Lab soon emerged as important sections of the Department.
Soon after, Professor Nurul Hasan, as Union Education Minister, facilitated the institution of
two major Excavation projects by the Archaeology Section: the Atranji Khera Excavations and
the Fatehpur Sikri Excavations. Both these major excavations were conducted under the
Directorship of Professor RC Gaur. He later on also excavated another site, Lal Quila. Another
important excavations carried out by the Archaeology Section was the Jhakera site, excavated
by Professor MDN Sahi. Apart from these major projects, a large number of other minor
excavations as well as explorations were undertaken by the Archaeology Section. By eighties,
the Section had emerged at par with any Archaeology section of even the Archaeological
Survey of India. Apart from these scholars, the Section comprised of expert technical hands,
surveyors, archaeologists, draftsmen, photographers, chemists and draftsmen.
With each excavation and exploration more and more archeological material was collected and
the Section emerged as an important research destination which was visited by many
accomplished field archaeologists and scholars.
Unfortunately in 2014, moves were started to “shift” the Archaeology section from its location.
At that time Professor Tariq Ahmad was the Coordinator of CAS and Chairman of the
Department. The final “shifting” however took place during the tenure of Professor Ali Athar
as the Chairman and Coordinator. When asked, we were told that the then Vice Chancellor Lt.
Gen. Zamiruddin Shah and PVC Brig. Ahmad Ali had ordered that the Section be shifted from
its then location, a Kothi in front of Guest House No. 2.
The priceless artefacts and other archaeological material was actually dumped at three
locations: (a) the newly established Musa Dakri Museum; (b) an old dilapidated quarter (C-11)
in Tar Bungalow; and (c) two rooms in Sarfaraz House, which had been vacated by the
Publications Division. But then I came to know of the third location only after many months
of taking charge as Chairman and Coordinator. Some “beautiful” artifacts from the excavations
and the sculptures collected by Sir Syed were transferred to the Musa Dakri Museum to be
displayed. The archaeological material was in bulk just thrown into C-11 Tar Bungalow, which
had been yearmarked for demolition earlier.
In April 2017 when I took charge as the Chairman and visited the C-11 quarter at Tar Bungalow
where the bulk of the Archaeology Section had been shifted, I found the material literally
dumped and scattered on the damp wet floors. The wooden trays in which the artifacts are kept
had decayed, most of the material had been collected in gunny bags which too had decayed: all
the priceless archaeological material was just rotting. Some Priceless intact vases and terra
cotta vessels (bowls, plates etc) lay broken in pieces and lost (in this fashion) for ever. I was
now also made aware of certain thefts which had occurred in this dilapidated building. My
office staff then produced two FIR’s which had been filed against these thefts. These FIR’s just
speak of certain equipment being stolen. But when I took charge and after some time appointed
Professor MK Pundhir as the Incharge of Archaeology Section and asked him to visit it, he to
his horror found that a large number of pottery sherds and other archaeological material was
strewn across the grounds outside the C-11 quarter! He along with other staff of the
Archaeology Section reported collected the material from these grounds!
Months after my taking charge when we started enquiring about the artefacts and
archaeological material and the equipments I was informed about the rooms in Sarfaraz Manzil
where the camp equipments, metal pipes, excavation tool etc had been kept. When I asked to
be taken there, I was told that the keys to the rooms had been handed to the Building
Department for some work. They had not been taken back. I was also shown a receipt of the
key signed by someone from the Building Department. I wrote to the Building Department
regarding the keys, which a few weeks later they sent. But when we went to the rooms, to our
horror we found no lock on the empty rooms. There was nothing in them. When I again wrote
to the Building Department regarding the missing material, they said that they had only been
given the keys and no material. And if there was any material, we may produce an inventory
of the items there. There was no inventory of material available which was handed over along
with the keys. An unsigned inventory was there but no one apparently signed it or received it.
All this had happened as a form of deliberate destruction!
Further, to our dismay, the stock register of the Archaeological material and equipments is also
missing. We subsequently were able to find a few copy registers which were in extreme decay
having been exposed to dampness. In the absence of stock registers it is impossible to calculate
the quantum of loss.
The way material had been carelessly dumped and thrown showed that persons responsible for
this “shift” were actually bent upon total annihilation of the Archaeology Section.
In view of the above, we had no option but to institute and internal inquiry to pinpoint the
responsibility of this vandalism. Thus in November 2017, I as the Chairman and Coordinator
formed a committee of Enquiry. It comprised of the following:
1 Professor Ishrat Alam (Convener)
2 Professor S. Jabir Raza
3 Professor Muhammad Sajjad
4 Professor MK Pundhir (Incharge Archaeology Section)
As the inquiry proceeded, some facts started tumbling out. It was revealed that actually there
was no order to permanently shift the Archaeology Section. From the Registrar’s Office we
got the copy of an order which only talked about vacating the building as it was to be renovated!
I have already handed you over a copy of this office memo. It was also revealed that the then
VC had also ordered a cheque of Rs 20,000/- to be sanctioned to transfer the furniture, artifacts
and other material. And that the sum had been handed over to Mr OP Srivastava who was also
appointed the Curator. Being the Curator all the material was his responsibility. The inquiry
also revealed that apart from OP Srivastava Mr Saleem Ahmad was also involved in the
shifting. After sometime Srivastava was appointed as Associate Professor and Mr Saleem was
appointed as the Curator.
Slowly and gradually we were able to retrieve all that was in public knowledge. The silver
coins had initially been missing, so were some gold pieces, but all this was retrieved.
Was there anything which was lost? Is there any artefact which is missing? These questions
still need answers. Any definite answer is impossible in the absence of Stock Registers and
inventories. There is no list of what we had from which to compare what now is left!
Exploration tools, tents, beds measuring rods, ladders, excavation tools etc are all missing
(some of these things, like tents and beds were gifted to Riding Club and SN Hall). But as far
as the priceless artefacts are concerned, which incidentally are government property, they
cannot be quantified or accounted for, as no original lists exists.
We are now in the process of counting our artefacts: the work at Musa Dakri Museum is almost
complete. The counting of archaeological relics and artefacts at C-11 would still need some
more time. I would just point out that even at Musa Dakri, when I took charge, I was informed
that there are 700 or 800 artefacts on display. After recounting, they are actually much more
than that!
In the last I would also point out that when the internal inquiry started to identify Mr OP
Srivastava as the man responsible for the shift (the actual responsibility being that of the former
Chairman and Coordinator), he sent reporters to the Department on the pretext that a non-
Muslim teacher was being targeted: the internal inquiry committee had recommended that he
be abstained to visit Archaeology Section unnecessarily when the work of counting was going
on. Then a press conference was allegedly organized by the former Chairman and Coordinator
in his house in which it was alleged that many archaeological artefacts had been actually taken
away by Dr Jaya Menon, former incharge of the Section. It was after this press-conference that
news-reports started coming that many important archaeological artefacts were missing. The
news of an imaginary missing gold coin was also added by such rumour mongerings.
I will conclude my statement by stating that a deliberate destruction of the Section has taken
place. Many priceless artefacts have been broken. The materials of many excavations has been
irretrievably mixed, rendering them useless for research. But are some of them physically
missing? No straight answer possible as there is no marker with which to compare!
But responsibility has to be fixed.
Much material was also “condemned” and sold to kabaddi-walas. Were any Condemnation
Committees held? Where are there minutes? Who condemned the items? Who authorized the
material of Archaeological Section to be ‘Gifted’ to SN Hall and Riding Club? Who decided
that that material is no more needed? Who decided that research on these objects be stopped?
For by dumping the material in gunny bags and allowing them to rot meant stoppage of research
activity? Why and who dumped the costly drawing and drafting tables and other furniture to
be thrown in such a way that they were broken to pieces! Surely the then VC’s order to transfer
from one building to another does not translate to this!
What I write above is as per my knowledge and with full responsibility.

Professor Ali Nadeem Rezavi

Chairman & Coordinator,
CAS Department of History
AMU