Bhattacharya's doctoral research is about the archaeological, social, and political histories of pre- Islamic eastern Iranian world and Central Asia and their predominant presence in the nation building process of the various modern Central Asian republics, especially Afghanistan. Through research, Bhattacharya examines the importance of Afghanistan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century for the development of often competing, scholarly paradigms regarding the study of the archaeology of the Kushan Empire (c.1 century CE- 4th century).

In this talk, Bhattacharya will emphasize on the antiquarian quest which triggered the creation of a dystopian country, ‘Afghanistan’. Bhattacharya will identify the production of knowledge available from the study of the various pre-Islamic antiquities as an instrument for instigating major political debates and social transformation in Afghanistan. The following involved numerous transnational experts and agencies, contributing towards the development of the modern dystopian nation of Afghanistan, further working towards shaping the hallowed modern Afghan identity.  With the fall of the Ottoman Empire (1919), Afghanistan along with other Islamic monarchies experienced a paradigmatic shift in the socio-political contours; instigating an imperial crisis within the Islamic republics of Asia, forcing to establish alliances with third world European nations. The archaeological study of the antiquarian past facilitated the opportunity to establish common cultural linkages between the nations. While briefly engaging with the nation building and modernization project (1920), Bhattacharya will primarily talk about Cold War Afghanistan, where we notice major ideological debates between important transnational and indigenous experts along with agencies, related to identification, preservation, and reception of the antiquities.  Studying the antiquities, hence, not only helps us in understanding the pre-modern past of Afghanistan, rather, it helps in constructing discourses related to nation building and identity formation, addressing the causes for the conflicts occurring in Afghanistan since 1980’s.

A light lunch will be provided.