India, Dec. 30 -- Since its discovery in 2014, the archaeological site of Keeladi, in Tamil Nadu, has emerged as a contested front between the BJP-led Centre and Tamil Nadu's regional parties. Extensive excavations by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have pointed to a sophisticated civilisation contemporaneous with the second urbanisation in the Gangetic plains.

The discovery, which has captured the imagination of many people in Tamil Nadu and is dated to the Sangam era, is at odds with the long-held view that urbanism began solely in north India. (Also read: Artist Dhiraj Rabha's work casts long shadows of insurgency at Kochi-Muziris Biennale )

In The Dig: Keeladi and the Politics of India's Past, Sowmiya Ashok recounts an ente...