In a move that has sparked widespread political uproar in Tamil Nadu, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has transferred senior archaeologist K Amarnath Ramakrishna, the lead excavator of the Keezhadi archaeological site, to a reportedly defunct post in Greater Noida. The decision, which became public on Tuesday, June 17, has reignited the controversy surrounding the ASI's repeated attempts to question and alter Ramakrishna’s 982-page report detailing evidence of an early Tamil urban civilisation.
The ASI’s official circular dated June 17 announced Ramakrishna’s reassignment from his position as Director (Antiquity) and National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities (NMMA) in New Delhi to Director of NMMA in Greater Noida. According to The Week, this post has remained largely non-functional since its creation during the UPA regime in 2007.
Ramakrishna’s transfer came just weeks after he refused to revise his report, as directed by the ASI. The agency had requested that he rework his January 2023 submission to make it “more authentic”, particularly disputing the timeline from the 8th to 5th century BCE, saying it should “at the maximum” be pre-300 BCE.
In a detailed response dated May 23, 2025, Ramakrishna defended his findings. “The chronological sequence of the Keezhadi site was clearly explained in the report. The view expressed by you for further examination of sequence is against the well-reasoned conclusive finding of the excavator,” he wrote in his letter to the ASI.
The 982-page report, based on seven excavation phases, suggested a highly developed urban civilisation in Tamil Nadu dating back to at least the 5th century BCE, featuring pottery industries, inscriptions in Tamil Brahmi, terracotta tools, and artefacts indicating textile production, trade, and cultural sophistication.
The reaction in Tamil Nadu has been swift and vocal. Chief Minister MK Stalin accused the Union government of “anti-Tamil bias”. “It is not the reports which have to be corrected, but it is the minds that have to be corrected,” he said.
Stalin has repeatedly highlighted the importance of Keezhadi in establishing the antiquity of Tamil civilisation, linking it to broader efforts to “rewrite Indian history from Tamil land”.
The DMK’s student wing is set to stage a major protest in Madurai. Madurai MP and CPI(M) leader Su Venkatesan, who shared the ASI’s transfer circular, claimed Ramakrishna was being “relentlessly hunted” for uncovering truths that contradict the Centre’s ideological position.
The Keezhadi excavation has long challenged conventional historical narratives, especially the idea that urbanisation began in South India only after Ashoka’s Mauryan intervention. Ramakrishna and other experts argue that the material culture unearthed at Keezhadi bridges the timeline between the Indus Valley Civilisation and early South Indian urbanisation. The 11th phase of excavation at Keezhadi is set to begin later this month under the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology.
