In 2020, news of the discovery of a 1,100-year-old Shiva lingam in Vietnam swept India: the symbol, an important one in Hindu iconography, was popularly hailed as proving the extent of India’s global influence. On social media, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar referred to the discovery as “reaffirming a civilisational connect” between India and Southeast Asia and qualified the finding as “a great cultural example of India’s development partnership.” The discovery came during post-2017 restoration work of the surrounding temple complex of My Son, in the Quảng Nam province of central Vietnam, led by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), a division of India’s Ministry of Culture.
The ASI project in Vietnam is part of a growing effort by the Indian government to conserve heritage sites beyond India’s borders. Besides the ASI, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also allocates grant assistance for similar initiatives through other implementing partners. In 2020, the MEA created a separate division within its Development Partnership Administration exclusively tasked with “conservation and restoration of temples in Southeast Asia, mural preservations, museology-related works, iconographic survey, excavations and digital documentation of heritage sites.” In 2021, the MEA began quoting “aid for cultural and heritage projects” as a separate form of development assistance in its annual budget.
India has engaged in archaeology and conservation initiatives for decades, most famously at Angkor Wat in the 1980s. So far, the projects have primarily focused on Southeast Asian countries with which—Indian officials frequently emphasise—India has a long history of shared religions, languages and cultures since 200 BCE. Over decades, other projects have targeted countries with which India has close cultural connections, especially in South Asia. In some cases, Indian support has gone as far as Egypt and Angola. However, within the last 10 years, these efforts have played an increasingly prominent role in India’s foreign policy. For External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, these initiatives are driven by the country’s growing “sense of historical and civilisational responsibility.”
Two possible reasons stand out. First, the success of recent books such as William Dalrymple’s The Golden Road (2024) and Sanjeev Sanyal’s The Ocean of Churn (2016) indicate a growing domestic interest in India’s civilisational ties and attempts to study and revive them. Second, there is also growing demand from abroad, especially in Southeast Asia and across the Global South, with countries seeking more expertise and financial support from India for their own archaeological and conservation efforts.
