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Paper short abstract

In this paper I examine a bound folder of the 1936–37 suit over the Gyanvapi mosque–Kashi Vishvanath compound in Banaras (Varanasi, India), as fragmented evidence and ethnographic object, showing how its uses mediate spatial histories and contemporary claims.

Paper long abstract

This paper revolves around a bound folder containing the proceedings of a 1936–37 suit over access to the Kashi Vishvanath temple and Gyanvapi mosque compound in Banaras (Varanasi, India)—a site central to ongoing campaigns by Hindu nationalist groups claiming it as originally Hindu. The folder was shown to me in 2016 by Kedarnath Vyas, then head of the Brahmin family historically responsible for managing the area between temple and mosque, with whom I had a long-term ethnographic relationship. The folder testifies to centuries of contestations (not exclusively Hindu–Muslim) and sheds light on multiple oral histories of the compound.

I read the folder against the grain while also examining how it was mobilised, despite the absence of certain documents (e.g., land titles), by the Vyas family at a particularly vulnerable moment. This allows reflection on how courts, papers and silences produce partial and fragmented evidence, which is currently reworked and invoked by contrasting parties to assert ritual legitimacy, authority and historical claims.

By tracing both the historical making of evidence and its contemporary afterlives, the paper shows how legal documents function as living archives and productive ethnographic objects. It illuminates the intertwined temporalities of ethnography, court proceedings and politics in Banaras, contributing to an understanding of the role of legal documents in shaping contestations over religious space, ritual authority and heritage.