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The Indian Game of Snakes and Ladders

Andrew Topsfield, Artibus Asiae 46, no. 3, 1985, pp. 203–226

Description

The foundational study of how the Indian spiritual race game was appropriated by British imperialists during the colonial era, systematically stripped of its Jain, Hindu, and Sufi spiritual content, and commercialised as the morally simplified children's game Snakes and Ladders.

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Contributed

The Academy · May 27, 2026

Discussion

What does this material reveal? Where else does it lead?