India’s museums reflect government apathy to heritage

In February 2024, Home Minister Amit Shah, at an event in Mysuru, claimed that PM Narendra Modi had not only brought back respect for India's cultural heritage on the global stage but also revived "centres of cultural consciousness."

For centuries, museums have served as culture hubs. Early museums may have begun as private collections of kings and wealthy families who had art and natural objects and artefacts. Emperor Jahangir had an enviable collection of animals, plants and other oddities from around the world. It is believed that the world's earliest museum was built 2,500 years ago by a Babylonian princess, Ennigaldi-Nanna, dating from c. 530 BC.

My earliest memory is of an Egyptian mummy displayed in the Indian Museum in Kolkata. I recently revisited this amazing assembly of art, antiquities, fossils and zoological and botanical collections.

Established in 1814, the Indian Museum is the Asia-Pacific region's oldest museum. It was conceived as the "Asiatic Society Museum" under the Asiatic Society of Bengal and curated by Nathanial Wallich, a Danish botanist. In 1865, the imperial government provided the finest site for this museum in Chowringhee.

It has been highlighted as one of the pioneering national institutions in the Constitution of India. Since then, the country has established hundreds of museums. Five of them are directly under the Centre’s Ministry of Culture, 142 administered by departments like the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) and the Railways and 300 are under state governments.

My first reaction on entering this grand museum is of dismay, followed by muted anger and helplessness. It is not uncommon in India to find antiquity being treated with indifference and restoration and documentation are inadequate. But to walk into a place of national significance where priceless exhibits are covered with dirt and are vulnerable to defacement was a horror.

As one enters and approaches the right flank, one finds the imposing Lion Capital of Ashoka, India's state symbol. Coated with dust and a torn curtain serving as the backdrop, this symbol of national pride presented a picture of shame. Almost a decade ago, another Ashoka Lion — a third century BCE sandstone Rampurva in this museum — was broken while shifting. It was reportedly repainted and put back on its pedestal using epoxy adhesive.

City residents claim that several artefacts here have been damaged and some may even have been stolen. In 2004, a fifth century sandstone Buddha half-bust was stolen.

As one wanders ahead, the disappointment gives away to frustration. My memory of the mummy couldn't be refreshed as the Egyptian section was closed. The security across the galleries was lax and the documentation poorly displayed. The light was flickering, making it difficult to view the displayed objects and some corners were not even lit. Cobwebs covered large sections of the building and museum staff were not available. The staff at the rundown gallery shop (that sold only faded monographs and art prints) claimed that the authorities were aware of the situation, but they were understaffed.

The museum has a history of apathy. In 1974, a large collection was stolen. A 2005 CAG report states that "there was no mechanism to assess the genuineness of these artefacts. Shoddy documentation of the acquired artefacts and the inability of the institutions to modernise their documentation systems with the help of digital technology, coupled with the absence of any physical verification during the last five years make the artefacts vulnerable to loss."

The ruling party believes that under Modi, India has undergone "cultural rejuvenation." The 2020-21 Budget allocated Rs 3,000 crore to the Ministry of Culture. It earmarked Rs 109 crore for setting up new museums and Rs 180 crore for developing and "re-curating" existing museums, starting with the Indian Museum in Kolkata.

The government has been trying to highlight India's ancient heritage rather than curate with museum experts in a field that has the potential to use digital technologies and international collaboration. The focus should shift to collections, policies, funding, restoration, human resources, education programming and audience-profiling.

In 2022, I was part of a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) India research, mapping India's creative industries. Our major takeaway was the need for innovation and collaboration. There is a growth in the museum sub-sector, driven by interest in heritage and cultural tourism, with local groups creating local museums and heritage walks and experiences. But the oldest and rarest collections are in danger of being lost or damaged.

Museums serve as one of the most secular spaces and help challenge perspectives while connecting to heritage. Heritage can help bring communities together because it holds our collective memory and through that kind of storytelling, it not only takes us to where we came from but also prepares us to go into the future. Technology is transforming museums from being mere exhibition spaces to those of interaction and engagement. An effort is underway to decolonise museums. In 2021, the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, London, decided to decolonise their collections that were pigeonholed as East India Company or Company Painting, erasing the names of the painters. This is an important way forward to acknowledging a nation's past, even if it is a dark one.

It is true that there has been historical inequality in remembrance and commemoration. Since the 1990s, the return of human remains is part of the curatorial practice in UK museums. The Pitts Rivers Museum in Oxford has decided to return the human remains of Naga tribes to the Nagas.

But decolonisation can be misinterpreted as a culture war between those who subscribe to the Hindutva idea of history and those who do not. Like, the ASI has suddenly gotten busy excavating places of worship based on claims. The wheeled chariot excavated in Sinauli in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh has been linked to the ‘Mahabharata’ and, thus, to a martial Hindu past.

Museums and excavations cannot be used for a triumphant national identity. Museums tell us the story of our migrations that doesn't sit well with the revisionist history. The BJP is reluctant to accept that ancient populations and languages were mixed and that the Aryans may have been invaders. It wants a victorious Hindu past.

So, who will tell our civilisational story? Certainly, the nationalist Indian government cannot be the guardian of our history. But it could and must protect and preserve whatever has remained from the past, a duty it seems to have forgotten.