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With the largest museum, Raisina Hill to be a cultural beacon

India’s most ambitious museum project will both be a challenge and a historic moment to showcase ‘the timeless and eternal India.’
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New address: Yuga Yugeen Bharat Museum will come up at the North and South Blocks. File photo
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SOON, the burra sahibs of the British Raj, once ensconced in the North and South Blocks atop the magnificent Raisina Hill, will squirm in their graves as their crown-crested chairs will be replaced by iconic Indian antiquities, like the Dancing Harappan Girl and the Chola Nataraja, among myriad others.

The upcoming National Museum (replacing the existing one) of India, to be called Yuga Yugeen Bharat (meaning 'the timeless and eternal India') Museum (YYM), is set to come up at the North and South Blocks as part of the Central Vista Redevelopment Project in New Delhi. The museum, making adaptive reuse of the existing structures, spreading over 1,54,000 sq m and having 950 rooms, will be the largest museum in the world. "It will be bigger than the British Museum in London and the Grand Louvre in Paris, which covers around 70,000 square metres," says a government note. This magnum opus would make India sit on the high table of culture in the world.

However, the humungous task of setting up of such an ambitious and gigantic museum is at once exciting and challenging. It's not a simple task of commissioning a new building designed to a programme. It's a project to retrofit two separate blocks that have been built in hybrid neoclassical styles and for use as offices by our colonial masters. Converting them into a world class state-of-the-art national museum is a daunting task.

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The challenges are at multiple levels, both functional and aesthetic. They entail massive architectural modifications and refurbishing of interior spaces to function as museum galleries. They will call for the best Indologists, museum exhibitors, art scholars, interior designers and numerous other related art experts to curate the content, to tell the narrative in an engaging, imaginative and interactive mode.

What is a museum? It comes from the Greek word mouseion. It was used for ancient temples dedicated to the Muses, the patron goddesses of arts and sciences. The concept of the museum as a place for the public developed slowly. "Enlightenment ideals and values — critical scrutiny of all assumptions, open debate, scientific research, progress and tolerance — have marked the museum since its foundation," says Susan A Sternau, an art historian.

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There are numerous examples across the world of existing spaces being converted into museums. The two most iconic museums — the Louvre and Musee d' Orsay of Paris — were originally a palace and a railway station, respectively. While the Louvre is famous for its star exhibit of Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci, the Orsay is redolent with its biggest collection of Claude Monets, Camille Pissarros and other world famous Impressionist artists. The Tate Modern at London, standing along River Thames, was created by converting an old derelict power station into an imaginative museum by architects Herzog and de Meuron.

Before the 20th century, the preferred style for museums was neoclassical or Renaissance, celebrating grandeur and ceremonial language to convey its role as a temple of art. Museum design is a specialised field and some architects of the 20th century have created masterpieces of modern architecture. Museums, like the Guggenheim in New York designed by iconic architect Frank Lloyd Wright and the one at Bilbao by Frank Gehry, are works of sculptural art by themselves.

For the YYM project, let's examine the advantages first. The location is near perfect. For, what can be a symbolically more powerful message than that India holds its cultural and civilisational richness at the highest level, above the axis of state power, at Kartavya Path? The seat of Imperial hubris will now be a temple of art, culture, democracy and diversity. Anyone passing by Vijay Chowk will view the YYM looming large, like a latter day Acropolis, as an embodiment of antique, beautiful and civilisational jewels of India.

It will be the biggest gesture of decolonisation and dismantling of the erstwhile ensemble of brute Imperial power by the soft power of a nation aspiring to be Vishvaguru to a world torn asunder by wars, conflicts and confrontations.

It will also equip the high-security, 'no-entry' zone of the North and South Blocks with a magnificent plaza between the two, which will be accessible to the public, enabling an upfront view of the magnificent Indo-Saracenic hybrid architecture of Edwin Landseer Lutyens and Herbert Baker. The present cold space of state power will become a people's plaza — alive with art, colour and vibrancy that museum precincts the world over generate.

The imposing challenge of the project will be the retrofitting of the nearly 100-year-old buildings, ensuring structural safety for the country's jewels of antiquity and civilisational wealth for another 100 years. All building services will need to be upgraded to the-state-of-the-art levels, without tampering with or damaging the heritage interiors. Many clusters of smaller office rooms and warrens of service areas will have to be merged to create larger gallery spaces to showcase the priceless exhibits.

The YYM agenda is ambitious. Union Minister of Culture and Minister of Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat states that it will “transcend the traditional museum experience and embody the spirit of inclusivity. It will be a museum of the people, centring community narratives — a testament to India's legacy as the mother of democracy." In this context, the ministry recently organised an inter-ministerial stakeholder consultation and capacity-building workshop. India and France have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the development of the project as France is renowned for its expertise in such projects — exemplified by the Louvre, the Grand Palais, and the Hotel de la Marine.

Museums are integral to our cultural imagination and national identity. Let's not get this one wrong. May the timeless and eternal India shine.

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