‘The Bombay museum is like an NGO,it needs money to maintain its Grade I heritage building and to preserve 60,000 priceless artefacts’
Sabyasachi Mukherjee
‘The Bombay museum is like an NGO,it needs money to maintain its Grade I heritage building and to preserve 60,000 priceless artefacts’
Here are some little-known facts about Bombay that most citizens would not know and which tell a tale of monumental indifference.
The city’s 91-year-old museum was set up by an act of legislation (the Prince of Wales Act of 1909) as an autonomous body to be run by an independent board of trustees. The State gave it an annual grant of the princely sum of Rs. 1.36 lakhs ever since its establishment.
However, nobody bothered about inflation and the grant remained static at that level till it was completely withdrawn in 1998.
Today, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya or CSMVS (as it is now called) is not supported by anybody, neither the State government nor the Centre. It is like an NGO and has to raise money to maintain its Grade I heritage building and to care for over 60,000 priceless artefacts.
Mr. Sabyasachi Mukherjee, the Director-General of the museum, who was speaking at the last meeting on “Museums: Building cultures – Increasing scope for cultural interactions”, pointed out that although it was built to commemorate the visit of the Prince of Wales to the city, the only exhibit pertaining to him was a statute standing exposed to the elements in the garden.
Another little-known fact was that it was designed by a young British architect George Wittet who also designed the Gateway of India. Construction work started in 1909. But with the outbreak of the First World War, the building was converted into a military hospital. Finally, on January 10, 1922, the doors of the museum were opened to the public.
The first collection came from the Archaeological Survey of India and then came the Purushottam Mavji collec-tion in 1915. Later, two sons of the illustrious Sir Jamsetji Tata, Sir Dorab and Sir Ratan, gave their collections to the museum. The Sir Ratan Tata collection was received in 1922 and the Sir Dorab Tata collection in 1933.
This brought him to the second crucial question, “What is a museum?” He said that a museum could also be defined differently under different disciplines. While the inter-disciplinary approach was quite common, the most acceptable definition had been given by the UNESCO.
It said that “a museum is a nonprofit permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment
for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment”.
This definition raised a few questions, and provided their answers, too, said Mr. Mukherjee.
First, what was the character of a museum? The answer to this was that a museum was a non-profit permanent institution open to the public.
Second, what was the duty of a museum? It had to remain in the service of society; this could never be lost sight of. Third, what were the functions of a museum? These were acquisition, conservation, research, communication and exhibition. Fourth, what was the purpose of a museum? UNESCO’s definition answered this question, too, by stating that the key purposes of a museum were education, study and enjoyment.
Touching briefly on the history of the CSMVS, Mr. Mukherjee recalled that it was conceived way back in 1892 by the then British government. However, financial constraints stopped all further work. Finally, a public meeting was held at the Asiatic Society in August, 1905, which was attended by eminent personalities such as Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, Jamshetji Jeejeebhoy, Justice Chandavarkar, Justice Badrudin Tyebji, David Sassoon, Narotamdas Gokuldas and Kikabhai Premchand.
They decided that it was important for a city to have a cultural institution, in other words, a museum. And so the foundation stone for the museum was laid by the Prince of Wales, who was later crowned King George V, on November
11, 1905. The museum was originally christened the “Prince of Wales Museum of Western India”.
Paradoxically, not only did the museum have anything other than a statue of the Prince of Wales in its garden, it did not having anything significant to show even as far as Chhatrapati Shivaji was concerned.
The museum was designed by the young British architect George Wittet who also designed the Gateway of India. Construction work started in 1909 and it took about five years to complete the building. It was built in the Indo-Saracenic style on a parcel of land that was popularly known as the “crescent site” in South Bombay.
But the outbreak of World War I saw the building being converted into a military hospital for some time. Finally, on January 10, 1922, the doors of the museum were thrown open to the public. Mr. Mukherjee said that the architect, Mr. Wittet, had combined Hindu, Islamic and Western architectural elements in his design for the museum. It had eight pillars which, if studied closely, had a lot of similarity to the Jain temple of Vimal Vasahi in Mount Abu. An octagonal wooden pavilion was purchased and brought from a village near Nashik at a cost of Rs. 227.
What about the role of a museum in the present times? “Traditional cultural institutions were created in different times for different audiences (as against) the ones that they now have to serve. While in the past mapping, collecting and preserving cultural goods was of greater importance, today cultural institutions are required to connect with the society and to represent the people they serve. This is what the world is thinking, not just us alone. “And how do we connect with society?
We acknowledge the ownership of people; through our activities we try our best to connect people from different communities. Today, we have a very strong education department which is taking up a lot of activities for different communities. There are four major (target) segments, students, including teachers, the community, the privileged and the underprivileged, and senior citizens.”
Continuing, Mr. Mukherjee said that the prime function of a museum was collection. The CSMVS had over 60,000 art objects. It was known for its collection of miniature paintings. In fact, Dr. Saryu Doshi had studied the collection and commented on its importance. Many believed that it was one of the best collections in the world.
Apart from the miniatures, it had a little bit of everything to offer, such as 200 European paintings, over 1,500 Chinese and Japanese paintings, the collections from the Tata family, the Himalayan art collection, an archaeological collection, a textile collection, arms and armour, natural history and so on. Recently, it had got Indian modern art and contemporary art as part of the Jehangir Nicholson Gallery for Contemporary Art. (The late Mr. Nicholson was a member of the Club.)
Commenting on museums in general, Mr. Neil McGregor, Director of the British Museum, had said that the whole point about museums was that they helped people sort out their place in the world. It was only in a museum that people could look at their past and understand their relation to it – and this was more important now than ever before.
“As the world gets more global and the notion of identity gets more complicated, it is important to have places where everyone can come and look at the museum and come face-to-face with their history, their stories and their future. After all, each object narrates stories.
“We have the personal armour of Emperor Akbar in our collection. When you go around the gallery, we will narrate the story of how it was acquired and you will be fascinated. We also have a metal image of Bahubali representing the Jain community and it narrates its own story.”
Similarly, Mr. Mukherjee said, there was an ivory jewellery box which had been sent for exhibition at the Delhi art fair in 1905; it also had its story. So did the European painting adoration series and so on.
Today, museum curators were presenting cultural artefacts in a different perspective so that people learnt even more about the stories of the past and connected those with the present. Another problem that museums faced was going beyond multi-cultural societies and into the realm of intercultural societies where there was duality of cultures which co-operated in dialogue and in shared responsibility. This was a unique problem in India, especially in a cultural institute. How did one address such issues?
Most politicians and members of society talked about multi-cultural layers,multi-cultural religions and so on. But no one appeared to be making any sincere effort to initiate an inter-cultural dialogue between communities.
To put it simply, inter-cultural dialogue was not unachievable. It was simply a conversation between two people, their decision to respect each other, to understand each other and each other’s culture and to create a platform for the next generation so that there would be very little bitterness in their minds. Mr. Mukherjee said that the city museum had started some initiatives in this direction.
On noticing some years back that it had become an object-oriented museum where visitors came, saw, enjoyed themselves (or not) and went away, now, an attempt was being made to create an atmosphere in which people came, saw, participated, learnt, enjoyed themselves and, before leaving,carried something along.
Many programmes and activities had been taken up under inter-cultural dialogue, bringing different communities and different religions to the museum and organising cultural programmes that would connect the people with the museum and its artefacts.
To increase the scope for cultural interaction, the museum authorities had decided to engage in the exchange of objects and exhibitions in a spirit of generosity and recognising the disparities of resources and expertise; they also recognised their responsibility to share cultural artefacts with a community which had an interest in a collection even if it was not in their care.
To further the circulation of cultural artefacts, the museum had brought in several exhibitions from abroad. The first of these was “Indian life and landscape” by Western artists from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in 2008. This was arranged especially because not many Indians had the opportunity of visiting London to view the paintings. The museum had thus brought world culture to the citizens’ doorstep and did not charge even a rupee extra for such special exhibitions.
Another exhibition was of “100 Art Decor items from Tilany”, Milano, Italy; and a third was that of ancient China when, for the first time, the “Terracota Army” travelled to Bombay. It was a rare opportunity for the citizens of Bombay to see the collection for which specimens had been picked up from nine provincial museums in China.
Similarly, said Mr. Mukherjee, the Bombay museum had been sending part of its collection, especially its rich treasure of miniatures, abroad. Many miniatures had travelled to different parts of the world, as had several sculptures.
Recently, the museum organised an exhibition styled “Mummy, the inside story” which was an Egyptian collection from the British Museum, London. Talks were on to bring a Roman collection from the British Museum. Rubens’ original paintings were likely to be shown for the first time in Bombay very soon in co-operation with the Belgians. “The idea is to bring world culture to Bombay which will provide a new perspective and the ability to understand culture from different perspectives and interaction with world communities.
“As part of an interesting programme under inter-cultural dialogue, we invited students from 15 schools, all of them from different religions and communities, so that they had an opportunity to interact with each other. The subject was Akbar and his religion.
There was a panel discussion among the children. Some parents also participated in it. We repeated this programme twice. There was a huge response. “These are some of the programmes and exhibitions taking place in the museum along with conversations with artistes and experts, sharing their ideas and experiences with college students and school children. For your information, over a million people visit the museum every year, including over 200,000 children. Clearly, there is a huge appetite for culture.”
Mr. Mukherjee said that apart from Mr. Neil McGregor, Director of the British Museum, the Director of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Director of the Scotland Museum had also visited the Bombay museum and shared their experiences.
Thus, the Bombay museum was an educational institute, a cultural institute and a civic space for social debate. From time to time the museum organised cultural programmes, too. Every year, at least four to five cultural programmes took place in the premises, whether performing arts, classical music concerts, a symphony orchestra, Indian folk dances and performances.Mr. Mukherjee also spoke about the shape that museums would take and the role that they would play in future. They would help disseminate knowledge, expertise and resources through professional and virtual networks, in addition to the circulation of material objects. They would also allow
for a variety of perspectives in the interpretation of museum practices; and engage in the exchange of objects and exhibitions in a spirit of generosity, recognising the disparities of resources and expertise.
Returning to the question, why museums, he said it was evident that museums had to be creative and innovative
to remain relevant in a changing world. They had to move towards becoming high-impact, audience-centred nstitutions valued by the community, artistes, other institutions and the government.
And what about integration? Museums around the world were guardians of the cultural and artistic achievements of humankind. By providing people with the opportunity to experience cultural objects and art, museums fostered not only an appreciation of human beauty and inventiveness, but also promoted mutual understanding of histories and cultures among the peoples of the world.
The museum was reaching out to NGOs working with HIV patients, sex workers and their children and also construction labour and their children. They were being encouraged to bring these under-privileged sections of society to the museum in order to give them the museum experience as part of cultural integration and to participate in the activities conducted at the museum.
“As they say, museums touch human lives; a museum is not merely a storehouse of antiquities which establishes a link between the past and the present, but an important centre of culture and education that touches all aspects of human life.
“We also have programmes for senior citizens; we have done many in collaboration with the Dignity Foundation and with other institutes… at present we have partnerships with seven institutes all over the world.
“Saregama, the musical heritage of India,” was, for the first time, organised in the museum. At present there is an interesting exhibition going on, called ‘Conversations with nature, the art of Bireswar Sen’. If you have the time, please do visit the museum,” Mr. Mukherjee added.