The Indian Museum in Kolkata
The Indian Museum in Kolkata, established in 1814, is the largest multipurpose museum in the Asia Pacific region, set in a grand building in the bustling Park Street area. As luck would have it, the day I decided to visit, the museum was opening a special exhibit on the holy trinity of Hinduism – Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshwara – announced with colorful posters in the corridors. I arrived early in the day to start with the special exhibit before it got crowded. A tall brass ceremonial lamp set in a floral rangoli welcomed visitors at the entrance to the exhibition.
As I wandered through, reading helpful descriptions of the beautiful 2nd to 9th-century sculptures, a young lady approached me. “You are seeing all this with such interest. Do you want to stay or leave?” she asked. At my puzzlement, she explained that a ribbon-cutting ceremony was to take place. The museum was expecting a chief guest shortly for a formal inauguration.
A celebration
I had barely been there for 15 minutes, so I chose to stay. Ten minutes later, I joined a hundred other guests and performers, as well as dancers clad in Bharatanatyam, Kathak, and Odissi costumes. It turned into a two-hour commitment.
The chief guest, the Honorable Governor of West Bengal, C.V. Ananda Bose, gave a fiery speech peppered with Sanskrit shlokas and left before the performances began. I stayed to enjoy the brilliant dancers and poetry, enacting mythological stories of the holy Trimurti and relating it to contemporary life, in the various classical and folk art traditions of India.
Tapestries & textiles
Afterward, I explored the Textile Section and was rewarded with a display of colors, patterns, embroidery, weaves, and styles from different regions of India. I found Kashmiri shawls, Gujarati embroidery, Banarasi brocade sarees, and Rajasthan block prints, showcasing India’s rich fabric traditions used to create the everyday utilitarian garments common in my childhood.
Gandhi’s Swadeshi movement during India’s freedom struggle made it a matter of national pride to wear handlooms, that were subsidized and promoted by the Government of India.
Today, the power looms have co-opted the design vocabulary of these traditions to create cheaper mass-produced imitations that the handloom sector cannot compete with now. The handloom industry has dwindled, now the preserve of only wealthy patrons. The craft is dying because practitioners cannot make even a humble living from it.
Bits & pieces of stone
The impressive Museum building has tall columns on both floors, framing the central open lawn. Large corridors containing sculptures lead to different sections in the halls behind them. What surprised me the most was many ancient sculptures, from the 2nd, 5th, or 9th centuries, kept in open corridors exposed to the elements. I am used to seeing antiquities in controlled environments to prevent damage to them, not a casual display of sculptures lying in walkways. I reassured myself that if they survived through the centuries, they might survive this benign, modern neglect.
Another gallery displayed carefully shielded sculptures behind closed glass cases some of which prohibited photography. The glory of many centuries of Indian art and culture just sat there in bits and pieces of stone. They embodied well-known stories from Indian mythology. Some had exquisite carvings that turned stones into Gods, complete with beautiful bodies, calm smiles, and precious jewels in their crowns, necklaces, and earrings.
Visitors
I skipped the taxidermied birds and beasts and a gallery of gems and minerals explaining the industrial era origin of coal, pharma, and petroleum dominance.
The museum is popular with local tourists and their families. One young family was celebrating their older son’s tenth birthday. We ate at adjacent tables in the cafeteria and I asked if he wanted to be an artist. He promptly and confidently declared he wanted to be a medical doctor.
The museum had a small store with hardly any merchandise and a few books and pamphlets, none about the textiles I was interested in.
Benign neglect
For an institution of national pride, the place was in poor repair. Benign neglect, perhaps from small budgets or the common disregard for history. That made me wonder how the shopping malls and international fast-food chains are kept sparkling clean while this beautiful old building and the antiquities it contains are neglected and taken for granted.
Ancient living traditions make India the country it is. My joy at the treasures I could enjoy that day also left me pondering why there is no sign of national pride in maintaining an impressive building and its precious artifacts. It felt like more attention was paid to a dignitary’s visit and an international designer’s fashion show that was being set up in the textile section. The photos and websites are more impressive than the experience of the real museum.
I was fortunate to have the adventure of watching performing artists celebrating the 210th year of the institution with the Governor in attendance.
