“One of the things that museums can and should do is build relations with other parts of the world even when governments are not necessarily talking to each other,” said J.D. Hill, Head of Research of the British Museum, at the National Museum on Wednesday.
Mr. Hill was speaking at a lecture series as a part of the exhibition “India and The World: A History in Nine Stories”, about the challenges that many museums face as they seek to tell bigger stories through their collections of artefacts and works of art. Calling the exhibition a prototype on how museums across the world can collaborate to help visitors better understand the world they are living in, he said that the exhibition though various objects, that may or may not be a treasure, places Indian history in a larger, global perspective.
“A particular object displayed at the exhibition will give visitors a perspective about Indian history in relation to what was going on in the world at the same time. For example, it teaches us about what was going on in the Egyptian Civilisation when the Indus Valley civilization was flourishing. This is not the history of India, but a history of India through objects that will hopefully generate debate and interaction within the museum space,” added Mr. Hill.
Collaborative effort
The exhibition is a collaborative effort with the British Museum, London; National Museum, New Delhi; Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Mumbai; and 20 private collections pooling in their resources and bringing together 200 objects from the sub-continent across the world to have a dialogue with each other.
The exhibition is spread over nine sections — Shared Beginnings, First Cities, Empire, State and Faith, Picturing the Divine, Indian Ocean Traders, Court Cultures, Quest for Freedom and Time Unbound.
