In early December, on the same day that people arrived in Bengaluru for the opening of the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP), I headed northwest to Gujarat to be part of the opening of a similar endeavour there. The inauguration of the Dr. Savitadidi N. Mehta Museum and the Vishwa Gurjari Library in the city of Porbandar.
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As I drove through the Saurashtra landscape — from Jamnagar airport to Gandhi’s seaside birthplace — the scene outside was a series of contrasts. Out of the desert landscape with vegetation that’s mostly just tumbleweed and cacti, the vast and prosperous Reliance township with the world’s largest refinery appears. Then closer to Porbandar, the Saurashtra Cement Limited campus unfolds under the signage for its Hathi brand and elephant mascot. The cement company is run by one of Porbandar’s most illustrious citizens, the family Mehta, which also set up the museum and library to honour one of its members.
Traditional Manipuri cymbals with silk tassels called kartal | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Wealth for welfare
It is a museum dedicated to the personal and professional achievements of a woman. An unusual feat. Born in Uganda in 1921, Dr. Savita N. Mehta lived an extraordinary life that was the result of fortuitous circumstances and a unique personality. She was the daughter of industrialist Raj Ratna Nanjibhai Mehta, who like many of this region, sailed to Africa and built a business empire in the textile and sugar industries. Incidentally, the late Ugandan president Idi Amin was born on Nanjibhai’s estate since the dictator’s parents worked there.
Jay Mehta | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Nanjibhai used his wealth to fuel development projects in Porbandar, focusing on education and enlightenment. Jay Mehta, head of the Mehta group of companies and nephew of Savita, says his grandfather’s travels impacted his outlook. “He’d travelled on ships and worked in Africa with people of many religions and races. He always said his first lesson was that we’re all humans, so treat people with equal respect.” In 1936, when Nanjibhai, a follower of the Arya Samaj tradition, set up a school for girls in Porbandar, the foundation stone of the Arya Kanya Gurukul was laid by a Dalit girl, to symbolise the inclusivity of the school.
Savita N. Mehta, c. 1945 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Savita, Nanjibhai’s eldest daughter, had a progressive education that introduced her to the performing arts. When she discovered Manipuri dance, it became her focus of study. It was a difficult artform for a non-Manipuri person, but she and her sister became the first women to graduate from the Nehru Dance Academy in Imphal. Savita is credited with popularising this dance around the world, performing it in places as varied as Germany, Switzerland and Kenya. When she became principal of the Gurukul in 1940, she turned her focus to education and the betterment of the students. The museum contains images of her with past prime ministers and presidents, including Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, as well as Zakir Hussain and Radhakrishnan, during their visits to the Gurukul, surely a significant experience for the students who were from agrarian families around the region.
Saurashtra embroidery and silver jewellery | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Despite the pressures, Savita never married. Her legacy instead are thousands of books, detailed drawings related to Manipuri dance movements, vintage audio equipment and exquisite pieces of Saurashtra textile, jewellery and other objects. It is a collection both personal and academic.
The museum and library sit within a neighbourhood of institutions within the sprawling 90-acre campus of the Gurukul. There’s Bharath Mandir, a kaleidoscopic permanent exhibition on the theme of Indian history, culture, and geography, and Nanjibhai’s preserved-as-he-left-it Art Deco style home. These exhibition spaces get close to a lakh visitors annually.
Savita died at the Mehta family’s Mumbai home in 2006, and in her will she instructed that her collections be presented within a museum after her death. The Savitadidi Museum was the actualisation of that wish. The museum was built by award-winning Sri Lankan architect Channa Daswatte, a partner in the legendary Geoffrey Bawa’s erstwhile practice. Daswatte’s buildings are a series of low-slung limestone structures interwoven with a network of water channels beside landscaped green lawns. Two blocks face each other, one housing Savita’s personal effects, while the other, ‘Glimpses of Saurashtra’, has her regional collection. The museum buildings usher the visitor within instead of having them gawking at a building. “Channa understands the importance of focusing on the spirit of structures from the inside and over the years he’s also come to know the way we live and how we think of design,” says Jay.
Savita N. Mehta | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Vintage clothes
To inspect Savita’s collection and organise it legibly, Jay turned to Deepthi Sasidharan, the founder-director of Eka Archive, a cultural advisory that works on museum and heritage projects. Sasidharan’s team spent months reading and inspecting the trove of possessions. “It is impossible to show everything because she collected so much,” says Sasidharan. “For a woman in the 1930s and ’40s, she had accumulated so much technology and there were films, stamps, maps and lots of pictures. We edited all that to curate pieces that help her story evolve.”
Some of the most beautiful and important are Savitaben’s Manipuri dance costumes. Sasidharan worked with the Delhi-based textile expert Deepshikha Kalsi of the Textile Conservation Studio, to restore the vintage clothes. Kalsi has mounted each costume on mannequins custom-made to Savitaben’s proportions. There are also some stunning examples of local attire, particularly Rabari shawls and jewellery. It is important to note that this museum has been created with a significant focus on presentation using specialised communication design, lighting and display, a level of care often missing from large public institutions. “It is a representation of my aunt’s legacy, so it had to be done properly,” says Jay.
A vintage Haribhau Vishwanath Co. harmonium and other recording equipment from Savita’s collection | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
While in scale it is very different from MAP, in intent these private museums in different parts of the country are similar. A few public institutions around state capitals cannot address all of India’s microcultures. So private efforts such as this one in Porbandar do the work of telling these stories and telling them well.
The writer is the editor of beautifulhomes.com.
