It’s a matter of anybody’s guess as to how many of us are aware of the varied museums in the Capital and its adjoining areas. Do you know that there is museum in the heart of Delhi that has a dinosaur egg which was found in Gujarat and rocks from Mars and Moon? The National Handicrafts Design Gallery and Earth Treasures Museum located in Connaught Place is a repository of these rare objects along with items like rose quartz hand carved Buddha as well as the world’s only Shivling made of crystal.
Dinosaur egg at the National Handcrafts Design Gallery and Earth Treasures
Similarly the Svatantrata Sangram Sangrahalaya in the Red Fort focuses on the history of India’s freedom struggle through photographs, weapons, statues and historical depictions while the Bhai Mati Das Sati Das Museum preserves the rich history of Sikhism and their conflict with the Mughals.
Likewise, the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets in Delhi is unique as it displays privies, chamber pots, decorated Victorian toilet seats, toilet furniture and water closets and includes a commode in the shape of a treasure chest (British medieval period), the supposed toilet of King Louis XIV, a modern toilet with armrest and portable toilet.
Toilet of King Louis XVI at Sulabh International Museum
Lack of awareness about the existence of these museums and the treasures they hold translates to fewer footfalls. Addressing this crucial aspect, the web-based open resource on the Indian arts, cultures and histories, Sahapedia, has taken an initiative in this direction. It has recently launched a project seeking to digitally map museums in India called Museum Mapping Project. Vaibhav Chauhan, Director, Resource Mobilisation, Sahapedia explains, “Engagement and access are two aspects that challenge museums across the world. In today’s times when the internet and social media are making inroads into the lives of people, these are media that can make museums more visible. The convenience of having a resource through which one can get all necessary information about the wealth of museums can potentially lead to better engagement with our cultural heritage.”
Geo-mapping museums
In fact, the project’s forerunner was a mobile application, Museums of Delhi, which provided this type of information in the digital space. “Realising the vast potential it had, we decided on ‘Museums of India’. This takes the concept to the next level by geo-mapping museums on a web-designed portal, across 10 Indian cities in its first phase.”
In its larger role, the project also furnishes information about museums in other cities thus giving a chance to tourists to include them in their itinerary. As of now, the project has covered 150 museums across 10 cities. These are New Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Guwahati, Jodhpur, Mumbai, Kolkata, Shillong, Vadodara, Bengaluru and Kochi. All one needs to do is click on any of these to access a list of museums with their location, map, a brief note, timings, entry fee, facilities available and link to their website.
On this site one will find Ahmedabad’s Veechaar Utensils Museum which has traditional utensils made of brass, copper and bronze and also the Fanattic Sports Museum in Kolkata displaying sport-related artefacts. Among the artefacts are a football autographed by the legendary Pele, tennis racquets of Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupati, jersey signed by Usain Bolt, signed jerseys of well known Australian cricketers with a complete section dedicated to greats like Sachin Tendulkar. Travelling to Rajasthan one can check Jaipur’s Shree Sanjay Sharma Museum and Research Institute boasting of an incredible stock of 125,000 manuscripts on palm-leaf, birch-bark and paper covering 48 subjects in 16 languages including Brahmi, Sharada, Tibetan, Arabic, Persian, among others.
Vaibhav stresses on the need for the museums to gear towards “phygital” (blending of physical and digital space) phase involving interactive learning through new ways of curation and digitisation of information and content. “While it is imperative that Indian museums do need to become interactive educational spaces, a lot of them with fantastic collections also lose out due to lack of visibility. The Project’s first phase aims to address that while eventually making the portal a dynamic space for interaction.”
Museums on this site are not just the well-known and popular ones but also the smaller ones . “We curate museums in a highly democratic fashion and include any and every museum that allows us access to their collections.” He points out that in Delhi-NCR section there are museums catering to varied interests like Tribal Museum, National Agricultural Science Museum and others. “The Indian War Memorial at Red Fort has different melee weapons, vintage machine gun, Faridkot Imperial Service uniform and various types of grenade fuses.” Going further, he cites the Heritage Transport Museum which houses crystal encrusted Royal Enfield and a DC modified car used in the film Dil To Pagal Hai . For those passionate about photography, the Vintage Camera Museum is the right place as it has on display original silver prints of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, iconic analogue cameras like Kodak 1898 and other cameras.
Original Kodak camera of 1898 at Vintage Camera Museum
Ideation
Working with the objective of promoting an informal educational space, creation of a platform for exchange of ideas, expertise and resources, besides interaction between professionals and people online, Vaibhav foresees several advantages in it. “It will facilitate ideation, creation of new opportunities and collaborations.”
The project is spread over three phases with the first overseeing collection and verification of information by Sahapedia, their documentation and designing of interface followed by the next which will entail creation of profiles of institutions and museum professionals.
Vaibhav Chauhan
“The aim is to render the portal into a dynamic space where current and live information will be fed. Museums through their dashboards shall be able to update their events, news, job opportunities, collections, video/audio walkthroughs, etc.” In the concluding phasefacilities like purchase of tickets, memberships, merchandise and specific tours and events will be incorporated.
Not limiting itself to just setting up the portal, Sahapedia is organising several activities to popularise museums among the people specially the children and youngsters. These include heritage walks, tours and some specific activities like #ILoveMuseums campaign to create interest and baithak evenings to share museum experience.
“An attempt has been made to include information relevant to children like workshops, touch-and-feel sessions, and other activities. Walks and tours are sure to complement the textbook understanding that children develop through their school education.”
