Introduction
The term museum
is derived from Greek word museion which means temple of muses, the
goddesses protecting arts and sciences. The museion or musaion which was founded
by Ptolemaies (who died in 283 B.C.) in Alexandria was centre for learning and
scholarship in the world of ancient Greece and an important establishment of
Hellenic civilization, housing rich collection. It was temple of muses, occupying
a large building in the royal quarter of the town functioning as a centre of
research and education. Hence the primary purpose of the museum was religious.
During the 9th
to 12th centuries of the middle ages of European history, museum
stood as the ‘House of Relics’. Its main function was the preservation and the
saturation of relics of saints who played an important role in the political
and cultural life of the day. In Asia early social museum like institution did
exist to keep the collective memory of people alive. In India stupa containing
the bodily relics of the Buddha was an embodiment of sacredness and spiritual
value. A stupa realizing the social objectivity was an earlier manifestation
contacting back the social reality and providing theoretical museology in
India, even as early as in 3rd century B.C.
Ancient and medieval Indian literature is full
of such terms like ‘Alekhyagriha’, ‘Vithi’, ‘Chitrasala’, ‘Chalan
Chitrasala’ etc. which stand for galleries housing paintings sculptures and
terracotas. These were however the royal museums where ordinary people had no
access. The various Sanskrit place viz. Pratima by Bhasha and Naisandhiyacarita
of Sriharsa belonging to 12th century A.D. respectively speakof
the permanent and mobile exhibition galleries attached to the royal courts. The
audio visual shows and pata-citra (scroll paintings) were intended
basically for public enjoyment and instruction, one of the important functions
of the modern museum.
The era of
Renaissance from 14th to 16th century A.D. marked the
qualitatively a new change in the history of museum movement. Increased
interest in social and natural objects, representing scientific knowledge, were
of special interest to the neo-rich class of the changing society. The growing
demand for curious (Latin ‘curiositas’ meaning thirst for knowledge) and
rarities (Latin ‘raritas’ viz. rare things) gave rise to big collection
of authentic objects. The term museum for a collection was first introduced in
the late 15th century. The search for rare cultural and natural
objects gained momentum soon after the Renaissance.
During eighteenth and nineteenth century
various national museums were opened in various parts of the globe. The first
National Museum in the world was British Museum which was created in 1753. The
First Public Museum of America was founded in Charleston , South California
in1773. It was in 1793 France announced the opening of the palace of Louvre as
the museum of the Republic. Spain had opened National Museum of Natural
Sciences in 1776. In most of the national museums of the world specific
galleries were created / earmarked for the ethnographic or anthropological
collection.
The most widely accepted current definition of a museum is that incorporated in the Statutes of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and adopted at the Eleventh General Assembly of ICOM in Copenhagen in 1974 and modified at the Sixteenth General Assembly of ICOM which took place at Hague, Netherlands in 1989. This defines a museum as:
a non-profit making, permanent institution, in the
service of society and of its development, and open to public, which acquires,
conserves, researches, communicates, and exhibits, for purposes of study,
education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their environment.
The above definition clearly suggests that the major
thirst of museum is largely under the domain of anthropology or ethnography.
Anthropological
Museums play a vital role for conserving cultural heritage through collection,
preservation and exhibition of ethnographic objects. Collection of ethnographic
objects is made from remote corners of the country’s innumerable folk and
tribal villages. The ethnographic collection of an Anthropological Museum
consists of household articles like
bamboo and cane baskets, rain hat and rain coat (made out of leaves), wooden
toys, mat, wooden seat, earthen vessels, bark cloth, wooden mortar and pestle,
wooden measuring pots, ladle, walking sticks, digging sticks and membrane
musical instruments; agricultural
implements like wooden plough, leveler, hoe and sickle; hunting and fishing implements like bow
and arrows, spear, fishing trap, fishing net, etc., and decorative objects
like jewellery, dress materials and paintings. Save and except of the
ethnographic objects, collection of anthropological museum consists of palaeo-anthropological evidences-fossil
hominids; prehistoric tools.
Contribution of
Museums in the Development of Anthropological Schools
Museums and museum personnel played a key role
for the development of anthropological thoughts and schools. General Augustus
Pitt-Rivers ( Lane Fox ) organised a museum in Oxford, following the
evolutionary theory to show the succession of ideas and development. In this
museum foremost British anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor one of the pillars
of the evolutionary school carried out his research. In Germany the doyens of
“Diffusionist School” namely Adolf Bastain, Fredrich Ratzel and Fritz Grabner
carried out research on ethnological study of the diffusion of culture traits
by utilising Royal Museum, Berlin as their platform of study and research. The
idea of research in American Museum with rich ethnographic and anthropological
collection namely Peabody Museum of Archaeology and ethnology at Harvard
University, National Museum of Natural History in New York took concrete shape
when Fredrick Putnam became the Curator of the Peabody Museum. He was assisted
by Franz Boas. Boas build up Columbian Field Museum for accommodating specimen
collected by him and his students. The scholars associated with Boas and the
said museum namely Clark Wissler and A.L. Kroeber and others developed ‘Culture
Area’ concept.
A.C. Haddon and a team of anthropologists
including C S Myer, W H R Rivers, S H Ray, William McDougall and C G Seligman
carried out “The Torres Strait Expedition” during 1880’s. The said collections
of artefacts taken back to Britain by A. C. Haddon are among the most
comprehensive and well-documented ever obtained museum objects. They are
scattered through seven museums, which include the Museum of Mankind (the
Department of Ethnography, British Museum), the Cambridge University Museum of
Archaeology and Anthropology, the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, the Horniman
Museum and the National Museum of Ireland. For the first time the whole range
of these outstanding artefacts is fully described and illustrated with 450
black and white photographs. This catalogue at last makes them available for
study by anthropologists, museum curators, and all others interested in the
history and ethnography of Melanesia and Australia. A.C. Haddon Museum at
Cambridge University is one of the finest ethnographic museum of the world.
Establishment of
Indian Museum and Creation of Anthropological Survey of India
In 1814 the Asiatic Society of Bengal accepted
the offer of a Danish Botanist Dr. Nathaniel Wallich as an honorary curator of
The Oriental Museum of the Asiatic Society. Gradually the bulk of collection
was growing to such an extent that by the end of 1860 the society had no way
but to request the Viceroy to set up an imperial museum. At the request of the
society the Government of India constituted the Board of Trustees for the
proposed museum in 1865. Subsequently the Indian Museum Act was passed and the
museum was renamed as Indian Museum.
"Initially the museum had two section,
Archaeology and Anthropology in one and Botany, Zoology and Geology in the
other. Due to the absence of qualified anthropologist among the staff members
of the museum the anthropological collection were also looked by the
archaeologist."(Sarkar,2005:7). Sir Herbert H. Risley an eminent ethnologist, the
author of various books on colonial ethnography including The Tribes and Castes
of Bengal and Peoples of India when appointed as the Chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the Indian Museum in 1904 proposed to transfer the anthropological
collection from the industrial sections to the zoology section. Government of
India, Department of Education created a separate Zoological Survey of India in
1916 out of the zoological and anthropological sections of the Indian
Museum.
Dr. N.
Annandale, a noted zoologist and in-charge of the newly created Zoological
Survey of India had some unique experience in conducting fieldwork both in
Faroe Islands and Malay Pennisula (Malaysia). He setup a physical
anthropological laboratory in the premises of the Indian Museum. From 1916 to
1919 he took up anthropometric measurements of the Anglo-Indians of Calcutta
(now Kolkata) and made critical observation of their physical features. He
handed over the entire data to Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis for statistical
analysis. The report of the analysis was incorporated in the Records of the
Indian Museum, a special volume (No. XXIII).
Dr. R.B. Saymour
Sewell after taking the charge of Zoological Survey of India felt the urgent
necessity of a whole time officer for taking care of the anthropological
collection. Thus, Dr. B.S. Guha a product of Harvard University and had his
training in primitive arts and industries with noted anthropologist Professor
R.B. Dixon was appointed as an anthropologist to look after the anthropological
collection of the Zoological Survey of India in 1927 and was confirmed in 1929.
He Dr. Guha made extensive fieldwork in NEFA (now known as Arunachal Pradesh),
Nagaland, Andaman Islands and many other parts of the countries. Dr. Guha did
research work based on anthropological collection of Indian Museum and also
with the Indian population of both past and present. Racial classification of
Indian population as a part of 1931 Census made by Dr. Guha was the outcome of
his monumental research and survey work on the present day Indian population.
He also initiated study of skulls comprised with pre and proto-historic crania
from several places such as Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Taxila and from various south
Indian megalithic sites. These skulls were under the charge of the anthropology
section of the then Zoological Survey of India. Dr. Sewell the then Director of
Zoological Survey of India with the help of Dr. Guha introduced a new bulletin
under the title “Anthropological Bulletin from the Zoological Survey of India”.
The anthropological collection of the Indian Museum was under the zoological
section of the Indian Museum From 1911 to 1915.
Since 1916 this
collection came under the Zoological Survey of India and remained attached to
it till 1945. The Government of India formed the Department of Anthropology
(now known as Anthropological Survey of India) in 1st December 1945
at Varanasi with Dr. B.S. Guha as the founder director.
Dr. Guha took away all the anthropological specimen
and gallery from the Zoological Survey of India and created a newly formed
Department of Anthropology on 1st December, 1945 at Varanasi which
was later shifted to Kolkata as its Head Office and renamed as Anthropological
Survey of India.
Museums
of the Anthropological Survey of India
During
the Fourth Five Year Plan (1969-74) the Anthropological Survey of India
proposed to establish a chain of Anthropological Museums for its Head Office -
Kolkata, and the Regional Offices, with a view to documenting and preserving
the bi-cultural heritage of the people, tribal groups in particular of our
country which was materialized and implemented in the Fifth Five Year Plan
(1975-78). And zonal museums were
gradually opened.
Since the first Zonal Museum
was opened at the sub-regional office at Jagdalpur on 7th April
1978, and new museum have been opened at Nagpur (September, 1978 and with newly
modernized gallery in 2012 in a newly renovated building), and the third at
Shillong (April, 1979). Similarly museum (Central Museum) was inaugurated in
Calcutta (23 september,1981) at its Ripon street building, at Dehra Dun (1995),
and at Port Blair (2004) though the museum of Port Blair functioning since
1953. Zonal Anthropological Museums at
the Western Regional Centre, Udaipur was formally inaugurated 11 March, 2013 and
the ZAM of Southern Regional Centre, Mysore
was functioning since 1965 and got its momentum in 1977 after joining
the Assistant Keeper in this regional centre and in 2001 after shifting museum
collection in the new building with the modernization of museum
gallery.
Over the last seven decades the Survey has
accumulated and preserved a large number of ethnographic specimens representing
the wide range of heterogeneous cultural heritages of the Indian people. The
purpose was to make thematic display of these collections in order to make
people aware of the rich cultural traditions of Indian communities through the
dissemination of such bio-cultural information.
Central
Museum of Anthropological Survey of India is located in Kolkata,
the capital city of West Bengal. The Geographical area covered is the entire
country. It has unique collection of numerous ethnographic specimens from all
over India. Besides, artifacts collected from other countries are also on
display. Some of the outstanding objects are wooden carved images of guardian
spirit of Red Kaffir of Pakistan, battle axe of stone and whale bone of Mawe
tribe of New Zealand, wooden effigy and painted magical board of Nicobarese of
Nicobar Island, dancing board of the Andamanese, indigenous musical
instruments, bark clothes, etc. A few communities from whom specimens were
collected are the Great Andamanese,the
Nicobarese, the Chenchu, the Toto, the Tangsa, the Nocte, the Asur, the
Birhor, the Munda, the Santal, the
Gamit, the Agaria, the Gond, the Baiga,
the Bondo, the Juang, the Saora, the
Lepcha, the Kannikar, the Riang are of special attraction. The central museum
is now not opened to the public and a new central museum will be opened in the
Salt Lake Campus of the Anthropological Survey of India after shifting the
objects and exhibits from the central museum at Ripon Street.
Central Museum, Kolkata
Zonal Anthropological Museum of Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre is located at Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Island. The geographical areas Covered are the Andaman and the Nicobar Islands. A few communities from whom specimens were collected are the Jarawa, the Sentinelese, the Onge, the Great Andamanese, the Nicobarese and the Shompen. The zonal museum in Port Blair is an important tourist centre and situated in the heart of the town. This is the only museum in Anthropological Survey of India where entry ticket is introduced for viewing the museum galleries. The display depicts the story of human evolution in general and total picture of tribal lives of Andaman and Nicobar islands in particular.
Zonal Anthropological
Museum of the Central Regional Centre is located
at Nagpur, Maharashtra. The
geographical areas covered are Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Dadra and
Nagar Haveli. A few communities from
whom specimens were collected are the Bhil, the Gond, the Korku, the Varli, the
Kawar, the Baiga and the Pardhan. The number
of specimens acquired is about 2000. This museum gives an insight about the
human evolution and variation through biological change and story of mankind
from prehistoric era to contemporary age.
Zonal Anthropological
Museum of the Sub-Regional Centre located at Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh. The
geographical areas covered are Chhattisgarh and adjoining states of Orissa,
Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The nucleus of the Sub-Regional Centre of the
Anthropological Survey of India was established at Jagdalpur in the form of
Zonal Anthropological Museum (ZAM) on the 11th December, 1972, and
was inaugurated formally on 7th April 1978. The ZAM was given the
status of a Sub-Regional Centre on the 20th December, 1976. The
Centre, since then started functioning independently with the same
administrative power as that of other Regional Centres of the Anthropological
Survey of India. Shri Sundarlal Tripathi, a freedom fighter, renowned scholar
and eminent social worker of Bastar, took all the initiative in establishing
this Zonal Anthropological Museum. As a result of his untiring efforts, Prof.
Humayan Kabir, and then Education Minister, Govt. of India, finally approved
the proposal of establishing a Zonal Anthropological Museum in the heart of a
tribal milieu of Bastar under the guidance of Dr. Surajit C. Sinha, former
Director of the Anthropological Survey of India. A few communities from whom
specimens were collected are the Dandami Maria, the Binjhwar, the Baiga, the
Korku, the Muria, the Munda, the Abujh Maria, the Halba, the Dorla, the Dhurwa,
the Bhatra, and the Gadaba.
Zonal Anthropological
Museum of the North-West Regional Centre is located at Dehradun the state capital of Uttaranchal. The geographical areas
covered are Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir,
Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarnchal. A few communities from whom
specimens were collected are the Gaddi, the Jaunsari, the Bhotia, the Bhoksa,
the Kinnaura, the Lahuli, the kashmiri, the Raji, the Swanglas, and the Ladakhi Bodh. Visitors of this museum can
get an idea about the evolving life styles of Himalayan and sub Himalayan
region.
Zonal Anthropological
Museum of North-East Regional Centre is located at Shillong, Meghalaya. Geographical
areas covered are Meghalaya, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Arunachal
Pradesh. (Tripura being covered by the Eastern Regional Cetre, Kolkata). A few
communities from whom cultural artifacts were collected are the Adi, the Khasi,
the Garo, the Mizo, the Lalung, the Nishi, the Monpa, the Wancho, the Mishmi,
the Naga, and the Khampti. In April,
2001 the centre acquired its own building at Mawblei. This region (established
in October, 1953) celebrated its golden jubilee events by organizing a special
exhibition on Tribal World of Verrier Elwin –Creative Excellence of Tribes in
October, 2002.
Zonal Anthropological Museums of Western Regional Centre is located at Udaipur, Rajasthan. Geographical areas covered are the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat as well as union territory of Daman and Diu as well as Dadra and Nagar Havelli. A few communities from whom specimens were collected are the Bhil, the Mina, the Garasia, the Rathawa, the Saharia, the Damor, the GaruliaLoahar, the Rajput, the Tadri and the Gamti. A permanent exhibition was mounted in Golghar in the premise of Western Zonal Cultural Centre, at Udaipur from 2001 to 2018 and the museum was known as Gol Museum which was a primary place of attraction for the visitors of Udaipur and other parts of Rajasthan. During Shilpgram Utsav the museum regularly organized an exhibition It will not be out of the context to state that during last week of December every year lakhs of visitors visited both Gol museum and exhibition organized by the Zonal Anthropological Museum, Udaipur. This Zonal Anthropological Museum was shifted to its new museum building at Pratap Nagar, Udaipur in March, 2007 and Zonal Anthropological Museum, Udaipur was formally opened to the public after its inauguration in March, 2013.
Zonal Anthropological
Museums of Southern Regional Centre is located
at Mysore, Karnataka. The geographical areas covered are
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Pondicherry and Lakshadweep. The
Zonal Anthropological Museum of the Southern Regional Centre started
collection of objects in the year 1965 and situated at southern regional
centre, Mysore, the heritage city of Karnataka. The Southern Regional Centre of
Anthropological Survey of India was established in April 1960 as the fourth
regional office of the Anthropological survey of India, at Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu. Later it was shifted to Mysore in July
1962. This regional office covers the
jurisdiction of four southern states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala
and Tamil Nadu and two union Territories, i.e. Lakshadweep and Pondicherry.
This zonal museum has developed a visual storage in its new building (acquired
in December, 2001) at Bogadi.
In
short, Zonal Anthropological Museums play a key role in establishing links with
the universe of research as well as in disseminating the finding of research. Each
of the above museums has specimens on household artifacts, crafts items,
musical instruments, artifacts related to economic pursuits , dress and
ornaments, objects related to religious activities from different ethnic groups
. The zonal museums give emphasis on depiction of bio-cultural heritage of
people of the concerned zones. The museums disseminate knowledge through
permanent galleries and by organizing thematic exhibitions, showing the
documentary film made by the anthropological Survey of India, both in urban and
rural areas of the country. All the specimens displayed in the museum are
collected through field research, so the culture matrix of each specimen is
properly documented. At present a thematic exhibition, on “Human Origins, Genome and People of India” has been mounting since
2004 for understanding the human being in time and space with special reference
to India in various cities like New
Delhi, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Mysore, Bhopal, Guwahati, Kohima, Imphal, Itanagar,
and Shillong. Now the curatorial staffs are being engaged to enrich its reserve
collection through a systematic collection plan. A conservation programme was also initiated in the year 2006 under
the National Project “Documentation and
Dissemination” for the care and conservation of the museum specimens of all
the museums of Anthropological Survey of India. Under this conservation
programme museum curators were engaged in both preventive conservation and curative conservation to the
damaged specimens along with digital documentation. The programme on “Conservation And Documentation of Museum
Specimens of Anthropological Survey of India”
continued till 2010 and curators of the Museums visited seven Zonal Anthropological Museums (Nagpur, Udaipur, Mysore, Shillong,
Jagdalpur, Dehradun, Port blair) and one Central museum situated at Kolkata and
was engaged in conservation of selected ethnographic specimens of museum
both from the display as well as reserve collection.
Anthropological
and Ethnographic Galleries in Some Other Museums of India
After successful museum
movement launched by Asiatic Society and Indian Museums, the museum movement
soon spread in the major cities of southern and western India like Madras (now
Chennai), Trivandrum (now Thiruvananthapuram), Bombay (now Mumbai), Baroda (now
Vadodara) and so on. Madras Literary Society an auxiliary of the Asiatic
Society of London gave a spur to this movement in the South. Under the
initiative of the Society and with the active assistance of the Court of
Directors of the East India Company was open in the Collage of Fort ST. George
in 1851 with Surgeon E.G. Belfour as its head. Ethnology was given a place in
this museum in 1878 with the acquisition of bricks collection. Ethnology
section of the museum was developed during 1885 to 1910 when Edgar Thurston was
the Superintendent of the Museum.
He also acted as the
Superintendent of Ethnography of Madras Presidency. Thurston along with
developing the anthropological collection of the museums took photographs of
the so called native tribes, prepared lantern slides, depicting the tribal life
style, made photographic records of the tribal music and brought out bulletin
for publication of his ethnographic survey. The product of his survey- “The
Castes and Tribes of South India” in seven volumes were published in 1909.
Apart from Ethnography the pre-historic collection of museum was enriched by
the gifted specimens of Robert Brucefoot who also prepared the catalogue for
the museum. Adichannalur skulls and
other skeletal fragments found from the South Indian megalithic burials offered
ample scope for developing the physical anthropological collection in this
museum. With the intervention of Baron von Eickstedt the well known German
anthropologist, Dr. F.H. Gravely a naturalist revived anthropological research
so well started by Thurston. Diwan Bahadur K. Rangachari who worked with
Thurston was appointed part time ethnologist in 1927.
To help him noted social anthropologist Dr. Ayinapalli
Aiyappan was appointed as Anthropological Assistant (post later renamed as
curator) in Madras Government Museum in 1929 and he continued in the same post
up to 1940. He became the Director in 1941 and continued up to 1958. A Literary Society, of Bombay Branch of Royal
Asiatic Society and Anthropological Society of Bombay were also responsible for
building of the ethnographical collections in Western India. Dr. Iravati Karve
was associated with Anthropological Society of Bombay and did a valuable
service for development of ethnographic museums in Bombay and Pune. Trivandrum
Museum was developed in 1857 with ethnographic collection collected and preserved by general Collins.
Due to the effort of Sir Richard Temple the then commissioner of Central
Province the collection of Central Museum Nagpur was built in 1863. The Baroda
Museum, 1895 and Lady Wilson Museum (Dharampur, Valsad, Gujarat), 1910 had also
developed by the gifts of the ethnographic objects of the then native rulers of
the respective state.
The Assam Research Society and the Andhra Historical
Research Society started their museum in 1912 and 1928 respectively. During the
tenure of Prof. N.K. Bose the then Director of Anthropological Survey of India,
a major gallery known as habitat group case (Diorma) on major tribal groups
like Khasi, Garo, Naga, Khond, Onge, Nicobarese etc. at a particular stage of
cultural development was installed in Indian Museum, Kolkata ( Das, 1989).
Varrier Elwin played a pivotal role in the development of district cultural
centre in the Tribal Research Institute, NEFA(now Arunachal Pradesh) as early
as 1951. He conceived the idea of a cultural centre, a museum and a library
under one shed for 36 major tribes scattered in six districts at his time. He
conceived the idea of development of the museum through field expedition and
exploration. Elwin believed that with the passage of time these centres or
museums infused a sense of pride among the local population towards their own
art, artefacts and heritage(Elwin, 1959,1960 and Das, ibid). Elwin himself collected a considerable number of art objects
from NEFA which later on became the part of National Museum collection. Rai
Bahadur Sarat Chandra Roy the father of Indian ethnography built a small museum
in Ranchi consisting of ethnographic specimens of the aboriginal tribes of
Chotanagpur an archaeological finds which he excavated from various Asura sites
of Central India. Noted anthropologist Prof. Minendra Nath Basu of University
of Calcutta did his Ph.D and published monograph titled Museum Method as early
as 1943. Prof. Basu and his son Malay Nath Basu who was also anthropologist by
training developed Department of Anthropology Museum in the University of
Calcutta. Noted anthropologist and museologist Dr. Sabita Ranjan Sarkar
developed Anthropology Gallery of Indian Museum and was also an instrumental in
the development of some galleries of Indira Gandhi Rastriya Manav Sangrahalaya,
Bhopal, Don Bosco Museum, Shillong and so on.
Anthropology Museum of the Department of Anthropology,
Delhi University had rich ethnographic collection gifted by Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru and Indira Gandhi, former Prime Ministers of India. Eminent
anthropologist Dr. Nityananda Patnaik developed an open-air museum under the
title “Museum of Man”. This museum has been conceived by the Tribal Research
and Training Institute, Bhubaneshwar. The open-air form gives the impression of
a living museum with regular folk activities, dance performance and other
facets of intangible cultural heritage. Shilpgram, Udaipur of West Zone
Cultural Centre and many other Zonal Cultural Centre took the idea either from
the said museum or from the Indira Gandhi Rastriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal
which is truly an anthropological museum in letter and spirit.
Various Tribal Museums developed by Cultural Research
Institute, Kolkata, MLV Tribal Research and Training Institute, Udaipur, Tribal
Research Institute, Arunachal Pradesh, Tribal Research Institute of Gujarat
Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad and so on were developed under the able guidance of noted
anthropologist Dr. Amal Kumar Das, Dr.
N.N. Vyas, Dr. A.K.Das, Prof. T.B.Naik and so on. All the tribal museums were
nothing but ethnographic or anthropological museums.
P.K.Bhowmick a noted applied cum action anthropologist
also developed an ethno-archaeological museum under the name Radh Sanskriti
Sangrahalaya. Dr. Arun
Kumar Chatterjee former Keeper of anthropology section of Indian Museum and
former Chairman of INC, ICOM and many of his colleagues of anthropology
discipline developed anthropology and musical instrument gallery of Indian
Museum. Dr. Sachin Roy an eminent anthropologist also developed National Museum
and was an inspiration for the development of Indira Gandhi Rastriya Manav
Sangrahalaya. Another anthropologist of repute Dr. Atul Chandra Bhowmik played
a significant role for the development of museum both in the Anthropology
department and Museology Department of the University of Calcutta. Dr. N.C.
Choudhury, former Deputy Director of Anthropological Survey of India and one of
the founder of Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, North Bengal
University not only developed the museum of the Anthropological Survey of India
in its initial phase but he also wrote a scholarly article titled A note on
museum development in India in the Bulletin of Museum Association of Bengal as
early as in1962.
Development of Anthropology Gallery in the National
Museum, New Delhi
The anthropology section was started in the National
Museum in 1960 and the gallery was thrown to the public from1961 and Sachin Roy
and others played a lead role. The anthropology gallery in the National Museum,
New Delhi was largely developed by Prof. A. K. Das who is one of the few vastly
experienced museum experienced Curators in the field of Ethnographic and
Anthropological Museum. The regional variations of dress and costumes,
head-gear, foot-wear, ornaments etc. were partly highlighted in the display and
collection in the said gallery. While developing the gallery Prof. Das opted
for the object oriented display. Diffusionist idea of well known anthropologist
N. K. Bose which was based on his monumental work “Peasant Life in India” which
was culminated in the theory of ‘Unity in Diversity’ ( Bose, 1961) formed the
basis of collection and display of materials in the Anthropology Gallery of
National Museum.
Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (National
Museum of Mankind), Bhopal: A True Anthropological Museum in India
The Cultural Activities and Humanities Sub-Commission
of the 9th Conference of Indian National Commission for Co-Operation
with UNESCO recommended that “A Museum of Man” depicting the different aspect
of cultural stages in India should be setup. The Sub-Commission further
recommended that immediate action should be taken to salvage the varied
ethnographic materials spread all over the country before they are completely
lost. Dr. Grace Morley observed that probably no museum subject in India needs
more attention than anthropology. Prof. L. P. Vidyarthi commented that while
small countries in Europe have more than one museum of man, in India we do not
have a single. In 6th
All India Museum Camp organised by Ministry of Education, Government of India a
strong recommendation was made to set up a specialised museum of anthropology
at national level.
In response to the request made from different quarters the Government
of India set up National Museum of Man (now renamed as Indira Gandhi Rashtriya
Manav Sangrahalaya [IGRMS]) during middle of 1970s. Dr. Sachin Roy Keeper
(Anthropology) National Museum, New Delhi was appointed as the officer on
Special Duty to look after the museum initially. The museum is dedicated for
depiction of story of bio-cultural evolution and variations of human kind in
time and space. The museum is committed to demonstrate the simultaneous
validity of human cultures and plurality of alternatives for articulations. A
nucleus office of the museum was opened at New Delhi in March 1977. In 1979 it
was shifted to Bhopal acquiring an allotment of 200 acre campus at Shamla
hills. The headquarter of IGRMS is located in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh while a
regional centre is functioning at Mysore, Karnataka since 2002. One of the
major mandate of this museum as Sachin Roy observed is to interpret the
cultural history of India in the background of its natural wealth.
At present the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya
(National Museum of Mankind) is spearheading an interactive Museum Movement in
India. It aims to celebrate the simultaneous validity of various valuable
cultural patterns evolved since time immemorial. The museum is working for
national integration, and promotes research and training and inter-institutional
networking for salvage and revitalization of vanishing but valuable cultural
traditions and highlights the unity and diversity which is the basic concept of
Prof. Bose’s monumental work “ Peasant Life in India”. The museum also
organizes exhibitions to present an integrated story of biological evolutions
and variations. The IGRMS, through its exhibitions and salvage activities,
demonstrates the aesthetic qualities of India's traditional life styles; local
indigenous knowledge and mores, and caution the people against unprecedented
destruction of ecology, environment, local values, customs, etc. Thus IGRMS,
Bhopal developed a national museum with true anthropological spirit although
its concept was criticized by an eminent scholar of anthropology and
museology (Das, 1989).
Conclusions
Many studies have been carried out in the context of anthropological and ethnographic museums of India (Bose, 1943; Roy, 1967, 1972; Choudhury, 1976, Dwibedi, 1980; Morley, 1980; Das, 1989; Bhatnagar,1999; Soni, 2005; Upadhyaya, 2011 and others). But it is the need of the hour to document history of anthropological and ethnographic museum of India not only in order to develop more and more true anthropological museums in India which is notionally distinct from ethno-archaeological museums or ethnographic and biological anthropological museums. In reality true anthropological museum needs to be developed in a story telling fashion with the development of galleries on biological anthropology, social-cultural anthropology which obviously incorporates ethnography, palaeo-anthropology, prehistoric Archaeology and anthropology of linguistics or linguistic anthropology. In the anthropological museum effort should also be made to integrate four branches of anthropology in a holistic manner and to depict bio-cultural evolution and variation of mankind in time and space. Concept and contribution of some of the noted anthropologists like Elwin (1959 & 1960), Bose ( 1961), Das (1989) and others should also be considered while developing anthropological museums in India.
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