Moving mountains

The National Museum in Delhi is one of the buildings marked for demolition under the Central Vista project, with its massive collection of heritage objects slated for a move. Artists, historians, gallerists and museum curators weigh in on the practicality of the decision

The Central Vista Redevelopment Project proposes to demolish, along with the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and the Annexe of the National Archives, the National Museum, and has instead assigned spaces in the North and South blocks for museum buildings, which will purportedly represent the story of 75 years of India’s Independence. The lack of information on how this massive a project is being undertaken has scholars and curators raising questions about everything from the security of thousands of national treasures to the very optics of such an execution in the middle of a national health disaster. 

For Mumbai gallerists Shireen Gandhy of Chemould and Geetha Mehra of Sakshi Gallery, the opacity around the project is the most astounding. While there are questions in some circles about the accuracy of even the scant information that is being made available, others wonder about the professionals entrusted with it, the choice of new designated museum spaces and the art they are going to hold. “As citizens of the country, this is our combined heritage,” says Mehra, emphasising the need for more publicly available information even as she wonders if it is all a part of the current government’s plan to gain political mileage, and simultaneously distract the masses.

The National Museum building in New Delhi. Experts say that it would take a minimum of close to eight years to plan a new one if we started now

“The [museum’s official] website simply says that it is closed till May 31; there’s no notice up there,” points out museum professional and director of Delhi-based Eka Archiving, Deepthi Sasidharan. “Imagine doing this with the Louvre or the British Museum!” Apart from the few newspaper reports that have mentioned the demolition, there is no information available about the fate of the collection it houses or the staff, or the nature of programming that a possible new museum will entail.

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“Museums tell stories,” asserts jewellery historian Usha Balakrishnan, who curated the permanent jewellery gallery at the National Museum in 2014. “What is the story that is going to be told in that [new] museum? We are an extremely multicultural, pluralistic society—will that multiculturalism come through?” she wonders. The academic community in India, she feels, has always been left out of the discussion, and in fact, suggests that this operation is the ideal opportunity to take scholars and museum professionals on board and make use of their specialised knowledge. 

For noted photographer and curator Ram Rahman, who was among the several globally renowned artists and museum experts who released a statement earlier this month calling for an immediate halt to the project, the need to demolish the building appears illogical. “It is a very solid building which has been upgraded over the years. Major exhibitions have been held there, including that of the priceless miniatures illustrating a 17th century account of the life of Shah Jahan, which had very strict climate and lighting control. Of course, the building is associated with [former Prime Minister Jawaharlal] Nehru which I think is one of the main problems Mr Modi has with it. And to replace it with a seven-storey office block is absolutely shocking.”

Others, however, are not opposed to the building of a new structure if it means better infrastructure, the latest available technology, along with an opportunity to recalibrate processes like digitisation. “Looking at all the new technologies that are available today, I would hope and believe that if a new National Museum is being built, it would be much better than the museum we are going to lose,” says Abhishek Poddar, founder of the Museum of Art and Photography in Bengaluru, citing the example of the much-lauded new Bihar Museum, built on the site on Bailey Road west of the 1917 Patna Museum.

Moving museum artefacts isn’t easy. When 300 art objects were packed and moved by experts from the Mehrangarh Museum, Jodhpur, to Houston, Seattle and finally Toronto for an exhibition under the supervision of its director, it took a team of 10 people and a month’s time. To avoid internal movement while shifting in crates, cavities were created so that each object had a specific space cut out for it. Pics courtesy/Mehrangarh Museum Trust

“Museums are dynamic institutions. They need to evolve with time, they need to introduce new technology, exhibition techniques, install new galleries,” feels Balakrishnan. She explains that a degree of confidentiality around the movement of priceless art objects which will possibly lie in storage for at least the next two years, is understandable, and that there might be a blueprint in place that the average citizen is not privy to. However, she alerts that in the case of the relocation of a museum space, there are several elements to be considered, like location, arrangement of displays, storage spaces, conservation laboratories, administration 
offices, areas for children, auditoriums, and spaces for international exhibitions.

The location, in particular, is important as it needs to be accessible and should not be in a high-security zone, any threat to which will render it instantly inaccessible—a likely situation for the museum’s new allotted home. Moreover, she says that the National Museum’s present location, at a stone’s throw from the National Archives, was extremely convenient for both scholars and first-time visitors to this historic part of the capital.

Ram Rahman, Abhishek Poddar and Karni Jasol

But the moving itself of tens of thousands of extremely fragile, ancient artefacts, some 5,000 years old, is a highly complex, not to mention colossal operation. There are stone sculptures, textiles, manuscripts, leather and anthropological objects, coins, jewellery, a three-storey high library with an entire wall of rare books, and even objects like those confiscated by the Customs department that have ended up in the National Museum. 

“Shifting of art objects is a serious business that involves a lot of care and precaution; it’s like a military operation,” says Karni Jasol, director of the Mehrangarh Museum in Jodhpur. He explains that the job involves a highly skilled team of conservators and art handlers, who are aware of how a variety of objects from sculpture and jewellery to armour demand specialised handling. This must be accompanied by an elaborate process of documentation and photography to ensure security. 

There are also important factors like exposure to sunlight, climate and temperature control, storage specifications involving acid-free foams, and cavities within crates to restrict movement of objects to avoid damage. For a travelling exhibition they planned, he describes how 300-odd items. which included an elephant howdah and Mughal textiles, were packed and moved from Jodhpur and taken to three museum venues in the US and Canada. The operation involved 10 people and lasted close to a month. While not remotely comparable to the impending shift of objects at the National Museum, it offers some perspective on the sheer magnitude of the task that lies ahead.

5,000
No. of years, some of the artefacts in the museum date back to 

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