New Delhi: When the lotus was chosen as the official logo of the G20 meet in India last year, a controversy had erupted with many pointing out that it was also the symbol of the ruling BJP.
The question that was asked in September last year was answered recently at a Delhi gathering.
“[The] Lotus, of course, had a very powerful presence in our civilisation. It’s a metaphor for detachment as [the] Gita says, a sacred symbol. It’s omnipresent,” said Raghvendra Singh, former Secretary of the Ministry of Culture who had curated the ‘India’s Roots and Routes’ exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art on account of the G20 last year. The showcase displayed the profound interconnectedness of India’s rich heritage through artefacts flown in from different corners of India.
A recent discussion on the exhibit at New Delhi’s India International Centre (IIC) saw historian and author William Dalrymple captivate the minds of an audience comprising art enthusiasts, bureaucrats, museologists and cultural connoisseurs. Stressing on the importance of the exhibition, Singh said that the theme was chosen to signify universal inclusiveness and reflect G20 priorities.
A rare & extraordinary collection
Singh’s 50-minute presentation on the exhibition explored thematic richness, curatorial challenges, and the impact of such exhibitions on India’s cultural narrative. Dalrymple vouched for the exhibit’s rarity. “In my time in this city, such an extraordinary collection of masterpieces has never been put on display together and a real eye-opener of the quality of collections that there are in this country.”
Singh spoke about India’s timeless heritage, spanning centuries and continents. He told the audiences about how meticulously the artefacts were selected from across India to offer attendees a rare glimpse into the diverse tapestry of India’s cultural evolution.
“This is about India’s civilisational expressions, about roots, which is interconnectedness. And in the process, whatever is really exquisite and has a resonance, and is world-class,” he said of the exhibition that has been on since last year.
The exhibit displays Gandharan Sculptures, chariots found from the Sinauli excavation, Amravati and Chola Bronzes, Buddhist antiquities, coins, old paintings, as well as manuscripts from various government museums.
The exhibition traces cultural marvels through Indian narratives, drawing from archaeology, literature, numismatics, epigraphy and paintings. “Subjects like Shringar and knowledge systems that are transnational are taken to portray the nuanced legacy of the Indian story,” said Singh.
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Curatorial odyssey
The Ministry of Culture had called Singh before the G20 summit, requesting him to curate an exhibition. The ministry later christened it ‘Roots and Routes’.
Singh took over six months to curate the exhibition. He and his team visited several iconic institutions in Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh and Chennai, among others, which served as the custodians of these antiquities. “The more I saw, the more I felt that I needed to bring this to our people. Because I was also learning in the process. I am no curator and not an art historian. I enjoyed every minute of it,” said Singh.
It is the first time that an exhibition has seen such large-scale participation to showcase original antiquities. Sixteen iconic institutions of India, including the Indian Museum in Kolkata, Chennai and Chandigarh and the Asiatic Society of Kolkata sent out their antiques to Singh and his team. From the depiction of love and music to reflections on nature and spirituality, each artefact was a marker of India’s civilisational ethos.
However, the exhibit will be taken down soon, after being displayed for over seven months at the National Gallery of Modern Art. “Taking the exhibition off is also a major job because of the antiquities there. They are so precious and so valuable,” stressed Singh.
Dalrymple praised Singh’s effort, saying that while the bureaucracy often gives people cause to complain, they also occasionally end up doing spectacular things such as this. “So, this [the exhibition] is a rare example of an absolutely fabulous array of feasts of masterworks. It is one of the great treats.”
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The museum question
After Singh’s engaging presentation, the audience posed many questions on the handling of museums in India as well as the recent controversy around the demolition of the National Museum. In 2021, the Narendra Modi government had informed the Supreme Court that after the completion of the Central Vista projects, the North and South Blocks located at Rasina Hill will be converted into national museums.
When an audience member asked Singh about the state of the project, he said “The space in the National Museum and its collection, you know, what India is and what India’s National Museum ought to reflect is not there. So, the North and the South Blocks are just the right places to have a museum and we will have to retrofit it. So, all that talk is going on,” he said.
Dalrymple soon intervened and questioned Singh about whether the suggestion that the British Museum would assist India in building new museums at the North and South Blocks was true. “I think there is some talk,” Singh replied, adding that it would take five, six or even seven years to properly curate the museums and come up with a museology school.
Then, a curious audience member approached Dalrymple with a question: Why are some of India’s best treasures still in England?
“I will fly my Scottish flag at this point,” Darymple jokingly said as the hall erupted in laughter.
But the wheels are moving and the momentum has begun, Dalrymple elaborated, adding that an act of Parliament needs to be passed in other countries for museums to give things back to India. Moreover, he said, museums in India have been allotted budgets to look after artefacts properly.
“India is now a rich country. We can afford new airports every week. So we can afford equally spectacular museums which this great civilisation deserves.”
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)