HYDERABAD: Stepping into a museum is like entering a realm where time stands still, especially if it is the Salar Jung Museum, with its grand entrance that beckons with exquisite architecture, or a museum that houses memories of a bygone era, such as Nizam’s museum at Purani Haveli, or a museum forcing us to look at life beyond our own comforts and glamour of city life.
The International Council of Museums (ICOM) began celebrating International Museum Day (IMD) on May 18 every year since 1977 to highlight “cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples.” Museums function as institutional representatives of the preservation and conservation of knowledge and memories of different communities.
While visiting a museum can be a surreal experience, it is important to understand the challenges of maintaining and administering a museum, particularly one as large as the Salar Jung Museum. “It is a question of expectations from the public and the board members. A comparison is made with international museums and to fulfill all of them in a short amount of time is not possible. We are working for the past 15-20 years. We have made our museum at par with the international ones including our display, preservations, etc,” said the director of Salar Jung Museum, A Nagender Reddy.
With a footfall of around 6000-7000 visitors in summer, the museum is host to a number of events and exhibitions trying to promote various art forms. The incorporation of technology works as a support in the management but might prove as a disturbance or a distraction for visitors. “From 2006 we have been ensuring the use of technology in our work, almost 29000 books have been digitised. Two years back, we launched an app for visitors. Around 50 exhibitions are online with Google Arts Project. However, for the museum, developing an interest in old artefacts is a priority. A large number of our visitors are from rural backgrounds and for them, being able to use technology is a challenge. We are heading in that direction but things will be done selectively and gradually,” he said.
As the theme for this year’s IMD is sustainability, the director said that the museum takes the help of the National Environmental Research Institute to identify the main pollutants surrounding this area. Greenery is maintained and air curtains have also been put in place. In order to promote community involvement and encourage hidden talents, two private exhibitions are on display, and by the end of the month, tribal artefacts exhibition will also be put up with more than 4000-5000 tribal artifacts including musical instruments on display. Raising awareness about tribes of the state and introducing city dwellers to the life and culture of tribal communities, Nehru Centenary Tribal Museum was established in 2003.
“As the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru framed Panchasheela rules for tribal welfare, on his centenary, this museum was conceptualised in 1989. But it finally opened in 2003. Thereafter, in 2014 the state was bifurcated. After that people questioned that only the tribal culture related to Andhra Pradesh was displayed here. So we wrote to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, requesting them to release funds to revamp the museum. It was revamped entirely and now it shows the tribal culture of Telangana only,” said D Satyanarayana, curator of the museum.
The museum has three floors. On the ground floor, the life and culture of tribes like Chenchu, Kondareddy, Kolam, etc are displayed, which fall under PVTG (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups), categorised as such since 1975 due to their decreasing population and lack of interaction with other tribals, rural and urban population. They live in dense forest areas, hills and valleys.
Other tribal communities are displayed on the first floor, such as Gonds, Koya, Lambadis, etc. Their material culture such as musical instruments, household items, fishing tools, etc is displayed on the third floor. The museum collaborates with the schools of Hyderabad to attract students as their social science syllabus overlaps with the life and culture displayed at the museum. “We also screen documentaries related to the life and culture of the tribes. We invite people from tribal communities to share their stories and perform dances for children. They recite songs and play musical instruments too,” said D Satyanarayana.
In the days to come, the museum will display photographs, paintings, sculptures, medicinal plants and the food culture of the tribes. Exhibitions are also put up on Tribal Day, which is celebrated on August 9 every year and also on November 15, which is the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda. Another rare museum is the Nizam’s Museum at Purani Haveli in the Old City which houses presents received by the last Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan on his silver jubilee in 1936.
Besides several mementoes, models, decorative artefacts, building models, swords, paintings, and formal declarations that were gifted to the Nizam then, it also features 176-feet -long, world’s biggest walk-in wardrobe which belonged to the sixth Nizam, Nawab Mir Mahboob Ali Khan and a 150-year-old manually operated lift.