Mumbai museum challenges India's self-image, rising intolerance
"There is no such thing as a singular Indian identity," says curator Naman Ahuja.
(The Christian Science Monitor) In a gallery at Mumbai’s premier museum, visitors admire a 17th-century cloth painting depicting characters from a Muslim court in south-central India. An Ottoman trader feeds a bird; a Central Asian merchant holds a Chinese vase; and in one corner, a yogi sitting cross-legged on a deerskin contemplates a wondrous new object: a pineapple brought to India from the New World by the Portuguese.
Such intriguing juxtapositions, unexpected stories, and global connections form the essence of a new exhibition that recounts India’s history and its engagement with the world through 200 objects. In doing so, it offers a counterpoint to rising intolerance and nationalism in India and elsewhere.
Its purpose is “to present India’s glorious past through iconic objects . . . while allowing people to become partners in a world narrative,” said Sabyasachi Mukherjee, director of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, which is presenting the exhibition India and the World: A History in Nine Stories.
