ABSTRACT

This volume brings together a range of essays that offer a new perspective on the dynamic history of the museum as a cultural institution in South Asia. It traces the museum from its origin as a tool of colonialism and adoption as a vehicle of sovereignty in the nationalist period, till its role in the present, as it reflects the fissured identities of the post-colonial period.

chapter |18 pages

Introduction

part 1|86 pages

Inaugural Formations

chapter 2|38 pages

The Museum in the Colony

Collecting, Conserving, Classifying

chapter 3|22 pages

Staging Science

part 2|66 pages

National Re-Orientations

chapter 4|25 pages

The Museum is National

chapter |23 pages

Museumising Modern Art

National Gallery of Modern Art, the Indian Case-Study

part 3|94 pages

Contemporary Engagements

chapter 7|11 pages

Museums are Good to Think

Heritage on View in India

chapter 8|19 pages

Remembering the Rural in Suburban Chennai

The Artisanal Pasts of DakshinaChitra

chapter 9|18 pages

Reincarnations of the Museum

The Museum in an Age of Religious Revivalism

chapter |44 pages

Museum Watching

An Introduction