It is time India became a modern and liberal state, particularly in the larger area of culture and the arts. Therefore, it is imperative that government and its functionaries who administrate ‘culture’, in its broadest definition, exit from institutions that are mandated by the people. The stranglehold of the bureaucratic machine must be loosened and the Indian mind, with its inherent creativity, must be liberated. Our national and state museums, the archives, the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the Lalit Kala Akademi, the Archaelogical Survey of India, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, the National Institute of Design and all such ‘edifices’ have to rewrite their agenda and redefine their operating manuals.
For a start, government must reduce its intervention by becoming an ex-officio member in a reconstructed management scheme where experts in the field and other thinking, liberal professionals from law, media, business, management et al are drawn in to serve on the executive and governing boards as is the standard practice in every other country on this planet. The British set the rules and regulations for the ASI and for the running of our national and state museums. Those rules were based on their manuals with some extra norms that governed a country they ruled as colonial masters. India did not apply its mind to re-writing those colonial laws after 1947 and the Indian babu merely fell into the seat of the ‘white babu’. The imperious and condescending attitude towards Indians remained intact and, in some cases, became even more intolerable. All these institutions must be allowed to breathe free.
Young blood
All the old men and women, experts of another age, must be available only as advisors when the young ask for advice. I was appalled to hear that a young professional, experienced in museum management and working at one of the most prestigious museums in the world, was rejected from becoming the director of the National Museum because she was “too young and only in her forties”. This person has more expertise and experience than all the curators and managers of the National Museum. This repository of Indian culture as well as the Indian Museum in Calcutta that houses some of the finest stone sculptures I have ever seen are in a dreadful condition. It is criminal that the Indian State has allowed such degradation. It is time we untied the horrific bureaucratic bind that suffocated these amazing bhandaars and handed them over to the energetic men and women who know better, who are in their thirties and forties, armed with agile minds brimming with cutting-edge ideas, raring to go ahead with fresh initiatives, to restore, renew and celebrate this priceless legacy.
In this tacky environment that encompasses our heritage sites, there is one site that stands out as a living example of where we should be at vis-à-vis all ASI sites: Ajanta. In the monsoon, when the hills are moist and verdant, thick with foliage, lush and alive, you come across this wonder of the world set into the rock-face, much like a flat horseshoe. It is spectacular. But more important, there is no ugly water tower as far as the eye can see, no ghastly transmission tower, no filth, no plastic bags, no excreta lining the paths, none of the predictable ‘Indian’ environment. How did this area escape the horror? It was not planned to remain pristine, that is for sure. Maybe it is because Maharashtra has ignored this part of the state and there has been no ‘dev-lop-ment’. Here is the test. Can the ASI demand that the buffer area around these 5th-century caves be a protected area, conserved under the Forest Act? Or will development bring in rapacious builders devoid of any sensibility and cultural connect?
