By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun, 17 Nov: INTACH held a session on ‘Stories of the Hills: A journey Through Uttarakhand’ at the Valley of Words Literature Festival held from 16-17 November 2024 at Hotel Madhuban, here.
An expert talk was delivered by Lady Kishwar Desai, Chair, Partition Museums. She highlighted the history of partition which is the largest displacement in human history. She spoke on building a world class museum from scratch: challenges and victories: Learnings for Uttarakhand. She said that the museums were about hope, survival and friendship. There was also a talk by Manoj Saxena, Superintendent Archaeologist, ASI, on Understanding Antiquity. He highlighted the fact that antiques should be registered to be recognised as an antique. Alongside this, there was an exhibition by the Uttarakhand Museum Community (UmC): “Khazaane”, of 10 museums of Uttarakhand from various places in the state. Mussoorie Heritage Centre, Mussoorie, Soham Himalayan Museum, Mussoorie, Pratap Museum/Tibar, Uttarkashi, Colonial Antiques, Dehradun, Jim Corbett Museum, Kaladhungi and Rudraprayag, Garhwal Regimental Centre, Lansdowne, Archaeological Survey of India, Excavation sites, Nature Education Centre, Forest Department, Lok Sanskriti Museum, Bhimtal, participated in the exhibition.
There were collections of excavations site tools, coins, WW1, WW2 vintage memorabilia from Mussoorie Heritage Centre, prints by Yashodhar Matpal, products made by Jim Corbett Village Chotti Haldwani, typewriters, inks and various writing materials from Pratap Museum and Colonial Antiquites, traditional hand-crafted products, traditional headgear and various other replicas from Soham Museum, war heroes and military history from KRC. The exhibition drew a huge crowd of students who were very curious to know about the various artifacts of their own culture displayed, which was a novelty for most. Several exhibits caught their attention, while the collectors faced questions from the young minds trying to satisfy their cultural thirst.
Anjali Bharthari, co-convenor INTACH, said that this was the first time that the museums from the hills were presenting in Dehradun and had the opportunity to attend roundtables on capacity building which will help them to upscale their museums.
There were focused roundtables by Nerupama Y Modwel, Principal Director, Intangible Cultural Heritage, INTACH, New Delhi. She presented the CAG museum in Shimla and the Man Mahal, museum at Varanasi. Merrin Anil, Centre Coordinator, INTACH Conservation Institute (ICI), Delhi, had an immersive workshop with participants on preventive and curative conservation. She presented case studies on storage management and aspects of preventive conservation which can be implemented by the museums to prolong the life of their collection. A Fund raising and support session was organised online by Jivan K Bachhav, Deputy Secretary (Museums), Ministry of Culture, Government of India. This was an eye-opening session for the museum collectors who are in need of funding support to upscale their museums. The session set the participants thinking of how they could upscale their museums with funding support. Bharti Jain, Convenor INTACH, Dehradun, and Surbhi Agarwal, Co-convenor, Mussoorie were also present to interact with schools and participants.
