‘Missing’ monuments of India tell a tale of neglect

The reintroduction of the AMASR Amendment Bill sparks concerns over the future of India’s protected monuments and archaeological sites.

Uru Music Collective: Recreating ancient instruments

How a young band in Chennai is combining scholarship, innovation, and tradition to make ancient musical instruments come alive.

How Bihar is rapidly losing the libraries that it was once famous for

Once famous for its glorious libraries, Bihar has slowly lost many of them. Today, only 51 remain, while six districts do not have even a single one.

Syed Faizan Raza,Ali Fraz Rezvi

Where did Nana Saheb go after fleeing India in 1859?

Did the Peshwa land up in Nepal, or was he living in Bhutan in the court of Druk Desi Jigme Namgyal?

Tamil Nadu in focus as debate over restitution of antiques rages on

While the recovery of missing temple idols is a shrill demand, the retrieved artefacts often lie in abject neglect.

Ilangovan Rajasekaran

Patuas of West Bengal sustain their art of storytelling through scrolls

Through painted scrolls and songs, it now flourishes in varied adaptations, putting the art on the world map.

Hiren Kumar Bose

Assamese monks on mission to save rare culture and language

This Buddhist community began an initiative to preserve Tai Phake history, culture, and identity.

Gurvinder Singh

More stories from Heritage

Amer Fort of Rajasthan. The ICHR sees the mingling of Rajasthan and Mughal architecture in the Amer fort as indicative of the “spirit of democracy” of the Kachhwahas.

ICHR exhibition presents selective view of medieval Indian history

An exhibition on medieval India’s “unexplored dynasties” betrays an effort to manufacture history.

Krishna Mohan Shrimali

A decorated tram cuts through Esplanade in central Kolkata on February 24, flagging off the week-long Tram Jatra to celebrate the 150th year of the tramways in Kolkata. Trams began operating in Kolkata on February 24, 1873. At present, only three tram routes are operational and the services are irregular. Till 2017, there were more than 25 routes in the city.

Can the 150-year-old Kolkata tramway keep up with the city’s frantic pace?

Kolkata’s oldest and greenest mode of mass transit might just ramble into the sunset.

Tamil estampages being digitised at the regional centre of the Archaeological Survey of India in Mysuru.

ASI Mysuru works on preserving history from inscriptions in estampages

The agency intends to soon establish a National Museum of Epigraphy in south India.

Vikhar Ahmed Sayeed

The restored garden house in Konnagar, West Bengal. Abanindranath spent many happy days of his childhood in this one-storey house with a sprawling garden overlooking the Hooghly river.

Abanindranath Tagore: Garden house of the homing artist restored

But the sprawling mansion where the Bengali author-artist breathed his last lies in utter neglect.

Biswajit Sahu. He has made it his life’s work to bring to the fore the historical and cultural heritage of the land he lives in.

The museum that Biswajit Sahu built in the Sunderbans

More than 10,000 items painstakingly gathered over the years are on display in remote West Bengal.

Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay

The DCOW museum bus arrives at a village.

Design Centre on Wheels: A mobile museum that promotes indigenous embroidery in Kutch

The project led to many innovations in motifs, designs, and scale.

The Impact Wall, an installation that showcases the activism and achievements of persons with disabilities from across the world.

Chennai’s Museum of Possibilities

Funded by the Tamil Nadu government, the project is managed by the NGO Vidya Sagar.

Siddarth Muralidharan

A rock bruising consisting of humped bulls, birds, and ithyphallic humans at Sanganakallu.

‘Museums are better than textbooks’: Archaeologist Ravi Korisettar

Robert Bruce Foote travelled across south India for over 40 years collecting antiquities.

Vikhar Ahmed Sayeed

part of Frontline’s Dec 30, 2022, cover

Editor’s Note

India treats its museums like nothing better than ill-run warehouses.

A barbed wire fence, a noose made of rope and a wall of photographs of once labelled criminal tribes. This particular exhibit is symbolic of the atrocities committed on the tribes.

Conflictorium: A platform to speak of the atrocities against tribes

“A space that strives to engage every section of society with a variety of conflict issues.”

Anupama Katakam

Tamil Nadu Merchant House, Dakshinachitra.

Dakshinachitra: A continuous cultural journey

Dakshinachitra also curates a rich variety of folk art through special State and thematic festivals.

Siddarth Muralidharan

Portraits of victims of communist rule decorate the ceiling of Bunk’Art2, a nuclear bunker turned museum in Tirana, Albania, on December 5. Museums play a direct role in preserving and enriching the community in which they are sustained.

Museums are needed to preserve cultural heritage

This is one of the biggest challenges for contemporary societies: as important as the health of a society or the environment.

Sabyasachi Mukherjee