National Museum of Man The National Museum of Man has been conceived as an Institution where man and his activities from the earliest prehistoric times shall be dealt with. The main focus of the Museum Will be on the following topics.
A. Evolution of man and human variation.
B. Man and Culture and
C. Material Culture in Indian Unity and Diversity.
The collection of the Museum is still limited, about 144 specimens in number. Steps have already been taken for the formation of a purchase Committee to advise purchase of necessary objects for the Museum. The Photographic Section of the Museum has prepared about 750 colour slides, 800 black and white prints in addition to 1200 negatives and 300 ft. cine coverage and one cassette sound recording concerning the Pushkar Fair. The Photo Officer has been deputed also to cover the Ganga Sagar Mela. The National Museum of Man has built a very useful library consisting of books pertaining to the various ethnographical fields of specialisation. It has now in its collection about 3089 volumes.
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National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural
Property The Laboratory is now housed in a more spacious building and the nucleus having been started during 1977-78, more scientific and technical posts were created during the year. Many of them have been Hid up and others are in the process of being filled up. The laboratory now has some special equipment like Emission Spectrograph, Flame Photometer, Metallurgical Microscope and Mlicro-chemical Ki, etc. The Laboratory continued its research programmes during the period under report. Several museums and archaeology departments asked for advice on conservation problems. Suitable comments were sent to them for their assistance.
Important Conservation Projects
Preservation of wall paintings at Virupaksha Temple, Hampi On the request of the Director of Archaeology and Museums, Karnataka, chemical cleaning and conservation of wall paintings at Virupaksha temple, Hampi was carried out. The paintings had a thick coating of oily accretions. A complete photographic documentation of the work done at Hampi was maintained. Now the paintings of Vijayanagar period in this temple have been exposed to their true tonal value.
Conservation of stone sculptures at Mathura On the request of the Director of the Government Museum, Mathura, a team was sent to Mathura for cleaning and consolidation of sculptures found at Govindnagar and now housed in the Government Museum, Mathura. There were thick deposits of time and clay on the surface of the sculptures thus obliterating the fine carved details. Layers in these sculptures were separating out. The surface of these sculptures has now been cleaned and the stone strengthened.
Preservation of wall paintings at Kusum Sarovar, Govardhan On the request of the Director of Archaeology, U.P. Government, a special project has been undertaken to preserve the wall paintings at Kusum Sarovar, Govardhan. The wall paintings have been executed on lime plaster which has separated away from the brick wall at many places. All the paintings are covered with white and black stains. Full photographic documentation of the wall
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paintings has been completed. The causes of deterioration have been ascertained and the work of cleaning and strengthening the paint has been taken up.
Training (a) A six months training course on `Conservation of cultural property' commenced on the 1st September, 1978. 10 trainees are participating in the course. Three of them are from abroad and the remaining from different museums and Archaeological Departments of various States. The course is given in collaboration with UNESCO and prepares trainees for conservation work. Besides the staff of the Laboratory, experts from other institutions, were invited to deliver lectures to the trainees and to hold practical demonstrations.
(b) A special course of 10 days' duration on `Care and maintenance of Museum collections' was arranged for the students of the Department of Museology, Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University of Baroda. 12 students participated in the course.
Library and Documentation More scientific and technical books and reprints of conservation articles have been added to the library. Bibliographies on various subjects are being prepared. In collaboration with the International Centre for Conservation, Rome, this library is being developed as the Asian Conservation Documentation Centre.
Publication The publication "Care and preservation of Museum objects" is being translated into Hindi. This is a fully illustrated book for the use of the curators.
Foreign Missions and Meetings Shri O. P. Agarwal, Project Officer attended the Council meeting of the International Centre for Conservation, Rome, hold from 30th April to 5th May, 1978. He also attended the meeting of the Training Experts invited by UNESCO.
Shri O. P. Agarwal was the leader of the team which was sponsored by the Government of India to participate in the seminar on Conservation of paper materials arranged at New York
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under the auspices of the Indo-U.S. Commission on Art and Culture. The seminar was held in the U.S.A. from the 12th to 16th June, 1978.
National Gallery of Modern Art The National Gallery of Modern Art continued its endeavour to enrich its collections by acquiring outstanding pieces of Art During the period under review, 116 works of art were added. Further, a few more works of art were received as a gift through the courtesy of the Embassy of Yugoslavia.
A prestigious exhibition of modern French paintings was arranged including masterpieces by well-known masters such as Monet, Deges, Cezanne and Pissaro etc.
On behalf of the Government of India, Department of Culture, an exhibition of Modem Indian art by 89 artists has been sent abroad and was successfully shown in Iran, Syria and Poland. This exhibition will also be shown in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, USSR and Iraq.
Another major exhibition "Swiss Photographers from 1840 until today" was organised in November/December, 1978.
The following publications were brought out during this year :-
(i) A Handbook of Surrealist paintings from the collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art,
(ii) A folder on the National Gallery of Modem Art in Hindi with black and white reproduction,
(iii) Half Imperial size multi-colour reproductions of two paintings namely "Companions" by N. S. Bindre and "Mother & Child" by Ganesh Pyne,
(iv) A catalogue for the exhibition "Swiss Photographers from 1840 until today".
Under the education programme, 4218 students along with 430 teachers and adults of 65 schools and colleges from all over the country visited the National Gallery of Modern Art and were provided conducted guided tours.
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Art appreciation programmes were arranged during summer vacations and a series of lectures on History and Art were delivered for the members of the Association of the Wives of the Diplomats, specially those of the officers of the Ministry of External Affairs.
Science Museums The National Council of Science Museums was registered on April 4, 1978 under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act,1961 and administers-
(a) Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, Calcutta.
(b) Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum, Bangalore.
(c) Nehru Science Centre, Bombay.
These three Museums have been transferred from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research to the Department of Culture. The Union Minister of Education is the President of the National Council of Science Museums Society. The objects of the NCSM include, inter- alia, the establishment and administration of new museums of the kind.
An Indo-US Exhibition on `Technology-The American Experience' was successfully organised at 6 centres in India. Apart from its normal activities, the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum at Bangalore bad mounted a special exhibition on the late Sir C. V. Raman, in collaboration with the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore. The exhibition marked the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the discovery of Raman Effect which was awarded Nobel Prize. The Birla Museum at Calcutta has recently completed a four-storeyed `Technology Centre' in a record time. The Indo-US Exhibition at Calcutta was organised in the new building and was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of West Bengal. The Birla Industrial and Technological Museum is also engaged in the development of Shri Krishna Vigyan Kendra, Patna for which the land and the partly completed building have been gifted by the Government of Bihar. The Kendra is func- tioning with a skeleton Administrative staff lent from the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum for the present. The Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum has also completed six-storeyed Exhibition Production Centre with facility for design and production of models. training of science teachers in
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fabrication of demonstration aids, hobby centres for the students, etc. The mobile exhibition of the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum is being augmented and extended to cover the 4 Southern States. In the Nehru Science Centre, Bombay, piling work for the Science Centre has already been completed, and designs are ready for the structure with a floor area of 98,000 sq. feet. The Centre is also undertaking mobile science exhibitions.
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library The Museum attracted, as in the past, a large number of visitors from different parts of the country. A significant activity of the Museum was the opening of a new exhibition entitled `Emergence of Gandhi, Non-Co-operation Movement and after' which proved of great interest to the visitors. This exhibition, which will be on permanent display, unfolds the dramatic events of the years 1915-29, leading to the emergence of Mahatma Gandhi as the foremost nationalist leader and the transformation of the Indian struggle for freedom into a mass movement of epic dimensions.
A very substantial addition was made to the library and archival resources during the period. The number of books added to the pre- existing stock of the library was 2,550, here by increasing the total holdings to 66, 124, of which 4, 107 comprised old newspaper volumes. The library has also embarked upon a programme of acquiring books in the various regional languages. The resources of the library were also augmented through the purchase of microfilm of the Bengalee newspaper and the acquisition of 40 unpublished dissertations on modern Indian history, raising their total number to 404. The collection of photographs as on 30 November, 1978 had reached the figure of 47,623.
The Reprography unit maintained a high level of activity. microfilming segments of back files of old newspapers including Amrita Bazar Patrika, Hindustan Times, People, the Twentieth Century, Radiance and the Servant of India. A special effort is being made to build up resources in vernacular newspapers, the objective being to have at least one representative newspaper in each regional language. Under this programme the Aliamiat (Urdu daily), the Krishna Patrika (Telugu), the Mathrubhumi (Malayalam daily) Mazdoor Kisan (Punjabi) were some of the newspapers microfilmed during the period. An equally significant
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activity of the unit, was the filming of nearly 100 land settlement reports, and the Debates and Questions on Indian Affairs (1890-1937) which comprise selections from the proceedings of the British Parliament. The Preservation unit continued the work of renovation and rehabilitation of manuscripts.
The Manuscript section was enriched through the acquisition of the records of the Servants of India Society and the private papers of prominent public figures such as Gopi Chand Bhargava, H.N. Kunzru, Sunder Singh Majithia, Saifuddin Kitchlew, Ajit Prasad Jain, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Birbal Sahni, Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir, Shankar Rao Deo, Bisnuram Mehdi, and Ram Manohar Lohia, to mention only a few. The papers of Jamaitul-ulema-i-Hind, and Maharshi D. K. Karve were microfilmed.
The Oral history section recorded one hundred and eleven sessions of interviews with thirty persons. Prominent among those interviewed are Shri Jagjivan Ram, Shri Y.B. Chavan, Shri Gulzari Lal Nanda, Shri Hitendra Desai, Shri Brahm Perkash, Shri Tridib Chaudhuri and Shri B.T. Ranadive.
A number of lectures and seminars bearing on Indian nationalism and the history of modern India were arranged. The seminar on `Recent Writings on Gandhi' was attended by distinguished scholars. The symposium on `Jawaharlal Nehru and Parliament' was held on 13 November 1978, which was presided over by the President of India. The speakers included Shri Y.B. Chavan, Dr. Sushila Nayar, Shri N.K. Krishnan and Shri Frank Anthony.
A volume of "Essays in Modern Indian History," and another entitled "Gandhi and Nehru", based on the papers presented at the seminars and lectures arranged by Nehru Memorial Museum and Library were edited, and sent to the press for publication.
Dr. Zakir Husain Memorial Museum, New Delhi The Dr. Zakir Husain Memorial Museum, New Delhi was opened to the public on the 3rd May, 1976. Initially the Museum was set up with the material which was then available. The Museum is functioning under the supervision of the National Museum, New Delhi.
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Gandhi Darshan Samiti The object of the Samiti is to acquire, Maintain and preserve the personal papers and other historical materials pertaining to the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi in consultation and collaboration with other institutions and organisations engaged in Gandhian work.
74572 persons visited the Gandhi Darshan Exhibition during the period under report.
The Gandhi Darshan Exhibition remains open to the public daily from 9.30 at.m. to 5.30 p.m. except on Mondays and gazetted holidays.
Following special programmes were organised during the period under report :
To highlight the importance of World Environment Day on 5th June, an exhibition "Gandhiji and Environment" at Rabindra Bhawan, New Delhi was organised. It was inaugurated by the Liason Officer of the United Nations. Mr. Graham Searle. Dr. B. D. Nag Chaudhary, Vice Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru University presided over the inaugural function. This exhibition remained open till 12th June 1978.
Gandhi Darshan put up a "Bapu Mandap" in the Gandhi Mela organised by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi from 29th September to 5th October, 1978. This Mandap was visited by lacs of people and was very much appreciated by them.
Exhibitions in the Darshan complex were held during the year. Besides, a 4-day Bal Mela was organised on the 2nd October, 1978.
Gandhi Darshan put up on 17th November, 1978 a "Gandhi Mandap" in the National Small Industries Fair on an invitation of the Trade Fair Authority of India. This exhibition whose theme was "Sevagram Sadhana" remained open to the public till 19th December, 1978. During this period about 5 lacs people drawn from all walks of life visited this Mandap put up by Gandhi Darshan. Special films were also shown to groups of children.
Taking Gandhi to Schools programme The `Taking Gandhi to Schools Programme', which was started in November, 1977, has proved very successful and the school community has shown a keen interest in this programme.
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During the period under report, a group of about 100 students and teachers of various schools and a few staff members were taken on a 15-day educational-cum-excursion tour of South India commencing from 27th May 1978. The main aim of organising this tour was to acquaint the students with various places connected with Mahatma Gandhi and also with cultural heritage of India.
Besides the above, various orientation camps were also arranged for students and teachers in the Gandhi Darshan complex itself.
A survey has also been made by the employees of this unit to find out the possibilities of conducting Classes under the Adult Education Programme, which has recently been launched all over the country.
Youth Training Centre Under this scheme three 11-day camps were arranged at Village Baheri in Himachal Pradesh. During the duration of these camps, the participants undertook the, manual labour work by repairing the roads. Besides cultural programmes and routine works, visits were also arranged for keeping a contact with these villages.
Several 1-day camps were also arranged for the students, of schools/colleges of Delhi. The main aim of organising these camps was to acquaint the student community with the teachings of Gandhiji with a view to enabling them to feel the relevance of his teachings in the present times.
Arrangements for providing accommodation have been made in the Maharashtra Mandap of Gandhi Darshan, where the groups of students and teachers from other states are allowed to stay during their visit to, the Capital. Some charges are recovered from them towards electricity, sanitation etc.