Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahlaya (IGRMS), Bhopal, will be the nodal agency of the existing as well as the upcoming tribal museums in the country, said Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Navaljit Kapoor.
He was speaking on the concluding day of a two-day workshop at Jehan Numa Palace in the city on Friday. He also discussed the idea of holding thematic exhibitions on various tribes in the tribal research institutes and in New Delhi with the idea of promoting livelihood for them. It was also recommended that the institutes should collaborate with universities for educational activities for various target audiences.
Kapoor emphasised on the need to fulfil the second agenda of the workshop, which is to create content development and approval and search cum selection committees for Garudeshwar museum. He requested historians to share books and literary references on tribal freedom history with team Gujarat to help in updating the content.
Principal Secretary, Department of Tribal Affairs, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Pallavi Jain attended the workshop. The workshop was organised by the Development Support Agency of Gujarat under the aegis of Tribal Development Department, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and Government of India with the central objective of creating a forum to invite experts, pool ideas, form committees in order to expedite the curation and completion of National Tribal Freedom fightersí Museum Project.
Prof Amreshwar Galla, UNESCO Chair and expert on museums, suggested that the role of women should be equally represented in the museums that contribute to gender equality. Further, he suggested developing a content management system and a curatorial management team to be involved in the project.
Kalyan Kumar Chakravorty, expert advisor to NLC, emphasised on emotional connection with the community leader and landscape of tribe. He steered the discussion sessions and made recommendations from time to time.
Author Vasant Nirgune suggested that there should be one line from the storyline of each tribal, the freedom movement should be selected and adopted as a slogan in the museum display.
Secretary, Museums Association of India, and a teaching faculty at Heritage Institute in New Delhi, Anand Burdhan, emphasised on visiting the archives to collect authentic references.
Ex-ACS and State Election Commissioner Sanjay Prasad suggested to highlight the tribal communities as well as stick to philosophy of the museum. The second half of the day was utilised for the formation of specialised committees and their regional teams for the museum with names of experts as members. Discussions also included spelling out the role, responsibilities and scope of the committee members. Besides, visit to the IGRMS, Bhopal.
