This volume brings together a range of essays that offer a new perspective on the dynamic history of the museum as a cultural institution in South Asia. It traces the museum from its origin as a tool of colonialism and adoption as a vehicle of sovereignty in the nationalist period, till its role in the present, as it reflects the fissured identities of the post-colonial period.
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| Acknowledgements |
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xi | |
| Preface |
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xiii | |
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| Introduction |
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1 | (20) |
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Part I Inaugural Formations |
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1 The Transformation of Objects into Artefacts, Antiquities and Art in 19th-century India |
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21 | (24) |
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2 The Museum in the Colony: Collecting, Conserving, Classifying |
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45 | (38) |
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83 | (24) |
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Part II National Re-Orientations |
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107 | (25) |
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5 Grace McCann Morley and the National Museum of India |
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132 | (16) |
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6 Museumising Modern Art: National Gallery of Modern Art, the Indian Case-Study |
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148 | (25) |
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Part III Contemporary Engagements |
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7 Museums are Good to Think: Heritage on View in India |
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173 | (11) |
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8 Remembering the Rural in Suburban Chennai: The Artisanal Pasts of Dakshina Chitra |
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184 | (19) |
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9 Reincarnations of the Museum: The Museum in an Age of Religious Revivalism |
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203 | (18) |
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| Museum Watching: An Introduction |
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221 | (44) |
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| About the Editors |
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265 | (1) |
| About the Series Editor |
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266 | (1) |
| Notes on Contributors |
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267 | |
Saloni Mathur is Associate Professor at the Department of Art History at UCLA.
Kavita Singh is Associate Professor at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
