Examine the role of museums in shaping civilisational identity. What curatorial and conservation challenges come with assembling large national collections?

Museums choose which objects to show and how to explain them. In doing so, they turn scattered artefacts into a shared story of a people. The planned Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum in North and South Block will cost ₹3,230 crore and has identified about 1.8 million objects [1]. It shows both the power of museums and how hard it is to assemble a national collection at this scale.

Role in shaping civilisational identity

• Narrative of continuity: When museums arrange objects across time, they present India as one continuous civilisation. The new museum aims to show India's "civilisational journey" [1].
• Wider idea of heritage: The museum covers both tangible and intangible heritage, such as crafts, rituals and oral traditions, not only physical objects [1].
• Changing a colonial symbol: Adaptive reuse turns colonial-era seats of power into a public cultural space [1].
• Wider public access: Digital galleries take collections beyond Delhi. The National Museum has put about 53% of its ~2.06 lakh artefacts online [2].
• Soft power: The technical partnership with France Muséums Développement draws on Louvre experience [3].
• Caveat: A single national story can flatten regional and tribal identities.

Curatorial and conservation challenges

• Scale: 1.8 million objects is about nine times the National Museum's holdings [1][2]. Each object must be listed, checked for damage, kept at the right temperature and guarded.
• Staff shortages: The Parliamentary Standing Committee (2021) found museums "not adequate" and understaffed, with up to 29% of ASI posts vacant [4]. The CAG (2022) also flagged staff shortages at national museums [5].
• Transfer and custody: Objects will come from other museums and private collections [1]. This raises risks of damage in transit, insurance and ownership disputes, and regional museums may lose their best pieces.
• Documentation gaps: Nearly half of the National Museum's artefacts are not yet online [2]. Undocumented objects can be lost while being moved.
• Building vs conservation: Climate control and new galleries must not damage the buildings' architectural character [1].
• Use of funds: About ₹97 crore went to 102 museums under the Museum Grant Scheme [6]. This single project costs ₹3,230 crore [1].

Museums shape identity only when their collections are well cared for and their stories are told inclusively. The way forward:

• recruit and train conservators while construction is under way;
• digitise every object before it is moved;
• borrow objects from state museums for fixed periods instead of taking them permanently;
• use the French partnership to build Indian skills [3].

Done this way, the museum would fulfil the duty in Article 51A(f) to value and preserve India's composite culture.