New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has promised citizens that it is building the “largest museum in the world” in Delhi, in partnership with France. While a cloud of secrecy from the government has so far meant that there is little clarity on what the Yuga Yugeen Bharat National Museum (YYBNM) will look like, an internal proposal reveals that the plan may be to retell – and remake – history in ways that suit the regime’s agenda of portraying Hinduism as eternal, Muslim  rulers as villains and ‘Bharat’ as the root of modern ideas like democracy.

The ‘world’s biggest museum’ wouldn’t fit in the current National Museum premises, with space to display about 7,000-8,000 artefacts at a time. So as part of the ambitious – and controversial – Central Vista Project spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, the national museum, or the YYBNM, will find a new home.

When The Wire asked the director of the National Museum and the French company tasked with working on the project about the plans and the future of both the new museum and the existing National Museum, they said all queries should be directed to the Ministry of Culture, indicating a centralisation of decision making on the matter. The Wire has reached out to the minister, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, as well as senior bureaucrats in the ministry, and is yet to receive a response.

Critics have feared that the BJP’s attempts at rewriting history – seen in school textbooks and the speeches of its leaders – will reflect themselves in this museum too. Over two months of conversations, reporting and research by The Wire reveal a story of almost no consultation, an attempt to reframe India’s past in ways that chime with the BJP’s Hindutva template and efforts to reduce the vast plural fabric of India’s cultural heritage to one shade.

There is much that has generated concern and discomfort with whatever has been known about the exercise in recent years. Not least, the intended premises themselves.

The building

‘Adaptive reuse’, in architectural terms, refers to the repurposing of an old building – without minimising or obscuring its historical significance – to give it a new life. The idea is that just because the original aim of the building no longer holds space in today’s world, the building itself doesn’t need to be demolished; instead, it can be changed in certain ways to make it useful again. And that’s what the Modi government has in mind for the North and South Block buildings on Raisina Hill  in central Delhi, which currently house the Union ministries of finance, home, defence and external affairs. With these ministries and other offices set to move to the Common Central Secretariat being built, the North and South Blocks are going to house the YYBNM.

The new museum, spanning about 1,55,000 square metres (as opposed to the 35,000-square metre current building), has generated excitement in the media, as has the partnership with France. While the Ministry of Culture has released statements celebrating the YYBNM project, saying it is “envisioned as a celebration of India’s unbroken civilizational history”, not much is known about what’s really going on with this change. No budget or plan has been made public, nor is there clarity on how artefacts will be transported and stored. The government’s official website on the Central Vista project has a page on the new National Museum, but that too is scant on details, instead noting: “Detailed design under development.” The website of the National Museum says nothing about any likely upcoming changes, and the museum’s social media handles have been busy sharing details of the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj.

In May 2023, Modi unveiled a “virtual walkthrough” of the new museum at the International Museum Expo. The video says the YYBNM will have 950 rooms, highlighting “Bharatiya gyan parampara (Indian knowledge traditions)”, “aitisahik dharohar (historical heritage)”, “madhya-yugeen Bharat (medieval India)”, “swatantrata andolan (freedom struggle)” and “swatantra Bharat (independent India)”. The walkthrough does not detail what objects and artefacts will be used to support the narrative being provided; it also seems to suggest that models and videos will play an important role in the museum.

While some reports, quoting sources who are part of the process, have revealed that the new museum will have rooms arranging artefacts both chronologically and thematically, what this entails has been left up to the imagination. What parts of the process the French museum consultancy will be handling, and what is being controlled directly by the Ministry of Culture, is also unclear, as is what artefacts will be on display. While the current National Museum has more than two lakh artefacts in possession, reports have quoted officials, including National Museum director B.R. Mani, as saying that the new museum, or the YYBM, will also bring in artefacts from government museums in other parts of the country.

Former Union culture secretary Jawhar Sircar, who later went on to become a member of the Rajya Sabha from the Trinamool Congress before resigning in September 2024 over the West Bengal government’s handling of a rape and murder case, has been expressing concern over the larger Central Vista project and specifically the National Museum ever since the plans were........

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