Time travel through Mumbai

Due to an active public-private partnership, the Dr Bhau Daji Lad museum has become a cultural and artistic landmark of the metropolis.

“Mumbai has captured the imagination of many distinguished writers, poets, scholars and artists since it evolved from a group of sleepy islands into the roaring metropolis it is today,” writes Tasneem Zakaria Mehta in the preface to ‘Mumbai: A City Through Objects-101 Stories from the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum (BDL)’. “No institution of the city presents this journey better than the BDL. The collection is small but unique and bears testimony to the city’s constant renewal. It gives voice to the vision and dynamic energy of the many people who have laboured for, supported, or contributed in some way to the city’s making. The variety of objects in the museum is a record of these ambitions and dreams, and the traumas and upheavals the city has experienced on its extraordinary journey of transformation.”

Mehta has edited and co-authored the book and is also the Managing Trustee and Honourary Director of BDL. The museum has a long history and originally opened at Fort in the 1850s; it was reopened in Byculla in 1872 as the Victoria and Albert Museum, Bombay.

In 1975, it was renamed after the Indian polymath Bhau Daji Lad (1822-74) in honour of the man whose vision and dedication enabled its establishment.

A physician, philanthropist, educationist, Sanskrit scholar and antiquarian, Dr Lad was the first Indian Sheriff of Mumbai, and secretary of the Museum Committee when it was first instituted.

Over time, with administrative neglect, the museum fell into a state of poor repair. Due to a successful public-private partnership brought about by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), and Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation, it underwent intensive five-year-long conservation and restoration before being reopened to the public on January 4, 2008. By then, it had won UNESCO’s 2005 Asia Pacific Award for its conservation work.

Stories through objects

A handsome coffee-table publication, the book provides a peek into the complex history of the city, the museum’s lineage, its permanent collection, and its new initiatives, events and exhibitions.

The highlight of the book is the charming set of images of miniature clay models, dioramas, maps, manuscripts, lithographs, paintings, prints, photographs, and rare books that document the life of the people of Mumbai and the history of the city from the late 18th to early 20th centuries.

Accompanying the images are many interesting tales, anecdotes, and profiles. The reader is introduced to several passionate and committed people (Dr Bhau Daji Lad, Juggannath Sunkersett, Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, and Dr George Birdwood, among others) whose contribution was not just financial support but also astonishing foresight. Antique maps and photographs trace out the changing contours of Bombay over centuries, while the dioramas recreate scenes of a city that was ⁠— in all its liveliness and glory. The paintings capture the texture, sounds, and rumblings of a heavy-eyed group of islands before and during its transition into a bustling metropolis.

Many of the stunningly designed and meticulously created objects in the museum’s collection are, as Mehta points out, ‘time machines and record keepers … (that) allow us a peek into a civilisation long past or bring us face-to-face with today’s issues, in a sense harking the future.’

It is heartening to see that the museum, over the last 15 years, has acquired an important collection of contemporary art; it has invited talented artists (L N Tallur, Sudharshan Shetty, Jitish Kallat, among others) to exhibit their works in its precincts.

War and peace

Among the many exciting items mentioned in the book, two prints of the Scottish painter William Simpson’s paintings caught this writer’s eye. In a career spanning 50 years, Simpson (1823-1899) made his name as an outstanding war artist, correspondent, and chronicler of several historical events and great wars including the Crimean War (1854-1856) and the Afghan War (1878–1880). But Simpson was more than just a war artist.

He loved travelling to well-known as well as obscure destinations. Simpson visited India several times and was enamoured by its landscapes, people and places. He crisscrossed the country from the Himalayas, Punjab, Bengal, and Lucknow to the southern states.

One of the Simpson prints in BDL Museum’s collection, ‘A Street in Bombay’, depicts the bustling street in the Fort area.

The other print titled ‘The Falls of Gairsoppa’ reveals a rainbow-lit version of the present-day Jog Falls. In his autobiography, Simpson penned a detailed note on his enchantment with the Falls.

“I could do nothing but look at these wonderful falls. I never had seen anything like them. Descending from such a height, a large portion of the water becomes spray or fine mist, and when the sun shines the arc of a rainbow gleams
amongst it.”