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In West Bengal’s Birbhum, a unique community museum that archives Santal history and culture

A private museum in India that is dedicated entirely to the documentation and preservation of Santal culture and heritage.

The Museum of Santal Culture is located in Birbhum, India. (Photo credit: Neha Banka)The Museum of Santal Culture is located in Birbhum, India. (Photo credit: Neha Banka)

When he is not teaching primary school children in the local government school, Bimal Baski is tasked with another important job: he looks after the Museum of Santal Culture in Bishnubati village in West Bengal’s Birbhum district, some 170 kilometers away from Kolkata.

For first-time visitors, it would be easy to miss the Museum of Santal Culture if one isn’t paying attention. Deep inside the dusty lanes of Bishnubati, a Santal village of less than 700 people, at first glance, the museum’s building looks like any rural administrative establishment. But little about this museum is ordinary.

It is one of the only few private museums in India dedicated entirely to the documentation and preservation of Santal culture and heritage. Santals are the third-largest tribe in India, concentrated in seven states in large numbers, including in West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand. The community’s geographic distribution is also spread across Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.

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The museum was set up in 2007 by the Ghosaldanga Bishnubati Adibasi Trust, a local organisation that oversees the development of Ghosaldanga and Bishnubati villages in Birbhum, along with technical support provided by the Indian Museum, the country’s oldest and largest museum.

Presently managed by the Bishnubati Adibasi Marshal Sangha, the museum houses 150 objects related to Santal culture, that are exhibited in six different categories. (Photo credit: Neha Banka)

There are very few institutions in India that archive Santal history and culture like the one in Bishnubati, and most do not fit within the format of traditional museums. Presently, the Bidisa Anthropology Museum in Paschim Medinipur and the Jhargram Tribal Museum Garden, both in West Bengal, and the Johar Human Resources Development Centre in Dumka, Jharkhand, are some institutions that operate as independent museums archiving indigenous heritage in India, says Sharmila Gupta, officer-in-charge of the university museum at the Sidho Kanho Birsha University in Purulia.

For the community’s children

Festive offer

The one-storey building of the the Museum of Santal Culture houses close to 150 objects related to Santal culture, that are exhibited in six different categories — from hunting and everyday household objects, to musical instruments, clothes and jewellery. The museum is managed by the Bishnubati Adibasi Marshal Sangha, a registered society founded by the villagers.

“The purpose of the museum was to establish it for our own children,” says Dr. Boro Baski, a social worker, and the president of the Bishnubati Adibasi Marshal Sangha. “When Santal children go to formal or mainstream schools, they do not get to know about their cultural heritage. Earlier, they would learn about it through their parents, through dance and music, but nowadays they do not get that scope.”

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The Museum of Santal Culture is located in Birbhum, India. (Photo credit: Neha Banka)

The museum was put together by sourcing artefacts from Birbhum and Bankura districts in West Bengal, and some from Santhal Pargana in Jharkhand in India. “Families from mostly Bishnubati and Ghosaldanga donated several artefacts like bamboo baskets and old utensils. Some ornaments and big drums in the museum were purchased from families because they are not used as frequently anymore,” says Dr. Baski.

He does not like to call the artefacts in the museum ‘objects’, because for the Santal community, they hold a lot of importance. “It is our indigenous knowledge and you can only understand this by seeing it. When children learn about these things, there is also a sense of pride.” Dr. Baski says that institutions like this museum that document Santali history are important to the community because they help assert the its heritage and culture.

Through the museum, Santal community leaders involved in the establishment of the institution also wanted to make their non-Santal neighbours, particularly those living in and around Santal villages, more aware of Santal history. “Although we have been living side by side for centuries, they know so little about our culture. Hindus and Muslims living around our villages see us but they hardly know anything about our culture. I know a lot about Hindu festivals, Muslim festivals, the communities’ clothes, etc. But they don’t know much about me because there was no mechanism for them to know about my culture prior to the museum,” Dr. Baski explains.

(From right to left) Handcrafted silver hairpins, called sulak in Santali. Handcrafted silver choker, called hasil ar mala in Santali. (Photo credit: Neha Banka)

Cultural restitution

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Museums outside India have extensive collections on Santal heritage and culture, where most artefacts were removed from the subcontinent more than a century ago by Christian missionaries who worked among Santal populations. For years, indigenous communities across the world have demanded that their artefacts and property housed in museums in the west be returned to them; a fight that is ongoing. Then, in 2007 with article 11 of its declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, the UN urged states to restore “cultural, intellectual, religious and spiritual property” taken from indigenous people without their “free, prior and informed consent or in violation of their laws, traditions and customs”. 

But it is a complex issue in the case of Santal collections, Dr. Baski explains. In the Indian subcontinent, in the beginning of the 18th century, when Christian missionaries actively engaged in proselytism, they also began interfering with the lives of tribal communities, to the extent that they prevented Santals from practising their faith and traditions, forcing them to follow and adapt to western concepts. They changed their attire, began educating them in English and engaged in religious conversion. They wanted to assert their own values, lifestyles and traditions on tribal communities, Dr. Baski says.

This interference with indigenous lives and customs, and the attempts to erase Santal identity and culture are well-documented in the community’s collective memory and oral history. “So missionary work has had two sides: they wanted to give education to tribals, but at the cost of that, they also destroyed oral history, our ways of life, belief systems etc. They also imposed their ideas of development on tribal communities,” Dr. Baski explains.

An iron case, called kajrati in Santali, that is used to store kohl or kajal. It is particularly used during marriage ceremonies, where the bride and bridegroom hold on to the kajrati for the duration of the ceremony. (Photo credit: Neha Banka)

 In 1890, however, when Norwegian missionary Paul Bodding arrived in what is now known as the Santhal Pargana, he engaged with Santals with the understanding and acknowledgement that they had their own ways of life. That set him apart from his missionary peers and ensured that he was more welcome in the Santal community.

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During the four decades that Bodding lived and worked in the Santhal Pargana, he collected and transported several artefacts belonging to the Santal community from this region, with the objective of preserving them in Norway’s museum, but with the consent of the Santal community, unlike many of his peers, Dr. Baski says. “He believed that with the assimilation of tribal communities with other communities, over the next few generations, indigenous knowledge would die. He wanted to preserve the community’s history through its artefacts, and he transported them to Oslo,” Dr. Baski says.

A lute, also called banam in Santali, made of wood, where the lower part of the instrument is covered with the skin of the monitor lizard, with bamboo pins used for tightening the string. There are several types of banam and it can used played as a solo instrument or along with other instruments. This lute was donated by Barhan Hansda, from Achaipara, Birbhum. The date of acquisition is unknown. (Photo credit: Neha Banka)

In 2015, at the Bodding Symposium in Oslo, named after the missionary, the question of colonial legacy and the removal of Santal artefacts by missionaries in the Indian subcontinent was addressed, in part due to the global discussions surrounding the property of indigenous people taken without their consent by colonial powers.

At that symposium, Dr. Baski and Santal community leaders from Nepal and Bangladesh, were asked whether the community wanted western museums to return their indigenous property. “We said that we did not want them back because we felt that people in India were not ready to preserve these items or understand their value. They would be better off in foreign museums,” Dr. Baski explains.

In India, even large institutions like the Indian Museum do not have extensive collections related to Santal history and culture. This is what makes the Museum of Santal Culture so important: it provides deep insight into the everyday lives of the Santal community, and archives objects with extensive detail, and uses citations to identify and acknowledge sources in the community who have contributed to the museum’s collection.

Migrating communities

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“Most of the artefacts that are in the museum, you will find in homes even today, not just among Santals in Birbhum district, but also if you go to Jharkhand, Odisha, Bangladesh, Nepal — wherever Santals live,” says Dr. Baski. Over the decades, many objects were phased out of daily use as the community’s lifestyle changed, but there are exceptions, where some families have manged to hold on to indigenous instruments.

Although the Santal community has historically been self-sufficient, and expert craftspeople in the art of woodwork, they also simultaneously cooperated with the communities who have lived and worked with them, Dr Baski explains. “In the community’s history, they migrated from Santhal Pargana over several periods, and wherever they settled, there were communities who always migrated with them. These communities worked as their support system.”

One of the most prominent examples of this migration can be found in the period when the Santals migrated to Bengal following the Santhal Hul—the rebellion of 1855-1856 against the British colonial government and the zamindars. At that time, these peripheral communities migrated along with them.

That coexistence is visible even today in many Santal villages, including Bishnubati, where these peripheral communities continue to live with and support the Santal community. “A group of three or four Santal villages will get their iron instruments from the lohars and the drums from the muchi, etc.,” says Dr Baski. Samples of the contributions of these support communities in the lives of the Santals are visible in the museum’s collections.

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The interiors and exteriors of the museum are painted and set up in a way to replicate the experience of stepping inside a Santal home or community space. While the artefacts archived in the museum explain how gifted the community has been in various forms of handicraft, art is also an integral part of their lives. “It is common to see murals and paintings on the exteriors and in the interiors of Santal homes, and the museum’s doorways have been painted in similar patterns to highlight this,” says Bimal Baski, the caretaker of the museum.

The museum’s doorways have been painted in patterns similar to what is visible on the exteriors and in the interiors of Santali homes. (Photo credit: Neha Banka)

There is no designated individual who looks after the museum, in part because it was founded with the purpose that it operate as a community museum that belonged to and was looked after by the village community in Bishnubati, administrators of the museum say.

Baski spends a considerable amount of time overseeing the everyday running of the museum and he points to one of his favourite artefacts on display—a traditional mouse trap called gudu pasi in Santali, that has been used by the community for generations, and enthusiastically describes its uses. “This tells you about the astonishing ingenuity of the Santal community. We still use it today in the farms to catch mice. We have different types of traps for different species of rodents.”

Bimal Baski, a caretaker of the Museum of Santal Culture in Birbhum, India, points to a mousetrap, called gudu pasi in Santali, that was procured from Bishnubati village. The trap is made of bamboo strips and is covered with cow dung, with a noose fixed inside. A bait is attached in such a way that when a mouse enters the trap to eat the bait, its head gets stuck in the noose. (Photo credit: Neha Banka)

In his 14 years of looking after the museum, Baski has seen all kinds of visitors. “People who are interested in the subject and want a deeper understanding of Santal culture will learn a lot from this museum,” he says.

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There are other kinds of visitors who find their way to the museum. “A few come here just for photos to show that they have come to a Santal museum. They don’t unlearn the biases that they have about our community—they will say things like ‘Santals still eat birds and rats’; that we are alcoholics. They don’t come here to learn,” Baski explains.

Since the museum and the village are so deeply intertwined,  inconsiderate visitors can cause difficulties for the residents of the village, especially when they are disrespectful of and insensitive to the community living around the museum. “This is not a normal museum and we don’t encourage mainstream tourists. We have seen how, without knowing and understanding Santal culture, they just go inside the village homes and start clicking photos of people. We don’t want that. We want to have a meaningful interaction,” says Dr. Boro Baski.

The Museum of Santal Culture is open seven days a week from 9 am to 5 pm and entry charges are Rs. 5.

 

First uploaded on: 10-04-2022 at 14:43 IST
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