Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (National ... - IGRMS

Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya 281
included: (a) creating roads and pathways to approach the different pockets of
the vast area of the campus spilled with rocky terrains and hillocks (b) providing
water supply and electricity to different corners, (c) landscaping the different
areas according to the conceptual need, (c) developing internal security system,
(d) constructing office buildings, guest house and dormitories for visiting scholars
and professionals, and, of course, (e) developing various open-air and indoor
exhibitions, as per the conceptual plans. It was a challenging task.
Over a the span of about 25 years since the institution was established in
Bhopal, commendable work have been done in the area of infrastructure
development, though much need to be done in coming decades. The campus was
landscaped to represent prototypes of different ecological regions of the Indian
sub-continent viz. deserts, coasts, hills, the rivers and the culture of communities
adapting these ecological regions. The depleted soil cover was partially restored,
and plants from different ecological zones were planted. Internal road and electric
networks were developed, and water source was also tapped to a limited extent.
Facilities for different working units, exhibitions, and performing art theatres
were also created. Over 20,000 cultural artifacts, and nearly one lakh books and
journals in different languages were collected. On the basis of documentation of
activities, both in the Bhopal and other parts of the country, as well as collections
from other sources, about 3000 hrs of audio-video records of different facets of
Indian cultures are there in the audio-video achieve. A Southern Regional Centre
was established by accepting the offer of a heritage building in Mysore (Karnataka)
in the year 2000.
IGRMS Exhibitions
Development of suitable exhibition spaces to display the artifact collections are
the primary goal of any museum, and the IGRMS was no exception. But, unlike
other National Museums, which were set up to house certain collections in
possession, this Museum began not with any artifact in possession, but with
certain ideas only. Therefore, the task of the museum curators were onerous; do
a collection and create appropriate environment for its display, besides the normal
job of classification and documentation. It was decided that the IGRMS would
be developed predominantly as an open-air museum, and the indoor museum
would function as extension units to various outdoor exhibitions.
The theoretical concepts of the Museum initialized at various levels, needed
to be translated into a realizable plan for setting up the exhibitions. Certain
broad themes were formulated at conceptual level. After prolonged discussions
and deliberations at various levels, it was decided to present the cohesive life
cycles of various Indian communities living in different eco-climatic zones of
the country. These include those of tribal hamlets, the coastal Indian region of
the lengthy sea coasts, Himalayan region, river valleys, desert and arid zones
etc.