A museum that promises a peek into the past but is caught in a legal tangle
The museum building is almost ready, the catalogue of artefacts to be displayed has been prepared, the access and exit are also set. But, the entrance to the interpretation centre of the Qutb Shahi Heritage Park in Hyderabad remains locked up.
As the world celebrated World Museum Day on May 18, it was one more year that the museum, financed through Swadesh Darshan grant, and constructed by the Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation with design by award-winning architect Siddhartha Talwar, remains in a limbo.
The museum at the Qutb Shahi Heritage Park almost mimics the one at the Humayun's Tomb that was inaugurated recently by Union Minister of Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Sunk into the ground like the stepwells of Telangana, the museum building does not block the view of the tombs.
In Delhi, the Humayun's Tomb World Heritage Site Museum has been receiving rave reviews, including from Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, who now appears keen to get the museum at QSHP up and running. Both have been executed by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
Listed for display in the museum are the rare artefacts from the collections of the State Museum, never before seen Qutb Shahi manuscripts, textiles, armoury, paintings, stone inscriptions, and inscriptions. The fabulously rich and cultured Qutb Shahis ruled Golconda and Hyderabad between 1518 and 1687. But there is not a single museum that showcases or conveys the grandeur or information about that period.
So near yet so far
The site photographs juxtaposed with the architect's drawings make the museum appear like the adage 'so near yet so far'. The building's shell is already built and exposed to the rain – raising the fear that the building built at the cost of crores will start to deteriorate.
'We have the catalogue ready. We have the artifacts ready. An interpretation centre is one of the keys to make sense of such a vast heritage site with layers of history and archaeology. I have been promised by the local legislators that they will make the legal hurdles disappear,' informed Ratish Nanda, CEO of Aga Khan Trust for Culture which has worked on the project with the Telangana State Tourism Department.
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