Collectors, curators and cultural brokers

: South Asian contributions to the British Museum

Abstract

Individuals of South Asian heritage rarely feature in collecting histories focusing on the British Museum, nor are they included in many other histories of museums and their collections. This thesis addresses this gap by examining the contributions made by South Asians to the British Museum from the late-nineteenth century to the present day. From at least 1872, 150 men and women from, or culturally connected to, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lankasold, donated, bequeathed and exchanged over 4000 objects in ways that enhanced the British Museum’s collection. These material contributions include coins, sculptures, paintings and ceramics that were mostly, but not exclusively, produced in South Asia. Additionally, South Asians made intellectual contributions that widened the museum’s framework for collecting and interpreting objects, particularly in relation to South Asia. The social and professional backgrounds of the contributors are diverse, and include maharajas, landowners, archaeologists, civil servants, museum workers and scientists. They include renowned figures such as Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwar III of Baroda and Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, as well as lesser-known individuals such as Shireen Akbar and Achinto Sen-Gupta. By documenting and analysing their contributions using a combination of archival, statistical and object-based research through a theoretical framework focused on collecting, gift-giving, and agency, this study centres the emotional, political and scholarly rationales behind the contributions alongside the museum’s receptivity to these offerings.
This research nuances and challenges perceptions of how the British Museum’s collection was built, its purpose and intended audience, and highlights the importance of understanding the context of these individuals’ relationships with the museum. South Asians strategically chose to contribute to the museum with an awareness of its international status and audience; they understood that the institution’s acceptance of their contributions had the potential to elevate their own personal and professional statuses and agendas, particularly if widely acknowledged. Yet these aspirations are arguably unfulfilled today as studies about the British Museum tend to focus on contributions made by a small proportion of individuals, most of whom are of European heritage, perpetuating the perception that the museum collection was almost exclusively built by Europeans. This thesis challenges this idea by demonstrating the integral role South Asians had in the collection-building process whilst also considering how they navigated personal, political and social obstacles that posed limitations on their ability to contribute to the museum.
This research contributes to the growing body of scholarship exploring the agency of individuals of non-European heritage in developing UK museum collections. British colonial rule over large parts of South Asia (East India Company rule from 1757 to1857, and British Crown rule from 1858 to 1947) meant that the museum’s collection of objects from this region was bolstered through the activities of colonial organisations, alongside donations and sales from private collectors intimately associated with colonialism and its wider practices of extraction. South Asian contributions to the British Museum were closely interwoven with this colonial context. In addition, this thesis provides additional frameworks related to belonging, domesticity and grief through which to gain a nuanced understanding of the contributions of individuals from (previously) colonised regions. Furthermore, this thesis demonstrates the possibilities and limitations of researching non-European contributions using museum collections and archives, to promote and inform more inclusive institutional collection histories of the future.

Date of Award	Apr 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Brighton
Supervisor	Claire Wintle (Supervisor), Verity Clarkson (Supervisor), Jeremy Hill (Supervisor), Sushma Jansari (Supervisor) & Louise Purbrick (Supervisor)