Lost in the Galleries: Why India’s Museums Are Not Telling Their Best Stories

[music] Hello and welcome back to Speaking Occulgically. I'm Shri Avatham and today we're talking about something that's genuinely exciting, anyone interested in culture, history and a sheer joy of learning. Museums in India. Unfortunately, it does not. I was at a museum yesterday working there as an archaeologist and if you follow us on speaking archaeologically anywhere, you know exactly which museum, so there's no name dropping here. Anyway, I was at a museum yesterday and as I walked out I felt deflated. Wizard tears wandered through galleries clearly confused about what they were seeing. Adults, glance to top tits, half red a label and moved on. Children were restless, bored, overwhelmed. One little child right there in the art section had a meltdown because they wanted to paint. And honestly, I didn't blame them. There were no kids corners in this museum, no coloring area, no activity space. Nothing that acknowledged the children learned by doing. Not by staring at objects behind glass. And it wasn't just the visitors. The gallery attendance were chatting incessantly, loudly among themselves. But there was no one whose job it was to engage, explain or spark curiosity. No storytelling, no conversation, no sense that the space was alive. The museum was full of artifacts but empty, devoid of energy. And this is the problem with most Indian museums today. They still stuck in the 19th century. They are display heavy and meaning light. Wars crammed with dense text in some places. And then beneath objects that desperately needed explanations, labels that offer nothing more than colonial-style provenance. Object, material, sight, period, maybe. A single LED screen in a corner and a photo booth or a board asking, "What do you think this is? Does not make a museum interactive? That's not engagement, that's box-sticking." Indian museums seem to believe interactivity is a gadget rather than a philosophy. Now, contrast this with another museum in India, in my opinion, the best museum in India. The tribal museum in Bobo. This museum gets it right. It understands that museums are not about freezing cultures in time, but about telling living stories. When you walk through the tribal museum, you don't just see tribal material culture. You encounter tribal worlds. You hear stories. You experience spatial narratives. You can sample food by handicrots. This law exhibitions created with indigenous communities play tribal games within the museum. It's not merely a museum about Indian tribes. It's a museum about the art, the literature, the belief systems, the everyday lives that are presented with dignity and voice. This is what authenticity looks like. Not extraction. Not display for consumption, but collaboration. And that authenticity creates empathy. Visitors don't just learn facts, they feel a connection. And relatability sells. Empathy sells. Experience sells. Indian museums, unfortunately, often fail to see archaeology as an attraction. Archaeology becomes a punishment. Rows of stone tools locked behind class cabinets stripped of their human stories. No sense of who made them, why they mattered, how they shaped daily life. Museums should feel like lecture halls or dusty archives. They should feel like places you want to linger in. Museums are leisure spaces. Let's stop pretending otherwise. People don't visit museums only for education. They visit for enjoyment. They want to feel joy. They want joy for money. Not just value for money. They want comfort, curiosity, stimulation and ease. Even logistics matter. Guided tours that require endless walking exhaust visitors. Some large museums abroad use small vehicles or carts to move people between sections. It's thoughtful. It's inclusive. It recognizes that accessibility is a part of good curation. Museums are time capsules. They should convince visitors that what they are seeing comes from societies they belong to or can relate to. The past should not feel alien or otherwise. It should feel familiar, human, recognizable. And this is where authenticity becomes critical. Museums must actively convince audiences that histories they present are accurate, evidence-based and updated with ongoing research. Visitors are far more perceptive than museums in India give them credit for. They know when something feels outdated or poorly thought through. And then the social media. Museums, most museums in India, either avoided entirely or used badly. But here's the reality. People plan outings and advance but decide where to go last minute. Social media is not optional anymore. It's essential. Museums should be using short videos behind the scene content, curator insights, object stories and interactive posts to build excitement about the collections they house. Social media doesn't replace museum visits. It's someone's people. And museums need to refashion themselves as viable attractions, not theme parks, not spectacles, but places where learning feels effortless, engaging. And once again, the tribal museum involved proves that this can be done. The experience is immersive without being gimmicky. Authentic without being static. You leave feeling that you've encountered people not just objects. That emotional connection is powerful. And it's exactly what most museums in the country are missing at the moment. Finally, displays cannot remain frozen forever. Static exhibitions lead to static audiences. Displays need to evolve. They must evolve. Narratives must change. Stories must deepen. This is how you encourage revisits. Build word of mouth and keep museums relevant. Not just to archaeologists or researchers, such as myself. But to people at large. A single interactive corner or LED screen does not cut it. Museums need to rethink space, storytelling and visitor engagement from the ground up. Indian museums can be so much more than they currently are. They can be lively, welcoming, emotionally engaging. They can combine leisure, learning and social connection. They can tell stories that matter, stories that resonate, stories that make visitors feel connected to their own histories and cultures. Museums should just preserve heritage. They should animate it. In our next episode, we'll look at innovative museum initiatives in India and how some of them have fallen flat on their face and are completely opposite of what they will try to be on their social media. Trust me, you'll want to hear this. This is speaking archaeologically. Stay tuned. [Music]