Haul of fame: Could your home hold an artefact of national importance?

Under the Har Ghar Museum initiative, a matchbook, vintage bicycle lamp and ancient coin all qualify as treasures. See what’s already been added to the trove.

How does one protect and preserve heritage, in a country where the local temple idol likely predates Ancient Rome, churches still stand that are older than the United States, and people — everyday people — casually hold on to ancient heirlooms, artefacts, jewellery and more?

Matchboxes from the collection of Samirkumar Arya of Valsad, Gujarat.

Websites and museums, memory projects and coffee-table books have helped.

Then, in May, the union ministry of culture launched the Har Ghar (Every Home) Museum initiative, in an attempt to document the artefacts preserved in homes across the country, and in the troves painstakingly put together by India’s many collectors.

The programme was rolled out via the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) in Kolkata. They have scanned hundreds of submitted photographs, videos and documents of authenticity, to build an online repository of rare artefacts (with a plan to rope in local museums across the country too).

Of the 154 artefacts and personal collections submitted so far, social-media content for 18 has been posted, on Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube. A website and an independent social media identity for the initiative are in the works too, says NCSM public relations officer Satyajith N Singh.

Here are some of the collectors who have made the list.

WRITE THE OTHER WAY

Souvik Roy, a 61-year-old retired businessman from Kolkata, is primarily a philatelist. His collection is made up of stamps first, but also coins, oleographs, lithographs… and pencils. Somehow, the pencils have ended up being his rarest and most treasured items, he laughs.

A 1920s sharpener from the collection of Souvik Roy.

Among the 6,500 pencils, some more than 100 years old, are: one from 1935 Calcutta with a calendar wrapped around its thick body; a Chinese marking pencil (with a core of grease or wax, for use on glass or metal); thick cedar-wood ones thought to be over 100 years old; and some vintage pieces wrapped in ads for cigarettes and toothpaste.

There are sharpeners too, from the 1920s. One, finely crafted in metal, is shaped like a cycle-rickshaw.

“What we collect is part of us. I feel these objects are alive, and I talk to them often. I’m not sure what the future holds for these objects, but they need to be preserved,” says Roy.

This is one of the questions that the Har Ghar initiative seeks to answer.

A long-term goal involves allowing people like Roy to will their collections to NCSM, which would then find space in regional, government-run museums for their most prized items.

“A lot of collectors wish to donate,” says Singh.

Under this initiative, such artefacts could also end up in a proposed National Museum of People’s Collection, with regional centres showcasing regional troves.

“What we collect is part of us. I feel these objects are alive, and I talk to them often. I’m not sure what the future holds for these objects, but they need to be preserved,” says Souvik Roy.

ODDS AND ENDS

Down a bylane in North Kolkata is the three-storey home of the late sound engineer Sushil Kumar Chatterjee.

On the first floor is his precious collection, which includes: a spy camera from World War 1, a vinyl record that holds a recording of Rabindranath’s Tagore voice, a pocket microscope from 1912, a sundial used by the Australian Navy during World War 1, a cut-glass-studded 18th-century British-owned indigo plantation bell.

“Dad used to call this Atiter Ashray (Haven for the Past),” says Goutam Chatterjee, 58, who has overseen the collection since his father’s death in 2021. Sometimes he comes here and sits in silence, Chatterjee adds, and likes to think that the sounds he hears are the objects’ onetime owners, including his father, come to check on their treasures.

A silver water bottle submitted by Arun Kumar Subbian.

LIGHT IT UP

In Valsad, Gujarat, 44-year-old Samirkumar Arya has collected thousands of matchboxes, some of which are over a century old. He calls this his “museum in a pocket”. Arya has organised them by theme. There are early matchboxes featuring Hindu deities and mythological figures, often inspired by the art of Raja Ravi Varma. The deities were added so that the matchbooks would be preserved; with their tiny advertisements for hair oil, soap, and palliative lotions. “Labels featuring royal portraits and slogan and symbols of freedom and the swadeshi movement would come later,” he adds, “and form a separate section of my collection.”

LOOSE CHANGE

In Gwalior, 20-year-old college student Shivansh Arora holds what are some of the oldest artefacts submitted so far. Among his coins, stamps and currency notes from across 70 countries are distinctive copper coins issued by the Nagas of Padmavati in the 3rd to 4th century as well as nearly-300-year-old punch-marked coins made of silver, dating to the Scindia dynasty of Gwalior.

LIGHTEN UP

A bicycle flashlight dated to 1890, from among those submitted by Mahesh Lonkar.

In Pune, 39-year-old automotive designer Mahesh Lonkar has a collection of over 1,200 flashlights, including pieces used by soldiers during World War 1, others used on board submarines, and novelty items such as one shaped like a gun.

His collection, housed in his two-bedroom flat in Pune, is opened up to visitors on weekends, but he dreams of someday setting up India’s first flashlight museum.

Lonkar, 39, an automotive designer, has a collection of over 1,200 flashlights.

“These are not just personal possessions, but reflections of our heritage,” says AD Choudhury, director-general of NCSM. “I hope this initiative inspires younger generations to cultivate the habit of collecting and preserving too.”

One cannot ignore the past, after all, adds Roy. “They are like the roots of a tree, without which the branches would not exist.”

(Have a treasure of your own to log? Go to ncsm.gov.in/media/har-ghar-museum)