Britain needs to return the Amaravati artefacts now too, not just the Kohinoor

Britons with time to Spare from the Windsor soap opera now have to also resign themselves to the prospect of the Elgin Marbles—major sections of Athen’s Parthenon that were carried away by Lord Elgin to Britain 200 years ago and now reside in the British Museum (BM) in London—being “loaned” to Greece. “Loaning” something to the very country (or person) that created/owned them in the first place sounds ridiculous, but the deal could be a useful precedent for India. Kohinoor has always hogged headlines whenever the issue of repatriation of looted artefacts from British museums and collections pops up even though the Supreme Court has dismissed pleas to order its return after the government told the court in 2016 that it was not “forcibly taken nor stolen” but given as a “gift” to the East India Company by Punjab’s ruler. So it is high time India focuses on recovering its own Parthenon type treasure from the BM: the Amaravati artefacts. “There’s little doubt that the Greek government, which still claims rightful ownership, will never willingly return such a loan, and we all know that possession is nine-tenths of the law,” thundered The Spectator last week. Ahem. Exactly. Possession is what museums and collectors have banked on to prevent returning artefacts to wherever they came from, ever since the ‘white man’s burden’ argument of protecting them from destruction lost credibility. With an eye to the inevitable emptying of colonial-era institutions like the BM if the principle of rightful ownership of historic artefacts is established, ‘loaning’ is about as far as countries like Britain would be willing to go. Thus, what The Spectator fears—Greece never returning the ‘Marbles’ to the BM—may actually be what both countries secretly intend should happen, sparing blushes all round. Why not take the same tack with the BM’s Amaravati remnants, then? Amaravati, unlike the Kohinoor, has no negative stories about it such as curses of doom for whoever possesses it, including its current keeper, ‘Great’ Britain. In fact, there are hardly any stories about that mahachaitya at all, which is why its remnants—shipped there summarily by British civil servants during the Raj—have been sitting in the BM without protest from India(ns). Blame that on most of us having only a hazy idea about the true extent of our ancient heritage. It was far easier for most of us to focus attention on shiny objects that caught our eye—like the Kohinoor, or even the jewellery collection of the Nizams of Hyderabad that the Government of India fought a protracted legal battle for, after Independence. Ancient limestone and granite pieces, no matter how wondrously carved, cannot rival the allure of precious gems and metals; unfortunately, the priorities of the Government of India seem to have been much the same. Ignorance and disregard, in fact, led to some shocking instances of destruction of such antiquities in the name of ‘progress’. Two examples are telling: the Buddhist monastery, university and other buildings at Nagarjunakonda in what is now Telangana, and a stupa, vihara and other structures in Devnimori in Gujarat. Both were submerged in reservoirs for dam projects begun in the 1950s and completed by the 1970s. Today any such projects would face stiff resistance. In more recent times, there have been concerted efforts to bring Chola bronzes and similar idols back to India from foreign museums and collections and these have borne fruit. But countless pieces still remain in exile abroad, thanks to patently false assertions of “lawful” acquisition by institutions and individuals abroad. How could idols that were worshipped in temples or segments of ancient buildings situated in India have been “legally” obtained by anyone? Restitution is now a keyword when it comes to artworks and antiquities from Asia and Africa held in other countries. Thanks to other cause celebres in this genre, such as the sustained campaign for the return of the Benin Bronzes looted by vengeful British soldiers in 1897 from what is now southern Nigeria that found their way to museums across Europe—including 200 at the BM—a demand for the return of the Amaravati remnants by India would be perfectly timed. In July 2022, the German government signed an agreement to return 1,100 objects to Nigeria. The German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock even went so far as to say, “The Benin bronzes are returning home…It was wrong to take the bronzes, and it was wrong to keep them for 120 years.” The same can be said for many objects from India that now lie in museums and collections abroad that need to be returned, with or without admissions of guilt about keeping them there. In the 75th year of Independence, securing the return of the Amaravati segments would be a landmark restitution, as the BM has around 120 pieces of them.  Ideally, India should also press for sections of the mahachaitya in other museums abroad too, including in Singapore and Australia. The notorious dealer of stolen Indian antiquities Subhash Kapoor was behind their sale to those museums, which also shows how diligent they were about establishing ‘legal’ provenance. The State Government Museum at Egmore in Chennai already has large segments of Amaravati and is therefore the best place for the mahachaitya to be “reunited”. But the BM and critics will definitely first look for reasons not to return them. And the less-than-impressive way the Amaravati remnants are now displayed at Egmore will provide enough ammunition. More so as the BM got Asahi Shimbun to finance a fantastic custom-made exhibition room for its Amaravati collection. The Centre has already shown willingness to involve the private sector in the upkeep of historical monuments; but such moves invariably invite ill-informed opposition spurred by the mistaken notion that the buildings would be “handed over” to corporates. The fact is, the world over, companies have worked hand in hand with governments in the world of arts and culture. And which corporate would not jump at the idea of showcasing a segment of India’s heritage? The Tamil Nadu government, always a leader when it comes to reaching out to the private sector, would surely be happy if companies finance a state of the art home for the Amaravati artefacts to surpass Asahi Shimbun’s at the BM. Meaning  not only climate controlled display halls but also innovative technology to tell the amazing story of the Indians—royal and commoner— who contributed to the building of the great stupa and worshipped there right till the 13th century. Once a top quality abode for the Amaravati remnants is assured—and the State Museum in Chennai has plenty of space for even a new building—any arguments that the BM or any other foreign museum or collector can offer to retain their caches in the face of a legitimate demand for their repatriation will fall flat. Loan or return, they welcome to quibble about semantics: Elgin Marbles, Amaravati Artefacts, Benin bronzes and many others need to come home. The author is a freelance writer. Views expressed are personal. 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