propaganda

Ok, so I had the chance to go back to the Golden Temple a second time, and on this occasion I went to a museum that is part of the complex just to check it out... grisly, morbid, and propagating in bloody martyrdom lore. Apparently the 'warrior' part of Sikhism is a more significant part of the culture than I thought. The entire 'museum' was essentially a depiction of the heroes and their acts against the Mughal, English, and Hindu 'oppressors'. Many portraits of honored men, bloody battle scenes glorifying valor, torture at the hands of their oppressors (boiled alive in water, sawn in half top to bottom, heads cut off), weapons of all sorts (swords, shields, daggers, muskets, modern artillery shells), and even bloody post-mortem photographs of 13 dead martyrs killed in the action by Indira Gandhi against the Sikh extremists in 1984. Really disgusting stuff seen as propaganda towards a Sikh identity by virtue of their 'oppression' by an 'outside' force.

I also went to another "must see" 'museum' in honor of "the One-Eyed Lion" of Punjab, Maharaja Ranjit Singh... the one who put the 'Gold' in the Golden Temple. This place was actually called a "Panorama" as it was a building in the round including paintings, 2/3 scale 3-d dioramas, and interactive touch-screen computer interfaces describing the brave and kind acts of this king and depicting his conquests throughout Punjab and now Pakistan. I couldn't take this place seriously and kept laughing at every display... mostly for the unbelievable slant to the information and the manner in which it was displayed... dioramas! There were painted backgrounds with 3-d model figures in the fore showing battle and court scenes, with a sense of perspective derived from the receding figures made smaller... which when juxtaposed next to each other as they were made the effect of some looking like ridiculous giants. The written descriptions of the diorama scenes were on a plaque in front of the display, along with a picture of the display itself that was right in front of you! "Maharaja Ranjit Singh was a humane conqueror who showered kindness not only on his subjects but to his foes as well." The Panorama displays depicting the 6 major battles won since the Maharaja began his conquests at 18 were accompanied by a battle 'soundtrack' just to help make the mood and convey a sense of "being there". A fire caused by cannon fire upon a besieged fort was enhanced by a flickering light bulb just behind the painted wallpaper. "Sher Singh was the reported son of the Maharaja from Rahni Mohtab Kaur, his first wife. He was not only a fine manly-looking fellow, but also an extremely polite, amiable, very intelligent, good-natured and straightforward man."

Clearly museums have a slightly different manifestation here in India... although perhaps I prefer the outright obviousness of the propaganda displayed here in contrast to the more subtle manipulations you find in western museums and academia where the information is controlled through the curatorial and editing processes and is put forward as absolute rather than subjective to the perspective of the stronger socio-political entity.