Documenting Santal tradition

From South Asia to Western Europe and now back to the Capital of their native country, the musical instruments have travelled a long way to hum around a fascinating story. Almost half a century ago, young German archivist Bengt Fosshag was gifted with a stringed instrument. Fascinated by it, he began collecting more of them from various parts of the world. Then, in 2013, he parted with a set of his collections by donating 92 ethnic Indian instruments to Museum Rietberg in Switzerland. A chunk of them is now on display at National Museum (NM) here, which is hosting a 32-day exhibition on the heritage of the country’s Santal tribe, courtesy a grand association between Zurich-based Rietberg, Delhi’s Crafts Museum and the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya of Bhopal.

Named Cadence and Counterpoint: Documenting Santal Musical Traditions, the show concluding on May 17 displays 44 Santali instruments and the eastern Indian community’s unique puppetry, besides their photographs over six-and-a-half decades from 1950. It also runs on loop a film on the tribe’s culture, and provides the visitor with a sample of Santali music recorded 101 years ago.

As for the acquisition of the vintage instruments, Marie-Eve Celio-Scheurer, who is one of the curators of the exhibition, notes that the 1952-founded Museum Rietberg understood the need to preserve the Fosshag collection in its entirety.