A new podcast series on Hyderabad’s state (or sarkari) museums and archives, its “public ajeebghars”, during Andhra Pradesh’s bifurcation decade, 2014-2024, as the erstwhile state of A.P. was split into two new states: Telangana and residual Andhra. I will tell five stories, each episode focusing on a single state museum or archive slated for bifurcation: the Telangana archives, the archeological museum, the Oriental manuscript library, the country’s first health museum, and the tribal museums – to trace their histories from their birth in the post-Independence 1950s to their bifurcation by 2024.

Hosted by writer, curator, museum junkie and archive-chaser Sita Reddy. This podcast is implemented by the India Foundation for the Arts under the Arts Research program, made possible with support from BNS Paribas India.

1. Introduction: Ajeebghars and Loot – SP/LIT: AJEEBGHARS FOR AJEEB TIMES

Welcome to Split, the new podcast on Hyderabad’s state museums and archives during Andhra Pradesh’s bifurcation decade, 2014 to 2024. This opening episode begins with a quote from Rudyard Kipling’s Kim that links two English words with Indian roots: ajeebghars and loot, both of which have to do with cultural property. I pose three questions that will recur through all the episodes: How does a museum divide or split? Who are an archive’s keepers – its custodians or its publics? And who owns state’s cultural heritage if objects are disputed or contested?

1. 1. Introduction: Ajeebghars and Loot 15:40
2. 2. Whose History? Telangana State Archives 01:49
3. 3. Digging Deep at the Archeological Museum 01:42
4. 4. Of Muraqqas and Manuscripts: Oriental Manuscript Library 01:25
5. 5. Dead on Arrival: Where does the Health Museum go? 01:28
6. 6. The Tribal Museum: Margins and Mainstreams 01:31