Deposit your camera in the cloak room,” says the elderly man behind the counter as he issues the entry pass at the Virasat-e-Khalsa in Anandpur Sahib, the magnificent, 250,000-square-feet monument, built at a cost of over Rs 250 crore, commemorating 500 years of Sikh history and 300 years of the Khalsa Panth. A crowd of at least 100, young, old, college and school groups, queues across the huge complex waiting to see what it holds for them.
Before entering the museum, an usher instructs visitors not to click pictures and, bizarrely, not dance inside! There is pitch darkness as you enter, broken suddenly by the sound of chirping birds and a ray of blue light. Inside, the exhibits, murals and audio-visual presentation show the culture, climate, seasons and festivals starting from the pre-Guru Nanak era. These depict Sikh history from the 15th century to the early years of Guru Nanak Dev, Guru Angad Dev, Guru Amardas, Guru Ramdas, Guru Arjun Dev, the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the setting up of Harminder Sahib (the Golden Temple of Amritsar), to recent times.
We are given audio guides to take us through the exhibits on display. These are supposed to be in three languages — English, Hindi and Punjabi — but ours only has Punjabi commentary. The script of the audio-guide has been written by Punjabi poet Surjit Patar who has collaborated with actor Divya Dutta for the Punjabi voice-over. The English translation is by Farrukh Dhondy, the British writer of Indian origin with actor Kabir Bedi doing the voice-over. The entire experience inside the museum, lasting around 90 minutes, is surreal.
Interestingly, there are no relics of the Sikh gurus here, which are otherwise scattered throughout gurudwaras and private collections in the state and elsewhere. “Attempts were made to acquire some for the complex. But the relics confer sanctity on the gurudwaras; so naturally no one was willing to part with the relics they possessed,” says a visual arts professor at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University who does not wish to be named. Significantly, in 2008, the Punjab High Court had directed that some relics of Guru Govind Singh, in the possession of Hanumant Singh, a descendent of Maharaja Partap Singh of Nabha, be handed over to the state government for eventual display at the Anandpur Sahib complex. These, however, are yet to be put on show.
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Built over 75 acres, the complex has been designed by Moshe Safdie, a Boston-based Israeli architect. Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem, and Habitat ’67 (the landmark housing and community complex in Montreal) are some of his acclaimed designs in a 45-year-long career. In fact, it was after he saw the Holocaust Memorial that then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal gave Safdie the commission to build the memorial complex in 1999, as part of the Punjab government’s grand celebration of the Khalsa tercentenary. The Virasat-e-Khalsa consists of two buildings — one topped with five crescents and the other with five petals, signifying the importance of the number five in Sikhism — made in stainless steel and the locally available yellow sandstone that evokes the fortress-like architecture of the region. They are connected by a footbridge over a seven-acre water body.
The museum starts at the ‘Panj Pani’, a 20-metre high boat-shaped building with a gallery that houses a large hand-painted mural depicting the past and present of Punjab. It took almost four years to complete the interiors, which includes paintings and murals done by around 400 artists, brought in mainly from Delhi. Hoshiar Singh of Singh Arts, who was one of them, says he was honoured to be a part of the project. “We stayed at the centre and worked round the clock to finish the installations.” He refuses to divulge how much he was paid for making the installations. Two other artists — Aman Bahel and Jai Prakash — refuse to talk about their work.
While the structure looks imposing, the design has its share of detractors. Bhai Baldeep Singh, a member of the Sangeet Natak Akademi who runs the Anad Foundation that works to preserve the devotional music tradition of Punjab and was an early member of the core committee that oversaw the project finds the “inverted dome” structure of the roof going against the very basic tenets of Sikh architectural tradition. “I see more of Safdie in the structure than the Sikh community,” he says.
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But at Anandpur Sahib, the enthusiasm is palpable. Inderjeet Singh, a member of the fisheries marketing board of Punjab, is officer on special duty in charge of the museum. Singh sends one of the ushers, Satbir Singh, to explain more about the complex . “We will talk after that,” he says. Satbir is friendly and tells me that he is one of the 33 sevaks, or helpers, employed at the heritage to help with the day-to-day functioning. There are another 40 security personnel and 50 maintenance staff to man the complex, employed by the Anandpur Sahib Foundation(ASF) which, in association with the Punjab government, undertook the project. “It took 13 years for this structure to be ready, and now we get at least 5,000 visitors a day,” he informs with pride. Since its inauguration on November 25, 2011, more than 400,000 have visited the Virasat-e-Khalsa.
Satbir is honest and says the delays and controversies could have been avoided. The construction of the Virasat-e-Khalsa, or the Khalsa Memorial Complex as it was known earlier, has been mired in controversies.
The foundation stone was laid in October 1999 and the project was to have been completed by 2006. However, a number of professionals associated with the institution resigned or were removed, including, most notably, Kristine Kelly, an American museum consultant, and Pancham Singh, chief security officer who had worked with several international museums. Geetika Kalha, IAS officer and CEO of ASF, was also relieved of her duties by finance minister Upinder Singh and an inquiry ordered into administrative irregularities during her tenure.
George Jacob, a former project director at The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, who was brought in as director of the complex on a five-year contract was removed after just eight months on the grounds that “since the museum opening was delayed, a director was not needed”. Jacob later appealed to the Punjab High Court over the termination; the case is pending. In an interim order in August 2010, however, the court directed the state government to restitute all the perks of his position until further notice. “Ironically,” says Jacob, “even after the announcement of the opening of the Centre, the director’s services were not engaged.” He points to other shortcomings. “Only 14 of the 25 galleries are ready. Work on the remaining 11 is YET to begin… The library is dysfunctional [there are] no books, journals, subscriptions, collections… there are zero events planned to utilise the ampitheatre, auditorium and other facilities,” he writes in an email.
Even Safdie, who came several times every year and stayed several days at a time, had problems with the way the project was shaping up.
But that is something he isn’t willing to say anything about, except for emphasising that ever since Karmajit Singh Sra took over as CEO of ASF in April last year, the work has gone off without any glitches. “He spent many days here and countless sleepless nights to ensure that work was completed on time.” Sra, on his part, says that a project of this magnitude was bound to have issues and that the delays were inevitable. Then the government changed, and when Captain Amarinder Singh was chief minister very little work was done. However, Sra says he does not want to dwell on that; he is simply delighted and proud to see the museum finally up and running.