Historical relics: their role in the collection

In common with every other category into which the contents of the India Museum are divided here – purely in the interests of accessibility – the items to be considered for their personal or historical relations never collectively formed a distinct element of the displays while the museum survived as an independent entity. Such a concept would indeed have been at odds with the ethos under which it operated from its inception until its dissolution: as stressed elsewhere in this volume, it was primarily a mercantile imperative that drove the museum’s collecting policy – first under the Company and later