December 9, 2004

The Jewel in the Crown exhibition charting the history of Karachi under the Raj, opened to the public on the 1st of December. It has been organized by the Dawn Group of Newspapers and the Trustees of the Mohatta Palace Museum.

The exhibits, however, do not strictly adhere to the stated time limit as many of them, from periods dating back well before 1843 are on display as are those from the post 1947 era. Likewise, the exhibition isn’t just about Karachi as the title suggests; there are exhibits from and about the Kalat State, the Hyderabad Mirs and the Khairpur State on the ground floor.

Karachi under the Raj was scheduled to open for the public much later, but due to public pressure the organizers opened the exhibition sooner. While this is certainly going to enable a larger audience to view the exhibition, early visitors will be deprived, like I was, of the beautifully compiled and comprehensive catalogue of the exhibition which hadn’t been lauched till these lines were being written. It is expected to be formatted along the lines of the catalogues that accompanied the Sadeqain and Jamil Naqsh exhibitions.

Other than the catalogue, some galleries including the entire basement haven’t opened to the public yet and most of the displays are not, thus far, accompanied by written guides detailing the description of items on display.

This is not to suggest that visits to the museum be delayed. The sheer size of the exhibition makes it nearly impossible to view everything in just a single visit unless one dedicates several hours at a stretch to do so.

Among my favourite exhibits were letters from Lord Mountbatten to Mir Murad Khan Talpur of Khairpur and from him to the Viceroy. A Karachi newspaper, dated 1935, that lay beside the letters was equally intriguing. There was an impressive collection of antique books and manuscripts on Karachi, many by and on Sir Charles Napier, the father of modern Karachi. These include life and opinions of him, Descriptive ethnology of bridges, History of administration of Scinde, Sindh revisited, and A journey over land to India.

The piece d’resistance, however, was a rare collection of letters hand written in Urdu by the Jauhar brothers, some even on the stationary of the Khilafat Committee. Two copies of their newsletters Comrade and Hamdard are on display too. Other than, these a showcase in one of the galleries upstairs displays a gift to Jinnah from his good friend, the renowned poetess, Sarojini Naidu. It looked like an ivory case with an inscription on a steel plate that bore a message of love and loyalty.

Outside the building, eight pavilions have been set up on the grounds of the Mohatta Palace which house exhibits that trace the rise of Karachi, the Raj and Jinnah as well as the fall of the Raj and the birth of Pakistan. The pavilions are titled: A. Humble Beginnings - The Early Coastal Settlement; B. The Sole Spokesman - Rare Glimpses of Mr Mohammad Ali Jinnah; C. The Forgotten Martyrs of Victoria Bagh - Statuary under the Raj; D. Beyond Empire; E. Stones of Empire - Landmarks of Colonial Karachi; F. Anchors Aweigh; G. The Empire’s Burning and H. Exit the Yellow Rolls Royce. All the pavilions have impressive displays but the colonial fire truck in Pavilion G and Jinnah’s Rolls Royce in Pavilion H, still in mint condition, were exceptional.

This exhibition is superbly organized, and the organizers deserve accolades for dedicating their time and effort to a cause that aims to acquaint us with our past.

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