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Superb works by Goan artists supply many highlights in ‘Maharaja’s Treasures’, an excellent exhibition drawn from the Air India collection of modern and contemporary art, that opened last month in the storied Cowasji Jehangir Hall in Colaba, which has been the National Gallery of Modern Art’s outpost in Mumbai since 1996. My recent viewing re-illuminated twinned truths. First, the undeniable – yet routinely unacknowledged – fact that Goa contributed far disproportionately to the canonical Indian art of the 20th century. On the flip side, it’s necessary to acknowledge our collective failure to adequately preserve, understand and celebrate our own magnificent artistic and cultural legacies in order for the future generations to benefit from the labours of the giants of the past. In regard to state policies especially, the dereliction of duty is shocking and abysmal, and keeps on getting worse, as we see with the blatant disrespect of Mario de Miranda’s oeuvre by the same G20 gatherings meant to demonstrate India’s commitment to “ensure all cultural resources are truly protected”. The collection on display at the NGMA Mumbai is an important document of national cultural aspirations in the post-colonial era, when Air India was one of the foremost prestige projects for the country. Although the government had been the majority shareholder from 1953, the visionary J.R.D. Tata remained chairman until 1977, and the airline led the way as the first Asian carrier to enter the jet age in 1960, and then becoming the world’s first all-jet airline in 1962. Alongside, it acquired an impressive swathe of premium real estate around the globe, furnished with an aesthetic ambition to represent independent India. Here's how Nazneen Banu, the NGMA Mumbai director, puts it in her message at the exhibition entrance: “The impressive diversity and broad spectrum of the Air India collection holds an unparalleled position in the history of any commercial airline. To give a glimpse of the nation's rich artistic heritage, the company started displaying and decorating its booking houses, pavilions and lounges with its impressive art collection that captivated the minds of travellers throughout the globe. The Air India pavilions dazzled like a palace with display of gold *zari* embroidered and woven textiles, gilded Thanjavur paintings, polychrome wooden temple sculptures and replicas of classical Southern bronzes. The exhibition consists of a thematic display of around 200 artworks meticulously chosen that brings to you a portion of the collection that Air India used to redefine air travel in its own 'Maharaja' Style.” There are a handful of outright masterpieces here: an astonishing snake-adorned ceramic ashtray designed by the iconic Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali (for which he demanded and received a baby elephant in compensation), a fantastic seaside Holi scene by the Progressive Artists Group pioneer K.H Ara, and two magnificent abstract paintings by his comrades SH Raza and Vasudeo Gaitonde (the genius son of Ucassaim). I also loved the charming and unusual Goa scene – it is pictured along with this column - by yet another important Progressive of Goan origin, Laxman Pai, and spent considerable time relishing the irresistible humorous details in the set of Mario de Miranda illustrations of what goes on behind the scenes in airline offices. All these comprise part of what the acclaimed poet, critic and curator Ranjit Hoskote describes as “an invisible river” of artists from Goa who substantially shaped the trajectory of Indian art but have “not always been recognized as so doing.” In his prescient, powerful curatorial essay for the game-changing 2007 exhibition *Aparanta: The Confluence of Contemporary Art in Goa *– which also had the salutary effect of saving the Old GMC building from being turned into a shopping mall - he pointed out that “geographical contiguity does not mean that Goa and mainland India share the same universe of meaning: Goa’s special historic evolution, with its Lusitanian route to the Enlightenment and print modernity, its Iberian emphasis on a vibrant public sphere, its pride in its ancient internationalism avant la lettre, sets it at a tangent to the self-image of an India that has been formed with the experience of British colonialism as its basis. The relationship between Goa’s artists and mainland India has, not surprisingly, been ambiguous and erratic, even unstable.” That is certainly so, but the profusion of Goan artists in ‘Maharaja’s Treasures’ demonstrates their importance to the Indian national cultural project. Besides those named earlier, there’s Prafulla Joshi Dahanukar, who was born in Bandora and also became a Progressive alongside her mentor Gaitonde, and Marie Dias Arora, the daughter and grand-daughter of the first two ICS officers of Goan origin, who studied on scholarship in Paris with the master printmakers William Hayter and Krishna Reddy. This formidable cadre of artists would have been the centrepiece of the state art museum that should have been established decades ago, under any kind of responsible cultural management. The fact it hasn’t happened is an absolute disgrace, compounded by the fact that even 60 years after decolonization the only two decent art museums in Goa are sponsored and maintained by foundations based in Portugal (although in the case of MoCA, the state and national governments have indeed contributed substantially). Bottom line: it’s hard not to feel envious about what the citizens of Mumbai get to enjoy as a matter of course, where Goa has failed utterly miserably, and one more reason for that is venues like Cowasji Jehangir Hall itself, which was founded in 1911 for what the grand marble plaque in its foyer tells us includes “all educational, scientific, literary and social purposes, for concerts, prize exhibitions, lectures and art and educational exhibitions [and] for public meeting called by any responsible body on any day of the week inclusive of Sunday.” Many years ago, Francis Newton Souza told me he raised the funds for his first passage to London by organizing an evening dance for British soldiers there after WWII. The great Saligao-born progenitor of the Progressives is conspicuously absent from the AI collection (he was probably considered disreputable) but there are many of his works with the NGMA. Will they ever be seen in Goa?