The Museum of Ephemera is a digital archive of ephemeral forms from the city of Bombay.
Ephemera refers to transitory materials – things that were meant for the short term, things that are believed to have no lasting significance. The Museum of Ephemera suggests that there is a politics that determines what is and is not ephemeral. It expands this definition to include materials that are denied longevity, documentation, and attention. The ephemeral is made redundant and can, similarly, be made valuable.
Both historically and in the present moment, minority movements have relied on non-traditional forms to find audiences, allies, and platforms. Posters and little magazines have served as bearers of news, performance art as a call to arms. This is not an accident of history. Instead, it is a natural outcome of a political space where mainstream forms of expression are denied to those who need them most. In their place arises an alternative framework of expression and resistance, one that is built around impermanent, improvised, and non-traditional forms.
The Museum of Ephemera recognises the history of these objects and their potential to serve as witnesses to a different history of the city – one that is troubled, fleeting, and undeniably powerful.
The primary “objects” in the Museum are posters, pamphlets, manifestos, slogans, songs, and photographs. As a starting point, the Museum takes two political moments as its focus – the mill workers’ strike between 1981 and 1983 and the anti-CAA protests of 2019. This exploration is structured in two sections – Archive and Literature: the materials themselves and the larger conversation that these materials allow. By placing these moments alongside each other, the Museum teases out parallels and resonances that illustrate the politics of these forms.
The Museum aims to narrativize forgotten objects and build an alternative history of the city. It seeks to expand the way that Bombay is understood and tell the story of its many moments of resistance. In doing so, it asks if we can find new ways to remember, record, and understand our histories.
Avani Tandon Vieira
Avani Tandon Vieira is a PhD candidate and Gates scholar at the University of Cambridge. Prior to beginning her doctorate, she received a bachelor’s degree in English at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and a master’s in World Literatures at the University of Oxford. Her research considers little magazines and independent publishing in the late twentieth century. Alongside her academic work, she runs the Pind Collective, an online space for young artists from India and Pakistan.
Manasvini Rajan
Manasvini Rajan is a PhD candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and a master’s degree in the same discipline from the University of Warwick. Her research interests lie in the fields of postcolonial studies and the environmental humanities. Currently, she is working on twentieth-century literary representations of agricultural labour from across the Indian subcontinent.
Sumedha Chakravarthy
Sumedha Chakravarthy is a researcher at Sarai-CSDS, an urban and media studies lab in Delhi. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and a master’s in comparative literature from SOAS. She is interested in the lived histories and presents of postcolonial cities as they are variously experienced, constituted, and imagined. At present, her work explores how a range of media, from billboards to cinema, shape life in contemporary Indian cities.
Alika Tandon Vieira
Alika Tandon Vieira holds a degree in Anthropology and Environmental Science from Ashoka University, Sonepat. Her interests lie in cross-species research and postcolonial urban spaces, with a particular focus on Mumbai. She has previously developed environment-focused syllabi and pedagogical tools. At present, she handles social media and outreach for Current Conservation.