No one would have thought there were so many human remains in museums … India needs a policy to deal with this

India & Australia have announced a rare, two-way act of repatriation: three Chola-era Tamil Nadu antiquities – a ceremonial bronze trident of Goddess Bhadrakali, a granite idol of Nandi, and a six-headed sculpture of Lord Kartikeya – will return to India from Australian collections. Even as India returns the remains of an Aboriginal ancestor that have sat in Chennai’s Government Museum since a formal exchange between museum directors in 1935. Vinod Daniel , chairman, AusHeritage, and a two-term board member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), spoke with Swati Mathur on how such objects and remains ended up abroad, why the return of human remains is consequential.

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