Representing Religious Identity: Lahore Museum, 1960s-1990s

Abstract

Exhibitions, galleries, and publications of the Lahore Museum represented the national history, interests, and ideology of Pakistani State between the 1960s and 1990s. Initially, the State did not take interest in the patronising and financing the Museum but from the 1960s onwards, various administrators began to use the Museum as a space where the State could represent its identity, ideology and unique history. Parallel to the process of Islamization in Pakistan, initially the Museum administrators in the 1970s, and then other State institutions in the 1980s and 1990s began to take keen interest in the ideologically motivated acquisitions and displays of the Museum.