‘Woke’ museum gives up 2,000 religious documents saved by being brought to UK

A UK museum is planning to hand back 2,000 Indian manuscripts after judging them to have been obtained “unethically”. The Wellcome Collection in London has agreed to relinquish the cultural artefacts to Jainism, an Indian faith based on the discipline of non-violence.

The spiritually significant documents were lawfully purchased from a Jain temple in the Punjab in 1919 by the museum’s founder and pharmaceutical entrepreneur Sir Henry Wellcome. Curators have nonetheless concluded that the manuscripts were bought “unethically”, for “far under the market price”.

This is despite suggestions that the artefacts may have been “saved” by being brought to Britain before the Indian partition of 1947, when many Jain temples were destroyed or abandoned. Online commentators derided the decision, which will see the documents handed to the Institute of Jainology, a UK-based charity representing the faith, as “woke” and “unbelievable”.

Mehool Sanghrajka, managing trustee for the institute, told The Telegraph: “There are two sides to this. On one hand, there is the ethical question of the acquisition, and the manuscript being bought for far under the market price and so on.

“But on the other hand, they were taken away from a place that suffered greatly during partition, so it’s quite possible that they were saved by being brought to Britain.”

Dr Adrian Plau, researcher at the collection, said 1,200 of the manuscripts were bought from a single temple, with Sir Henry’s agents believing they had secured a good deal while the sellers were left in the dark as to the items’ true value.

The Wellcome Collection reportedly concluded that such a purchase breached its commitment to “inclusive, collaborative and ethical management” of artefacts.

Daniel Martin, associate director of collections and digital at the museum, described the handover as a “landmark restitution” that “recognises the hurt caused by the retention of material heritage”.

It’s not the first time British cultural institutions have come under pressure to return foreign artefacts, with a collection in Brighton returning display items to Botswana last year and Greece continuing to press for the return of the Elgin Marbles.

The Express has contacted the Wellcome Collection for comment.