Gwalior Gateway: Stone gateway, forming entrance to the Indian Court in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 in South Kensington. It got transferred to the Victoria and Albert Museum

Dr Kavita Singh, who teaches art history at the School of Art and Aesthetics in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, has engaged deeply with the history and other intriguing facets of museums in her career spanning 30 years. Yesterday, she was in the city to deliver the 19th Karl Khandalavala Memorial Lecture - a prestigious annual event of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya - on the topic, Uncollecting India: Hidden Histories of a Museum. We caught up with Dr Singh to look at museums through her lens. Excerpts from an interview: