Maharashtra: Woman gets museum to add ‘Chhatrapati’ to Shivaji London display

After Vanashree Shedge 23 objected to a display board at the Londonbased Victoria and Albert VampA Museum referring to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj without his royal title a curator assured her that the issue will be rectified The VampA Museum has promised in writing to change lsquoShivajirsquo to lsquoChhatrapati Shivaji MaharajrsquoDuring their visit to London on March 31 Vanashree her younger sister Tejashree and first cousin Surashree visited the museum The trio happened to observe a display board referring to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in first person singular formldquoThe board describing tiger claws a weapon in room number 41 South Asia mentions Shivaji instead of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj This did not go down well with the three of us On the museum premises itself we discussed the issue and came to the conclusion that this should be brought to the notice of the managementrdquo Vanashree told middayAlso Read Mumbai Three years after Dahisar land deal expose Kirit Somaiya seeks FIRThe email sent by the museumVanashree has taken images of the tiger claws kept in the museum which she shared with middayAs per the image shared the display reads ldquoTiger Claws In 1659 the great Maratha ruler Shivaji survived an assassination attempt by disembowelling the emissary sent from Bijapur under the pretext of making peace It has been claimed that this weapon was the actual one used but the same claim has been made for several othersrdquo The coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj took place in the capital of Hindavi Swarajya the fort of Raigad Coincidentally Vanashree hails from Roha a town and taluka in Raigad district It is located around 120 km southeast of MumbaiThe Victoria and Albert Museum comments cardVanashree and her relatives walked to a help desk counter and asked for a feedback form ldquoThe woman at the help desk asked us the reasons for demanding the form We explained our concern about the museum referring to Shivaji Maharaj in the singular form Convinced she immediately handed over the VampA comments card to usrdquo Vanashree saidThe Raigad local mentioned in the card ldquoThe King represents our country and is never addressed with his first name only It is a disrespect for him and our country India She also suggested that the museum should change the name in the display to lsquoChhatrapati Shivaji MaharajrsquoThe Shedges were overwhelmed by the alacrity exhibited by the museum in replying to their comment ldquoOn March 31 I left the note which had my email ID On April 5 I received an email from the museum authorities One of the curators acknowledged the suggestion and even assured us the changes mentioned in the comment card would be maderdquo she addedAppreciating the museums actions the engineering graduate said ldquoIn London the museum authorities acted swiftly and even assured us about changing the board There is a lot to learn from the culture and approach of the UK especially museum authoritiesrdquoShe shared that the museum authorities reply with midday ldquoWe are due to be closing the gallery in 2024 for a full refurbishment and will be rewriting and updating all the labels We do not mean to disrespect anyone and have taken your Vanashree comments on boardrdquo read the email sent by Divia Patel senior curator Asian departmentVanashree expressed gratitude towards VampA Museum ldquoOnce the necessary changes are made I hope to receive an email informing me about the samerdquo the elder daughter of Sameer Shedge said2024Year the display will be corrected with the full honorific31Day in March when Vanashree visited museum