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India is a land of great diversity. Every single aspect of our culture morphs as one moves from one part of the country to another. From history, food and traditions, to contributions to the academic sphere, India has always managed to astonish the world. One such entrancing one, is the Toilet Museum. Yes, a museum of toilets.
Started in 1992 by Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, a social activist, Sulabh International Toilet Museum has managed to grab a place in the Times List of top ten weird museums around the world. Established with an objective to highlight the need of addressing the problems of sanitation in our country, this museum is run by Sulabh Sanitation and Reform Movement.
Dedicated to the global history of sanitation and toilets, sanitary artefacts collected since 3000 BC from around 50 countries are displayed sequentially in three sections of “Ancient, Medieval and Modern”. The items on display include privies, chamber pots, decorated Victorian toilet seats, toilet furniture, bidets ,and water closets in vogue since 1145 AD.
It has some outlandish reproductions like a mimic of the British medieval era commode which looks like a treasure chest and one has to get locked inside the wooden box to use the pot, or the one which is disguised in the form of a book. A two-storey toilet used in the US in 1920s is also a part of the Toilet Museum.
Some of the most interesting and worth beholding ones include a replica of the toilet used by King Louis XIV, which he used while holding court to answer nature’s call without disturbing the proceedings. Even the one used by the Romans where the pot is made of gold and silver, literally giving the feel of sitting on a pot of gold!
To make the information more indulging and entertaining, display boards with comics, jokes and cartoons related to humour on toilet, poems about that toilet and its use are pinned up at every nook and corner. Newsy charts hold some of the most fascinating stories, like information on the technology transfer from Russia to NASA to convert urine into potable water. Information about flush pot designed in 1596 by Sir John Harington during Queen Elizabeth I’s regime, the sewerage system that existed during the Harappan Civilization and historical information from the Lothal archaeological site on the development of toilets during the Indus Valley Civilization.
Loaded with some of the most captivating and bewildered models of toilets, this museum does not fail to engage its audience and spread the main purpose of its establishment: the need of good sanitation practices. It presents the development of toilet related technology, social habits, etiquettes specific to existing sanitary situation and legal framework in different time periods. It is a wonderful and creative way of putting out social problems, to educate the population about the necessitate of toilets. However weird or insane it may sound, it is this uncanniness that has made reaching and teaching a sizable population of such a prime issue possible.
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