‘Our effort will be to reach an arrangement to keep the wagh-nakh permanently in India’

London: London got a taste of Marathi-style celebration on Tuesday after Maharashtra’s culture minister Sudhir Munganatiwar signed the MoU with Tristram Hunt, the director of Victoria & Albert Museum. The signing of the MoU marked a historic day for the state, the minister told HT. “We will get the waagh-nakh for three years under the MoU, although our endeavour will be to reach an agreement through which we get to keep the artefact permanently in India.”

“The waagh-nakh is not just any object, it is an article of faith for us. Shivaji Maharaj was born at a time when Hind swaraj was in danger, our Hindavi samaj was in danger. It was his bravery, statesmanship, and organisational ability that saved us and our society,” said Munganatiwar, amidst chants of Jai Bhawani, Jai Shivaji from the 250 people who had gathered at a Kensington hotel for the post-MoU celebrations .

The negotiations leading to the MoU lasted two years and the waagh-nakh is expected to reach India only in February next year. “Our entire focus has been to get the waagh-nakh back home so that the people of India can see it for themselves. Afzal Khan came with an army of lakhs of people, and dreams of decimating us, but it was Shivaji instead who taught him a lesson. Shivaji’s name alone is enough to bring a comatose man back to consciousness,” he extolled.

A spokesperson from V&A told HT that this is not the first time that an item has been loaned from the museum’s collection for display in India.The waagh-nakh’s provenance is connected with British official Grant Duff who was the Resident of Satara in 1820s. Although Duff returned to Scotland after retirement, it was his grandson who handed over the waagh-nakh to the V&A museum decades later. Communication and pictures shared by the museum cautiously describe it as tiger claws “reputed to have been used by Shivaji to kill Afzal Khan”.