The University of Oxford has handed back the remains of 39 individuals taken from the Naga community during the British colonial era. The ceremony, held on Monday at the Pitt Rivers Museum, was attended by a delegation of about 30 people from Nagaland, a mountainous state in north‑eastern India.
Most of the remains are skulls, and they will be buried in a joint memorial park in Nagaland, a gesture described by Naga tribal leaders as a “respectful rest.” The delegation met with descendants of one of the colonial anthropologists who originally collected the remains, highlighting the complex history of how the skulls were removed from their homeland.
According to museum director Laura Van Broekhoven, the return marks a “historic moment” that will be told to future generations. She noted that the remains had been on their way home after “so much red tape everywhere.” The Pitt Rivers Museum had displayed the skulls for decades before removing them from public view in 2020 as part of a decolonisation effort.
The museum’s collection includes more than 6,000 objects linked to Naga culture, the largest such collection worldwide. Of the 219 items listed as human remains, 39 were returned to India. These were acquired between 1910 and 1940, largely by two colonial administrators who were also anthropologists. The museum’s website acknowledges that many items were “frequently confiscated during punitive military expeditions, rather than freely given.”
During the visit, a Naga leader, Thejao Vihienuo, expressed that the manner in which the skulls were taken “leaves much for us to speculate.” He added, “I suspect that nobody would have given the skull of his father or his grandfather as a gift to another person.”
Anthropologists point out that while the Naga once practiced head‑hunting, they also kept the heads of their own chiefs at the centre of villages. The Pitt Rivers Museum has a history of returning human remains to indigenous communities in Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
The latest handover follows a 2025 visit by a Naga delegation that formally requested the return of the remains. Oxford had announced in September that the skulls would be returned to India, and the ceremony today completed that commitment.
Source: BBC World
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