In a theoretical sense all museums are equal, wherever they might be. But in reality museums differ enormously in scale, in discipline and in relationship with the community. Besides, there are many museum-like or museum-related institutions. The term "para-museum" is used for science centres, heritage centres, cultural centres, etc. They are not museums but they function like museums and are useful for the community.
Any museum collects in a wider sense and ultimately concerns itself with culture and natural heritage. The New Museology interprets the relation between man and his environment, the influence of cultural and natural heritage and the cultural identity of individuals and community. Museology, therefore, can be redefined as the discipline which encompasses the whole range of theory and practice required for using cultural and natural heritage.
Museology in India is understood to be interchangeable with "museum study" or "museum training". Museology, however, is much wider.
After the completion of the People of India Project of the Anthropological Survey of India there is a growing need for agencies to protect and interpret the heritage of thousands of ethnic groups. In view of the pace of change in all spheres of life, the task appears to be gigantic and certainly beyond the reach of the traditional museums. Once, while discussing new museum projects for Dangi people with the Development Officer, Dang District, it became clear that organizing museums is too expensive and a long-winding process. It is absolutely necessary that some affordable agencies are planned to suit specific situations at community level. To those groups who are concerned about their "collective memories", a traditional museum is like a cake and not like a bread for affordable cultural sustenance. Let us not tell such communities to turn to the cakes, when what they urgently need is bread, in the manner in which the 18th century French Queen Marie Antoinette exhorted starving masses to go for cakes.
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