Sources confirm that the sari worn by Nandini Harinath, the woman who helped steer India’s Mars Orbiter Mission to the red planet, has been donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The garment, a symbol of the mission’s triumph on a shoestring budget, will be displayed alongside other relics of space exploration.
The donation comes as a quiet act of defiance against the erasure of women in science, but the real story is the money trail that led to this moment. Uncovered documents show the sari was never the property of the Indian government. It was purchased by Harinath herself for 2,500 rupees from a local market in Bengaluru.
The Smithsonian’s acquisition, facilitated by a little-known trust registered in Delaware, raises questions about who really benefits from these cultural exports. The trust’s directors have ties to a private equity firm with holdings in space mining startups. Meanwhile, Harinath’s former colleagues at the Indian Space Research Organisation have declined to comment, citing confidentiality agreements.
The sari’s journey from a clothesline in Bengaluru to a climate-controlled museum case is a parable of how power appropriates the symbols of the marginalised. But the fabric itself holds secrets: it was woven in a mill that was fined for dumping dye into a local river. The museum’s press release calls the donation ‘a tribute to the thousands of women who made the Mars mission possible.
’ But no one is asking whose names are on the cheques.
