In news: Delhi to get its 1st Partition museum which will be opened to the public on 15th August, in time to commemorate India entering its 75th year of independence.
About partition museum
- During the partition of 1947 thousands of Delhi’s residents fled, it also took in nearly half a million refugees from Pakistan in the months pre and post August 1947
- The capital is now set to get a museum to solemnly mark that moment in its history
- The partition museum is an extension of Amritsar’s Partition Museum
- Location: It will come up at the Dara Shikoh Library building in Old Delhi’s Mori Gate.
- Built in 1643 and named after Shah Jahan’s eldest son, Dara Shikoh, the building currently stands in the Ambedkar University Delhi campus.
- In the later years, it served as the residence of Mughal viceroy of Punjab, Ali Mardan Khan, and then of David Ochterlony, a British officer in the Mughal court.
Three museums & collaboration
Besides the Partition Museum, for which the Delhi government’s Department of Archaeology has joined hands with The Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust (TAACHT), there will be a museum dedicated to the life of Dara Shikoh, and one to display antiquities and artefacts in its possession
Project ‘Daastaan-e-Dilli’
- According to TAACHT, he entire project is tentatively called ‘Daastaan-e-Dilli’, and is aimed at creating a cultural hub at the historic and beautiful Dara Shikoh Library.
- It will be a unique space in which we can consider the impact of divisions (the Partition of India) and unification (as through the Sufism of Dara Shikoh) side by side
- Of the three, first to be completed will be the Partition Museum, with a special focus on how Partition impacted and changed Delhi.
- The other two museums, indoor and outdoor performance spaces, and gardens will be undertaken subsequently.
What will be showcased?
- The Partition museum of Delhi would display about Delhi, and the changes in the city the people, refugee camps, new colonies that came up.
- There will also be narratives of the individuals who were impacted and involved apart from memorabilia and material memory.
- It will also have displays on what Delhi looked like before and after the Partition.
- According to the Archaeology Department, there is also a plan to create ‘Daastaan E Dilli’ tours to showcase the history of the building which is a confluence of different streams of architecture.
- The tour will include the three museums and the history of the surrounding buildings in Kashmere Gate and Chandni Chowk
Implementation of the Project
- The project will be implemented by government stakeholders, including Union Ministry of Tourism, Delhi government, and private entities Monument Mitras, TAACHT and Museum and Arts Consultancy (MAC) acting in a joint consortium
- The project is in PPP mode. While the government gives the building, the person who ‘adopts’ the heritage has to raise and spend the money.
- TAACHT, as an NGOK, has proposed to invest money in the project in a phased manner
Source: Indian Express
