Revisit history this I-Day

Team L&M

Take time out and visit one of these museums this Independence Day which chronicle the history of our country’s freedom struggle and experience life, as our freedom fighters and our forefathers spent, back in those days…

Partition Museum, Amritsar
Located in Walled City’s historic Town Hall Building, the first museum in the country on the Partition chronicles the tumultuous history of Punjab. The museum comprehensively charts the Partition with a narrative arc that moves from the time before the Partition, proceeds to the independence movement, the early demands for separate countries, and ultimately the Partition and its consequences. The Partition Museum endeavours to depict the Partition as it was experienced by the People. One key aspect of the collections comprises the artefacts donated generously by the survivors and their families of the Partition.

As people were displaced, they carried with them whatever little they could, and these objects are now not only important milestones of the events, but symbols of losses suffered and trials endured. The uncertainty and confusion caused by the sudden division of the country often gave people no time to be able to gather their belongings before walking out of their homes forever. The artefacts received by the Partition Museum include things that were of practical use brought across by people along with those that held sentimental value for them. From utensils, trunks and clothes, to a wedding sari, a jewellery box and a tin box, the museum houses artefacts of the Partition belonging to people from diverse and different backgrounds.

The Partition Museum has 15 galleries, covering an area of 17,000 sq. ft, with a wide range of material such as newspapers, magazines, government documents and photographs showing the migration and camps. The significant contribution of this memorial is how it re-imagines the travesty and bloodshed during a tumultuous time, enough to give chills to those of us who have only read about it. It is a people’s museum that builds its narrative around oral histories (on video) and soundscapes in every gallery, original artefacts donated by refugees, letters written by them and various art installations (such as a life-size replica of a train station).
Where Town Hall, Katra Ahluwalia, Opposite Brother’s Dhaba, Amritsar
Timings 10 am to 6 pm (Mondays closed)
Tickets Rs 10 (Indians), Rs 250 (foreign nationals), free for children below 5 and Partition survivors

Swatantrata Sangram Sanghralaya, Delhi
Located in the precincts of the historic Red Fort in the National Capital, the Swatantrata Sangram Sanghralaya is dedicated to the country’s freedom fighters. Paintings, photographs and statues depicting freedom fighters and leaders and weapons they used in their struggle against the British Raj are on display here.
Where Red Fort, Delhi.
Timings Open all days between 9 am and 5 pm
Tickets Rs 35 (Indians), Rs 500 (foreign nationals). The entry fee is for Red Fort; entry to museums is free.

Swatantrata Senani Museum, Delhi
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) developed a portion of Salimgarh Fort which was built by Salim Shah, the successor and son of Sher Shah Suri, as a memorial dedicated to the heroes of the INA. The INA uniform donned by Col Prem Kumar, riding boots, coat buttons of Col Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon along with photographs of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose are on display here. One of the galleries here houses excavated materials and photographs of the excavation process which was carried out by the ASI in 1995.
Where Red Fort Delhi.
Timings Open all days between 9 am and 5 pm
Tickets Rs 35 (Indians), Rs 500 (foreign nationals)
Tickets Rs 35 (Indians), Rs 500 (foreign nationals). The entry fee is for Red Fort; entry to museums is free.