Delhi’s ‘Partition Museum’ on Ambedkar Univ campus to open on May 18

The Partition Museum, being built inside the Dara Shikoh Library Building (DSLB) on the Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) campus in Kashmere Gate, is set to be inaugurated on May 18, said officials aware of the matter here on Monday.

The first such museum in Delhi — and the second in the country after Amritsar — it is set to have several relics and memoirs to show how the partition of the country impacted Delhi.

“The preparations are done, and all the displays are ready. We are happy to open this warm gallery for people after May 18,” said Kishwar Desai, chair of The Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust (TACHT), which will manage the museum.

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The museum has adopted the heritage building inside the AUD campus as part of the “Adopt a Heritage” initiative. Conservation work at DSLB was undertaken by the Delhi government’s department of art, culture and language.

The museum has seven galleries focusing on the national movement leading up to Independence – Partition, migration, refugees, rebuilding homes and relationships, and stories of hope and courage. Each gallery contains a collection of people’s oral history, objects and archival material. The museum will tell the story of the 1947 tragedy through interactive media. The ‘Gallery of Hope and Courage’ would display photographs, mementoes, and experiences of people revisiting their ancient properties and places in Pakistan, decades after the Partition, officials said.