Take a walk down some of the most important chapters of Indian history, at the Salar Jung museum which is hosting a photo exhibition on India's freedom struggle in association with the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Chronicling the events of the time through a series of portraits of the freedom fighters, newspaper clippings, letters and poetry penned by some of the leaders during the pre-independence era, the exhibition have displays that has captured every significant moment of the period.
Starting with the revolt of 1857, the exhibition has portrait of Mangal Pandey and sketches portraying the plight of the Indian peasants and weavers under the British rule.
Photographs of the Jallianwalla Bagh, a copy of Sarojini Naidu's poem expressing her angst about the massacre and Rabindranath Tagore's letter declining the knighthood conferred by the British government makes interesting display.
Front page newspaper clippings of the Bombay Chronicle reporting events like the Simon Commission, declaration of purna swaraj , Simla Conference in 1945 and the 1929 Lahore session are part of the display. Rare portraits of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipinchandra Pal are also in display. The journey of Mahatma Gandhi is also captured through photographs. Images of Jawaharlal Nehru's coronation as the first Prime Minister of independent India and his historical speech at the Red Fort are also displayed at the exhibition. Though the exhibition is an excellent attempt to teach and refresh the memories of people of the country's freedom struggle and heroic tales of our leaders, the display could have been better. Tucked at one corner of the museum, some of the museum authorities were not even aware where the exhibition was being held and could be easily missed by most of the visitors. The exhibition is open till August 23.
