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The Partition Museum, in the Mughal-era Dara Shikoh Library building, brought back memories of violence and displacement for many present at the venue, including Education Minister Atishi, who inaugurated the museum on Thursday. “I come from a family of Partition survivors. My grandfather had to stay with his parents in Pakistan till the very last moment. My great-grandmother left for India on August 12. The train from Pakistan to India, which my great-grandmother planned to take, was left with no survivors,” said Ms. Atishi. She also spoke about how her grandfather, who was a government clerk, escaped Pakistan.
“The vested interest of some tore the social fabric of our country. Till today, lakhs of families are traumatised because of it,” she said.
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Mitthat Hora, whose grandmother’s memorabilia are on display at the museum, said she learnt about the “immense baggage” her grandmother carries after participating in the Partition Museum project. “Owing to the project, I learnt about the many difficulties and horrors that my grandmother faced while moving from Lahore to Delhi,” she said.
Kashmiri artist Veer Munshi said he dealt with “the immense loss” caused by the Partition through two art pieces he has curated for the museum. “The papier mache horse carrying skeletons of the past resembles the baggage that we carried while leaving behind our homes to a foreign land that was meant to be ours,” he said.
Ambedkar’s letters
The museum also highlights the struggle of the Scheduled Castes through various installations, including an audiovisual recording of the writer Manoranjan Byapari and letters from B.R. Ambedkar to Jawaharlal Nehru on caste-based discrimination at refugee camps set up after the Partition.