The historic Town Hall in Amritsar will be the location of the new Partition Museum being set and managed by Kishwar Desair, Chair of the Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust in London. The gracious late-19 Century building has been witness to Punjab after the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre and the Partition of India and Pakistan.
The museum, Ms Kishwar said, will “raise the veil of silence” that surrounds Partition, a life altering event that displaced 14 million people, the largest in recorded history. The Museum will be a “space of commemoration and documentation” of all the sacrifices that were made during this mass migration, where “people lost their loved ones and their homes, and were forced to rebuild their lives upon arrival,” she said.
In attempts to flee the scene of mayhem and violence, the people from both countries resided in camps and rudimentary shelters until they were able to find alternate accommodation.
“The Museum will be a space of memory, healing and reconciliation. It will also memorialise the grit, courage and spirit of that generation,” Ms Kishwar said.
One wing of the Town Hall has been donated by the Punjab government for the project. The museum will be built through contributions and donations from both public and private sources where the collection of artifacts, documents, art and oral histories will be kept.
The Partition Museum will be a world class establishment that will commemorate the memories of the partition of 1947 and its victims, survivors and long lasting legacy.
A soft launch and curtain raiser for the the Partition Museum, Town Hall, Amritsar was held on October 24, 2016 (Monday) at 6.30 p.m. As part of the launch, a media walk-through of the museum and the surrounding heritage also took place.
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