Partition Museum

The Partition Museum is a public museum located in the Town Hall. The museum is the central repository of documents, material and stories related to the partition of India. The museum widely narrates the time before partition, proceeds to the independence movement, the early demands for separate countries and finally the partition and its consequences.

The museum was inaugurated on 25 August, 2017 and was established as people’s museum because it depicts the partition as it was experienced by the people. One of the collections consists of the artifacts generously donated by the partition survivors and their families. In the event of partition, millions of people were displaced and they carried with them whatever little they could. These objects are now important milestones of the events and symbols of the losses suffered by them. The sudden division of the country caused chaos and gave no time to people to gather their belongings before leaving their homes forever. The articles displayed in the partition museum include things like utensils, trunks, clothes, a wedding sari, a jewellery box, photographs, letters, newspaper cuttings, a water pitcher, a tin box and many more. The Museum has things belonging to people from different backgrounds brought across by them which held sentimental value for them.

When artists recalled the horrors of Partition, they often expressed their emotions by painting, but as Krishen Khanna states, “We were able to do it only much later. At that time saving our lives and escaping was most important.” Satish Gujral recalls going back and forth across the border escorting refugees to the other side. Gujral only later understood and came to accept that his art was deeply influenced by the traumas of partition. S.L. Parasher, a man whose art is known for its strong lines and the clarity with which he expressed motion, worked and lived in many refugee camps before he went on to rebuild his life. These artists painted the trauma of the time. While their works of art are extremely different but the themes they paint are similar. The museum has a collection of limited edition reprints of paintings from these three artists and a deeply moving piece titled “1947” by artist Arpana Caur. These all paintings give a holistic view on how the partition affected the people.

The museum also tells stories through audio-visual stations set across the 14 galleries. There are more than 100 interviews playing in the Museum where people share their experience of violence, migration, insecurity and resettlement of refugees. The museum is regularly expanding the archive which will be made available to researchers, scholars and those interested in the history of the Partition. The museum aims to become a repository of information and stories of the partition which is a never-ending effort to collect more oral histories, documents and footage and to tap all sources.