Amritsar-based Partition Museum to ink pact with Manchester Museum

Partnership between Amritsar’s Partion Museum and Manchester Museum will be announced during the forthcoming visit of the mayor of Greater Manchester as part of the Manchester-India partnership

The Amritsar-based Partition Museum is entering into a five-year partnership with the Manchester Museum following the co-curation earlier this year of the exhibition, ‘Jallianwala Bagh 1919: Punjab Under Siege’ to mark 100 years of the massacre.

Partition Museum Amritsar is India's first partition museum telling the stories of those who survived the chaos and bloodshed more than seven decades ago(HT Photo)

The partnership is due to be announced on October 10 in New Delhi during the forthcoming visit of Andy Burnham (Labour), mayor of Greater Manchester, as part of the Manchester-India Partnership.

The memorandum of understanding is to be signed by Wendy Gallagher of the Manchester Museum and Mallika Ahluwalia, co-founder of the Partition Museum, people behind the project said on Saturday.

Esme Ward, director of Manchester Museum, said: “Whilst working with the Partition Museum it became clear we are fellow travellers with a shared vision and values. We recognise museums can make a difference by bringing new perspectives to the fore and look forward to continuing to learn from each other.”

Kishwar Desai, chair of the Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust that set up the Partition Museum, added: “We truly appreciate the partnership we have developed with the Manchester Museum, especially as we explore different aspects of our joint colonial history”.

“We look forward to fresh scholarship on an often contested past, fresh methodology of presentation and renewed understanding between the two countries through these two Museums”.