Partition Museum work set for fillip next week

Officials from TACHT, which set up a similar museum in Amritsar in Punjab in 2017 and is managing the Delhi project, said the Delhi government is yet to hand over the DSLB to the trust.

After a delay of over a year, work on Delhi’s first Partition Museum is likely to be expedited with the Delhi government all set to hand over next week a fully restored Dara Shikoh Library Building (DSLB) to The Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust (TACHT), the agency tasked with setting up the museum.

The museum will come up on the Dara Shikoh Library Building in the Ambedkar University building.

The museum, to come up at DSLB on the Ambedkar University campus in Kashmere Gate, was expected to open in August last year, to coincide with the start of the celebrations to mark 75 years of Independence. However, delay in the building restoration work and subsequent handover has delayed the commencement of work on the museum.

Officials from TACHT, which set up a similar museum in Amritsar in Punjab in 2017 and is managing the Delhi project, said the Delhi government is yet to hand over the DSLB to the trust.

Kishwar Desai, chair of TACHT, said the project has been delayed on account of the pandemic-induced lockdown and consequent restrictions on construction activity.

She said while the trust was ready with all materials, it is still waiting for the government to hand over the heritage building. “The DSLB comes under the ”Adopt a Heritage” programme, as part of which the restoration of the building has to be completed by the state government and only then can it be handed over to TACHT for work on the museum. We are hopeful that we can complete the work in this year itself,” said Desai.

In response to a query on the status of the museum, officials from the Department of Art, Culture and Language said the project was delayed on account of the pandemic. “Covid was certainly one reason for the delay. Meanwhile, TACHT had approached the tourism ministry seeking a change of scope and an extension of the project timeline , which again delayed the whole project. It is now back on track and we are planning to hand over the building by next week,” said a department official, asking not to be named.

“Dampness of the building was an issue and we have addressed that. TACHT will draw up a new timeline after factoring in the time it needs to complete the work. However, I believe they should be able to complete the work on the first phase of the museum by the end of the year,” the official said.

Desai said her team had completed the curation for the museum some time ago.

“We will start work on the garden and the illumination in the first phase. The museum should be ready in six months of the building handover,” said Desai.

The museum, once ready, will house letters, documents, objects, clothes, utensils, photographs and other belongings that have been sourced from families who migrated to Delhi in the aftermath of the India-Pakistan Partition.

From a lock that was used to secure a trunk carrying a family’s meagre possessions while fleeing from their village to pre-Partition ration cards and land deeds, TACHT has collected various objects that people managed to bring with them when they crossed over the border.

“Despite Covid, we have archived hundreds of objects, documents and photos which will be displayed at the museum along with oral histories. The material memory is donated by those who were impacted by the Partition. We will, hopefully, start the installation work very soon,” said Desai.

She added that similar to the Amritsar museum, all collection and archiving work was taking place through donations. “It’s a people’s museum… whenever the building will be handed over, we will begin the installation in memory of millions who lost everything overnight,” said Desai.