Delhi is set to get a museum to solemnly mark the moment of partition in its history, which opens to the public on August 15 this year.
The museum — an extension of Amritsar’s Partition Museum — will come up at the Dara Shikoh Library building in Old Delhi’s Mori Gate.
Built in 1643 and named after Shah Jahan’s eldest son, Dara Shikoh, the building currently stands in the Ambedkar University Delhi campus.
In the later years, it served as the residence of Mughal viceroy of Punjab, Ali Mardan Khan, and then of David Ochterlony, a British officer in the Mughal court.
Three museums are coming up at the building. Besides the Partition Museum, for which the Delhi government’s Department of Archaeology has joined hands with The Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust (TAACHT), there will be a museum dedicated to the life of Dara Shikoh, and one to display antiquities and artefacts in its possession, a representative of the Department of Archaeology told The Indian Express.
Kishwar Desai, Chair, TAACHT, says, “The entire project is tentatively called ‘Daastaan-e-Dilli’, and is aimed at creating a cultural hub at the historic and beautiful Dara Shikoh Library. It will be a unique space in which we can consider the impact of divisions (the Partition of India) and unification (as through the Sufism of Dara Shikoh) side by side.”
Surjitt Sahani
