As India and Pakistan mark seven decades of independence, a new museum was inaugurated this week in the northern Indian border city of Amritsar to give people the opportunity to explore the stories and memorabilia of those who experienced the horror of partition, according to media reports.
The Partition Museum exhibitions, housed in the city’s red-brick town hall, include photos, newspaper clippings and donated personal belongings that tell the story of how the region’s struggle for freedom from colonial rule turned violent as communal clashes killed hundreds of thousands of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, and displaced another 15 million, indiatvnews.com reported.
“If you look at any other country in the world, they’ve all memorialized the experiences that have defined and shaped them. Yet this event that has so deeply shaped not only our subcontinent but millions of individuals who were impacted has had no museum or memorial 70 years later,” said Mallika Ahluwalia, CEO of the Partition Museum .
Exhibits include an antique pocket watch that belonged to a victim of mob violence in Pakistan, woven fabrics, a traditional rope cot used by refugees fleeing across the border, and black-and-white family photos.