Partition Museum will have clay pots, kurtas

From water pots that accompanied them on their journey to India to ancestral items they brought along, memorabilia collected from the families of those who crossed the Radcliffe Line in 1947 will be displayed at the Partition Museum.

Spread over 17,000 sq feet in Amritsar, with 14 galleries, the museum documents the history of events that led to the Partition 70 years ago. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh will inaugurate the museum.

"It's a people's museum because all the memorabilia has been contributed by families of those who survived the Partition," said Mallika Ahluwalia, CEO of the museum. "Some shared their stories, others shared memorabilia, including the kurtas they were wearing that day and property papers."

Each of the 14 galleries depicts key events from 1900 to 1947 that lead to the Partition and have a soundscape recorded by the survivors, with contribution from even from across the border. There are narratives recapitulating the journeys across the Radcliffe Line, with survivors recounting their stories in their own voices.

There's a gallery dedicated to the Boundary Commission, which demarcated the boundaries within weeks of the decision, struggling with outdated maps and census. "We have also tried to replicate refugee camps," says Ahluwalia. The museum has been set up by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust.

The end note is the Gallery of Hope which contains profiles of survivors such as Milkha Singh and Gulzar, whose stories have become part of history. "It is a tribute to their resilience—how some of them reconciled the trauma through their work," says Ahluwalia.