Kolkata: Bengal govt has begun discussions on setting up a Partition Museum in Bengal. It would bring together archival documents, personal accounts of displacement, photographs, maps and artefacts to chronicle the trauma of the 1947 Partition and its enduring impact on Bengal. It would be the country’s third such museum.The information and cultural affairs department held a meeting on Friday with senior officials, in the presence of MoS Purnima Chakraborty and secretary Saumitra Mohan, to discuss a preliminary roadmap. Proposals from historians and experts were reviewed.“We have already approved the concept. Once developed, the museum will offer a comprehensive account of the Partition, with particular emphasis on the division of Bengal, the displacement of millions, and the social, economic and cultural changes that followed,” said an official.Dedicated galleries are planned on the events leading to Partition, the Radcliffe Line and the division of undivided Bengal into West Bengal and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), using historical maps, govt records, newspaper reports and photographs.A separate section will focus on refugees who crossed the new border in search of safety and shelter. Belongings, letters, family photographs, oral histories and survivors’ testimonies would bring alive the stories of families who lost their homes, ancestral properties and livelihoods.“We will also try to document the refugee rehabilitation process in Bengal, including the emergence of refugee colonies in and around Kolkata, the challenges of resettlement and the role of govt initiatives. The experiences of refugees in camps and rehabilitation centres are likely to find space in the galleries,” the official said.Another component may document how Partition influenced Bengali literature, music, cinema, food habits and the collective memory of people on both sides of the border.The two existing Partition museums are in Amritsar and Delhi. The Amritsar museum, in the town hall, was fully inaugurated with 14 galleries in Aug 2017. Conceived by writer and former media professional Kishwar Desai, it traces Partition from the pre-Partition era and the independence movement to the division of the country.The Delhi museum, at the Dara Shikoh Library on the Ambedkar University campus, is a “people’s museum” built from memories and memorabilia carried across the border. It uses oral, visual and aural material to tell the stories of millions who crossed in 1947.
