The government will open four new museums at Delhi’s Red Fort in August, The Times of India reported on Sunday. The project is an initiative of the Union Ministry of Culture.
“The idea is to develop Red Fort as a museum hub,” said Culture Secretary Raghavendra Singh. “The barracks [built by the British] are three floors high and have teakwood panelling, wooden floors and large staircases. Now they will have thematic representations of Indian history.”
The first museum will contain original archival material and replicas related to the 1857 mutiny. Seventy original, nearly a century-old, paintings depicting the Indian uprising against the British East India Company will also be on display. Singh said that some of the exhibits will be borrowed from other museums like Victoria Memorial Museum in Kolkata.
The second museum will commemorate Subhas Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army. The museum will have displays on the INA trials held at the Red Fort.
The third museum will showcase the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh and will display archival material on India’s participation in World War 2.
The fourth museum will contain artefacts from the Indian War Memorial Museum and Archaeological Museum housed at Naubat Khana and Mumtaz Mahal Palace at the Red Fort.
A fifth museum on India’s independence movement has also been planned, but the site is yet to be finalised, the report said.
The Archaeological Survey of India’s superintending archaeologist NK Pathak said the museums were aimed at educating people about Indian history and valour.
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