Place · history museum · India
Partition Museum
/pɑːɹˈtɪʃən mjuːˈziːəm/
Also known as Partition Museum Amritsar
The Partition Museum in Amritsar is the world’s first museum dedicated to the Partition of India. It preserves the experiences of Partition through personal objects, photographs, archival material and oral histories, placing the voices of survivors at the centre of the history. The Partition of India in 1947 was one of the largest and most traumatic episodes of mass displacement in modern history. Communal violence killed hundreds of thousands and forced around 14–18 million people to cross newly drawn borders, leaving a profound and enduring legacy across South Asia.
- Date
- 2016–present
- Periods
- British Colonial Age, Republic and Living Practice
- Function
- Other / mixed
- Patron dynasty
- Indian Union
- Confidence
- Established / referenced — The museum was established through a collective effort involving Partition survivors, families, researchers and cultural organisations.
- Location
- 31.625, 74.876
Worth knowing
It is housed inside Amritsar's colonial-era Town Hall, a building constructed in 1870 that once served as British headquarters and a jail, and was damaged during the 1919 Punjab uprising.
Connections (1)
- Site withinAmritsar
Amritsar became one of the major centres of Partition’s upheaval in 1947, witnessing mass migration, communal violence and the arrival of refugees from across the new border. The Partition Museum, housed in Amritsar’s historic Town Hall, preserves these experiences through survivor testimonies, photographs, personal belongings and archival material.
Sources
The Partition Museum
Open Partition Museum in the repository →