LONDON: Indian advertising guru and author Suhel Seth has become one of the largest individual donors and supporters of India’s first Partition Museum, being set at Amritsar Town Hall in Punjab.
Seth donated Rs 50 lakhs towards a gallery within the Museum to be dedicated to his parents, Shub and Jogendra Seth.
“Partition has affected Punjab, Bengal and the world in so many ways — and this is the only museum in the world that is dedicated to the events of 1947. The ramifications of the Partition continue till today,” he said.
The Partition Museum, a project entirely funded by public donations raised by UK-based Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust, claims to be attracting up to 1,000 visitors daily ever since the inauguration of a curtain raiser exhibition on October last year.
The visitors include partition survivors and their families, VIPs, and tourists, both foreign and Indian, the museum said in a statement.
“The Museum has been receiving material from Partition affected families as well, such as phulkaris, utensils, books, letters etc – all dating back to the time of Partition,” said museum CEO Mallika Ahluwalia, who accompanied Seth on a recent visit to the Town Hall in Amritsar.
One wing of the Town Hall is now undergoing restoration and transformation so that the entire Museum can be completed by later this year. Seth, whose parents hail from Amritsar, said his donation marks a long-standing desire to honour his parents in the city of their roots.
The museum has been planned as a collection of documents, oral histories and memorabilia commemorating the largest migration in history as well as an invaluable archive for scholars and academics. (AGENCIES)
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