| Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society | |
|---|---|
 Entrance of Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society | |
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| 28°36′09″N77°11′55″E / 28.6026029°N 77.1987395°E /28.6026029; 77.1987395 | |
| Location | Teen Murti Bhavan,New Delhi, India |
| Established | 1966; 59 years ago (1966) |
| Other information | |
| Director | Ashwani Lohani[1] |
| Website | www |
ThePrime Ministers' Museum and Library Society previously known as theNehru Museum and Library Society is a museum and library inNew Delhi,India, which aims to preserve and reconstruct the history of theIndian independence movement. Housed within theTeen Murti House complex, it is an autonomous institution under the IndianMinistry of Culture, and was founded in 1964 after the death of India's first prime minister,Jawaharlal Nehru. It aims to foster academic research on modern and contemporary history.[2] Today, the Nehru Memorial Library is the world's leading resource center on India's first prime minister.[3] Its archives contain the bulk ofMahatma Gandhi's writings,[4] as well as private papers ofSwami Sahajanand Saraswati,C. Rajagopalachari,B. C. Roy,Jayaprakash Narayan,Charan Singh,Sarojini Naidu andRajkumari Amrit Kaur. In March 2010, it launched a digitization project of its archives, and by June 2011, 867,000 pages of manuscripts and 29,807 photographs had been scanned and 500,000 pages had been uploaded on the digital library website.[3] Amongst noted publications of the NMML areSelected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru,Man of Destiny byRuskin Bond, andNehru Anthology(1980).
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library has over the years, supported scholars and historians across India. Through its fellowship program, the Nehru Memorial Fellowship, it has funded some of India's best academics, such as Chief Information Commissioner OP Kejriwal.[5] It is also one of the best libraries in Delhi for thesocial sciences as it has a huge collection on labor related issues in the form of PhD dissertations, reports, books, journals and newspapers.[6]
On 26 April 2016, a dagger gifted to former prime ministerJawaharlal Nehru bySaudi Arabia was stolen from the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.[7]
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library is known as Teen Murti Bhawan (sculptor: Leonard Jennings of Britain), after the three statues established in 1922 in honor of the three Indian princely statesJodhpur,Hyderabad andMysore after their contribution in World War I by serving in the present day Gaza Strip, Israel, and Palestine. It was designed byRobert Tor Russell who also designed Connaught Place and a few parts of Janpath. Spread over 30 acres, its construction started in 1929 and took around one year to completion. It is a masterpiece of British and French architecture and woodwork. Initially known as Flagstaff House, it was used by British forces as the residence of the Commander-in-Chief. After Independence, the house was taken over as the residence ofJawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964), first Prime Minister of India. After his death in 1964, it was decided that Teen Murti Bhawan should be converted into a museum and a library which would promote original research in modern Indian history with special reference to theNehruvian era. It was inaugurated on his birth anniversary, 14 November that year, by then PresidentSarvepalli Radhakrishnan.[8]
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Society was formed on 1 April 1966. Initially, the museum was set up in the eastern wing and the library in the western wing of the sprawling building, withBal Ram Nanda as its founder-director, who also curated the museum and library for next 17 years. He received thePadma Vibhushan in 2003.[9]
With the passage of time and the rapid growth of research material in the library, more space was required and an exclusive library building was constructed. It was formally inaugurated by PresidentV. V. Giri in January 1974. However, the steady increase in the volume of material required for research further necessitated the construction of an annex building which was completed in 1989. The Centre for Contemporary Studies was set up in this building as a new unit in 1990.[citation needed]
To commemorate the Foundation Day of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, it organizes an annual lecture on 1 April, called the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Foundation Day Lecture.Nehru Planetarium is also part of NMML. Much work is also happening in the field of connecting people with this place with special reference to children, who are considered to be closest to Jawaharlal Nehru's heart, earning the popular name 'Chacha Nehru'. The library also has an archive of the private correspondence between Nehru andEdwina Mountbatten, wife ofLord Mountbatten, but with limited access.[3][10][11]
The Centre for Contemporary Studies was set up as an advanced studies unit of NMML in 1990 and is housed in the Annexe building. NMML took over the charge of theNehru Planetarium from the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund in 2005.[citation needed]
From April 2015 to March 2016, the Museum received nearly 1.7 million visitors.[12]
The collection of manuscripts, historical documents and other archival materials of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library were made available online, after the digitization project, with the help of HCL Infosystems started in 2010.[13] By May 2011, employing the Rs unionMinistry of Culture funding of Rs. 10 crore, the project had digitized 50 collections of manuscripts, 834 interview transcripts, 29,802 photographs, over one lakh images of the newspaperAmrita Bazar Patrika (1905–1938).[14] In all, the digitization will cover nine million documents and was to be completed by 2015.[3]
The Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society was behind the opening of the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya in April 2022.[15]
In 2009, several well-known academics, such asRamachandra Guha, Sumit Sarkar, Nivedita Menon, Nayanjot Lahiri, Mushirul Hasan, Mukul Kesavan, Mahesh Rangarajan, and Krishna Kumar, alleged that the institution was being run in an inefficient and corrupt fashion.[16] They pointed out that PMMML had discontinued its publication program and that the acquisition of manuscripts and oral histories had all but come to a halt.[17] In turn, writer and activist Madhu Kishwar, environmentalist Pradip Krishen, and historians Irfan Habib and D. N. Jha came out in support of PMMML and its director,Mridula Mukherjee.[18]In 2023, the renaming of the library and museum invited a lot of criticism from various angles.[19]
...archives for her material and visited India thrice to work at the Teen Murti Bhavan Library
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