PM Modi inaugurated a museum at Mumbai’s Raj Bhavan dedicated to Bharat’s freedom fighters. The museum named Kranthi Gatha is the country’s first underground museum dedicated to the struggles of Bharat’s freedom fighters. It also includes photographs and information of many tribal revolutionaries drawn by school children.
The gallery has been created from the subterranean network of 13 pre-World War I (First WW) British era bunkers discovered in the sprawling Raj Bhavan campus in August 2016 during the tenure of the then Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao. The underground bunker has 13 rooms of varying sizes, a grand 20-foot-tall entrance, and a fort-like structure with a long ramp to take guns inside. It was structurally audited and strengthened by expert teams.
In the first phase, the museum includes freedom fighters Vasudev Balwant Phadke, Damodar Hari Chapekar and Vishnu Hari Chapekar (Chapekar Brothers), Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the Savarkar Brothers – Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (Veer Savarkar) and Ganesh Damodar Savarkar (Babarao Savarkar), Anant Laxman Kanhere, Vishnu Ganesh Pingale, Vasudev Balwant Gogate, Krantiguru Lahuji Raghoji Salve, Bhikaiji Rustom Cama (Madam Cama), and Shivran H. Rajguru.
The setting up of the museum was overseen by present Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. The gallery of revolutionaries was set up under the guidance of historian Dr. Vikram Sampath with help from Nagpur’s South Central Cultural Centre.
“There will be hundreds of others, known and unknown, who will figure at the museum in its later phases, depicting the entire ‘Revolution Saga’ of 90 years, from the First War of Independence in 1857 to India’s Freedom in 1947, said Raj Bhavan officials. Besides the Governor, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Chief Justice of Bombay High Court Dipankar Datta, other ministers, and top officials shall be present for the ceremony, part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations”, notes India website.
(Featured Image Source: India Today)
