Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay Inaugurates Refurbished Gandhi Museum
The renovated museum has been restored by conserving its antique charm through the use of traditional construction materials.
Chennai: Inaugurating the refurbished historic Gandhi museum in Madurai, which has been renovated at a cost of Rs 10.25 core and modernized with digitalized light and sound facilities, on Monday, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay paid homage to the Father of the Nation by garlanding his statue inside the memorial complex.
The memorial, dating back to the 17th century when the central portion served as a palace of Rani Mangammal, the queen regent of the Madurai Nayak kingdom, and subsequently saw additions made to the complex by various rulers till it was handed over to the All India Gandhi Smarak Nidhi in 1955 to establish a museum in the name of Gandhi.
Mahatma Gandhi never stayed in the building that was converted into a museum in his name and declared open by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehur in April 1959, despite his several visits to the temple city, where he decided to adopt the iconic loincloth as his everyday working attire in 1921.
Gandhi was put up in the residence of Ramji and Kalyanji in West Masi Street during that visit in 1921.
After the erstwhile palace was handed over to the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, the famous library in the premises was opened in 1955 and before the construction of the museum displaying a rare and profound collection of artifacts like the blood-stained cloth worn by Gandhi when he was assassinated in 1948, personal item used by Gandhi like his spectacles, leather sandals and a wooden yarn-spinning wheel.
Some letters written by Gandhi are also preserved in the museum including one to Adolf Hitler, addressing him as ‘Dear Friend,’ a congratulatory message to Subramania Bharati and a personal letter to Shri Narayana Satsangi of Devakottai.
In the renovated museum, which has been restored by conserving its antique charm through the use of traditional construction material like limestone, jiggery, Ink Nut (Terminalia chebula), small bricks and river sand, now had digital displays and modern light and sound systems to explain the importance of the artifacts on display.
The museum is now equipped with lift facility and the Kumarappa Kudil that was in a dilapidated state has been restored with zinc roof and other grills making the entire facility viewer friendly through the construction of restrooms, fixing of railings in the sloped pathways and engraving traditional flooring material like kota stones.