Gandhi Memorial Museum, Madurai

S Balakrishnan *

To perpetuate the thoughts and deeds of Mahatma Gandhi and to propagate his message of Truth and Nonviolence, Gandhi Memorial Museums have been set up in different parts of India.

The Gandhi Smarak Nidhi had initially allocated fund for establishing such Memorial Museums (Sanghrahalaya) in such places associated with the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi. They are New Delhi, Barrackpore near Kolkata, Patna, Wardha in Maharashtra, Ahmadabad, Mumbai, and Madurai in Tamil Nadu in the southern part of the country.

The Gandhi Memorial Museum in Madurai was inaugurated by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, on 15th April 1959.

Gandhiji and Madurai:

Gandhiji visited the Temple City of Madurai five times during his lifetime. It was in Madurai that Gandhiji made an epoch-making decision. On Sept. 22, 1921, during his second visit to Madurai (Sept. 20-22), he adopted the loin-cloth dress code, to identify himself with the poor mass of the country.

The first visit was some two years earlier in 1919 from March 26-28 to enroll volunteers for satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act. After a gap of six years he was again in Madurai (Sept. 28-30, 1927), the third time, for collecting funds for khadi and spreading the message of swadeshi.

The fourth visit was seven years after (25-27 January 1934) as part of his all-India Harijan tour along with Thakkar Baba and Mira Behn. It was twelve years later that Gandhi visited Madurai for the fifth and last time (Feb. 2-3, 1946) when he had darshan at Shri Meenakshi Temple that had been earlier opened for the Harijans.

The Madurai Museum attracted luminaries like the Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., known as American Gandhi, and Coretta Scott King, Jayaprakash Narayan, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Dalai Lama, Anita Bose, daughter of Netaji, besides others.

The building that houses the Gandhi Memorial Museum in Madurai is the historic Tamukkam Palace belonging to Rani Mangammal of Nayak Dynasty built about 1670 A.D. Later, this was under the occupation of the Nawab of Carnatic, the East India Company and a few others.

Finally the Palace had remained for many years as the official residence of the British District Collector of Madurai. It was in 1955 that the palace, along with about 13 acres of land, was gifted by the Tamil Nadu State Government to the All India Gandhi Smarak Nidhi for the purpose of housing Gandhi Memorial Museum.

It is registered as a Society under the Tamil Nadu Societies Act as “Gandhi Memorial Museum (Madurai)” on 12th July 1971. It is governed by a committee of executive members and general body members. Museum’s website address is www.gandhimmm.org

The museum has a rich collection of photographs of Gandhi, particularly of his visits in Tamil Nadu, and several objects (both original and replica) used by him.

The spectacles and its case (1947), yarn spun by him, a shawl, wooden sandal used by him during his imprisonment at Agha Khan Palace (1942-45), woollen blanket are some of the original items used by Gandhiji.