Manchester Museum has come together with the Partition Museum in Amritsar, India, to commemorate 100 years since the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.
The collaboration marks the first time in Indo-UK history two Museums located in cities deeply affected by colonialism have come together to re-examine the massacre.
The co-curated exhibition Jallianwala Bagh 1919: Punjab under Siege coincides with the centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in April 2019, and the bicentenary commemorations for the Peterloo massacre.
The exhibition explores what we remember, how we remember it, and what we have forgotten, both in India and the UK. Jallianwala Bagh 1919: Punjab Under Siege explores the causes for the unrest before, during and after the events of 13 April 1919 when British troops opened fire on Indian protesters.
Kishwar Desai’s book, Jallianwala Bagh, The Real Story, forms the basis of the exhibition in which Manchester Museum will take the lead on addressing the need for a Global South perspective on the use of violence by British forces against peaceful protestors and its legacy.
Based on two years of research and curation by the Partition Museum (supported by the Jallianwala Bagh Centenary Commemoration Committee, comprising of Indians and NRIs), Jallianwala Bagh 1919: Punjab under Siege includes archival and audio-visual material which tells the narrative of the massacre through eyewitness accounts, photographs and official documents. It also includes collections from the Manchester Museums Galleries Partnership, including Punjabi textiles from the Whitworth.Manchester Museum will also open capsule exhibitions at Birmingham Library and the Nehru Centre in London in early April to highlight the centenary nationally.
When does Jallianwala Bagh 1919: Punjab under Siege open at Manchester Museum?
Manchester Museum’s Jallianwala Bagh 1919: Punjab under Siege exhibition runs from 6 April until 2 October 2019, a date which marks 150 years since the birth of Mahatma Gandhi.