The Union Tribal Affairs Ministry is setting up state-of-the-art Tribal Freedom Fighters’ Museums in Manipur and Mizoram in Northeast India and seven other states, in recognition of the contributions of tribal people in the country’s freedom struggle.
The ministry said in a release on Tuesday that it is developing “Tribal Freedom Fighters’ Museums” dedicated to the contributions of the Tribal people in India to the freedom struggle pursuant to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement in his Independence Day Speech on August 15, 2016, regarding setting up tribal freedom fighters’ museums.
“The government desires and is planning permanent museums in the States where Tribals lived, struggled against the British and refused to be bowed down. The Government will work to make such museums in different States so that the coming generations may know how our tribals were far ahead in making sacrifices,” the prime minister had said in his address.
Apart from Manipur and Mizoram, states where Tribal Freedom Fighters’ Museum have been sanctioned are Gujarat, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Telegana.
As per the PM’s directions, all the museums will have Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), 3D/7D holographic projections etc, the ministry stated. It said that these museums will trace the history along the trails, along which the tribal people in hills and forests fought for their right to live and will, therefore, combine ex situ display with in situ conservation, regeneration initiatives. These will be museums, objects as well as ideas. These will demonstrate the way tribal struggles for protecting their custodial concerns for the biological and cultural diversity of the country, have helped in nation building, the ministry explained in the release.
The ministry had held a series of consultations with states and state government officials were given exposure visit to Virasat-e-Khalsa museum, Punjab and Manav Sangrahalaya at Bhopal to acquaint them with designing of museum in sync with storyline and use of technology. After detailed analysis, it was decided to construct a state-of-the-art Tribal Freedom Fighters’ Museum of national importance in Gujarat, the release added.
The ministry has also approved setting up museums for tribal freedom fighters in other eight states so far. Out of the nine sanctioned tribal freedom fighters’ museums, two museums are near completion and remaining seven are at different stages of progress. It is expected that by the end of 2022 all the museums will come into existence. Further new museums will be sanctioned in coming future in collaboration with the states, the ministry added.
