NMML served as key centre for research

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, June 16

Housed in the historic Teen Murti complex, just south of the majestic Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) has served as India’s premier research institution since 1964.

Museum dedicated to PMs opened in 2023

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• After the BJP came to power in 2014, PM Modi in 2016 mooted the idea of a museum dedicated to all Prime Ministers of India on the Teen Murti premises
• The NMML Executive Council in 2016 approved the construction of the museum, and Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya was opened to public on April 21, 2022

Designed by Robert Tor Russell and built in 1930, as part of Edwin Luytens’ imperial capital Delhi, the Teen Murti campus was the official residence of the Commander-in-Chief then.

After the British left India, Teen Murti House became the official residence of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, who resided there till his death on May 27, 1964.

The government thereafter decided to dedicate the complex to Nehru and also resolved to build a museum and a library in his memory.

Accordingly, then President S Radhakrishnan, on the 75th birth anniversary of Nehru on November 14, 1964, dedicated the NMML on the Teen Murti campus to the nation.

The NMML was founded under the Ministry of Culture as an autonomous institution and was meant to advance research in modern and contemporary India.

Later on April 1, 1966, the government set up a Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Society to manage the NMML.

Records show that initially the Nehru Museum came up in the eastern wing of Teen Murti House and library in the western wing.

Gradually as the scope and contents of the library expanded, a dedicated building was set up adjacent to Teen Murti House and was inaugurated by then President VV Giri in January 1974.

After the BJP came to power in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016 mooted the idea of a museum dedicated to all Prime Ministers of India on the Teen Murti premises.

The Executive Council of the NMML in its 162nd meeting on November 25, 2016, approved the construction of the museum, and Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya was opened to the public on April 21, 2022.

At a special meeting of the NMML Society chaired by its vice-president and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on June 15, 2023, a proposal was adopted to rename the NMML Society as PMs’ Museum and Society to honour all Indian Prime Ministers from Nehru to Modi.

Rajnath Singh, accepting the renaming proposal moved by NMML Executive Council chairman Nripendra Misra, yesterday said that in its new form the institution exhibited the contribution of all PMs and their responses to various challenges faced by them.