The Nehru Museum Memorial and Library, named after India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, has been renamed as the Prime Minister’s Museum and Library Society.
The renaming comes more than a year after the ‘Pradhanmantri Sanghralaya’ or the Prime Minister’s Museum was inaugurated at the historic Teen Murti Complex, where the NMML is housed.
The decision to rename was taken at a special meeting of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) Society presided over by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is the Vice-President of the Society, a statement from the Ministry of Culture said on Friday.
The statement said that the decision was taken as the NMML Executive Council felt that the name should reflect the present activities of the institution which now also “include a ‘Sangrahalaya’ (Museum) depicting the collective journey of democracy in Independent India and highlighting the contribution of each Prime Minister in nation-building”.
The idea for a museum dedicated to all Prime Ministers had been mooted by PM Narendra Modi in 2016.
Subsequently, the Executive Council of the NMML had in its 162nd meeting held in November 2016 approved the construction of the Museum of all Prime Ministers in the Teen Murti Estate. The project was completed and the ‘Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya’ was opened to the public on April 21, 2022.
At the meeting of the Society held on Thursday, Chairman of the NMML Executive Council Nripendra Misra explained the need for change in the name by emphasizing that the Prime Ministers’ Museum expresses the nation’s deep commitment to democracy and so the name of the institution should reflect its new form.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh welcomed the proposal for change in name, since in its new form the institution exhibits the contributions of all prime ministers from Jawaharlal Nehru to Narendra Modi and their responses to various challenges faced by them.
Mr Singh described Prime Ministers as an institution and compared the journey of various Prime Ministers to the varied colours of a rainbow.
All the colours of a rainbow have to be proportionately represented in order to make it beautiful. Thus the resolution has given a new name, respect to all our previous Prime Ministers and is democratic in content, he said according to the statement.
The Teen Murti House was built in 1929-30 as part of Edwin Lutyens’ imperial capital. It was the official residence of the Commander-in-Chief in India. It was in August 1948, that it became the official residence of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Mr Nehru lived there for 16 years until his death in May, 1964. Soon after, on Nehru’s 75th birth anniversary on November 14, then President S Radhakrishnan dedicated the Teen Murti House to the nation and inaugurated the Nehru Memorial Museum. Two years later, the NMML Society was set up to manage the institution, and had remained so since then.
Since April 2022, the Teen Murti campus has been the home to the Pradhanmantri Sanghralaya or the Museum of all Prime Ministers’.
Housed in a new building the Prime Ministers’ museum tells the story of how our Prime Ministers navigated the nation through various challenges and ensured all-round progress of the country. It recognizes all the Prime Ministers, thereby democratizing the institutional memory.
