Description of the attraction
Mahatma Gandhi is a cult figure in India. He is revered as an outstanding political and cultural figure of the country, a spiritual leader, and simply as a highly moral and honest person. Therefore, his memorial museums, of which there are five in India today, are very popular among the local population, as well as among tourists. So one of them was created in 1959, ten years after the assassination of Gandhi in 1948, in the city of Madurai, located in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Especially for the creation of this museum, a special fund was established, to which everyone contributed money.
The museum was inaugurated on April 15 by the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru in the Tamukkam palace, which previously belonged to one of the rulers of the Nayak dynasty, Rani Mangammal, which was specially restored for this.
The exposition of the museum is quite extensive and consists of several sections. From the outset, a special collection “India Fights for Freedom” is offered to the attention of visitors, consisting of 265 illustrations describing the history of the Indian Freedom Movement. Further you can see the "Visual Biography of Gandhi", which includes photographs, paintings, sculptures, manuscripts, letters of Gandhi, as well as a unique collection of 124 photographs depicting the figure at different times in his life, from childhood to his last "journey" to the crematorium. The last section "Relics and Replicas" consists of 14 original items that belonged to Mahatma Gandhi himself. The centerpiece of this exhibit is the bloodied clothing in which the spiritual leader was shot.
