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HomeIndiaAt British-era bunker under Mumbai’s Raj Bhavan, PM Modi opens gallery of...

At British-era bunker under Mumbai’s Raj Bhavan, PM Modi opens gallery of freedom fighters

Gallery will feature exhibits on revolutionaries from Maharashtra, from Tilak to Savarkar. Congress says it's an attempt to 'showcase history of freedom movement through right-wing prism'.

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Mumbai: Hidden below Maharashtra’s Raj Bhavan is a British-era bunker discovered in 2016. Converted into a museum in 2019, the bunker will now house a gallery of Indian revolutionaries, called ‘Kranti Gatha’.

Curated under the guidance of historian and writer Vikram Sampath with assistance from the Nagpur-based South Central Zonal Cultural Centre, the gallery was opened for public viewing by Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday.

“This (gallery) depicts Maharashtra’s tradition of courage, devotion, spirituality, and participation in the freedom struggle. Maharashtra has inspired the country. If we talk about social revolution, then Maharashtra has given social reformers from Sant Tukaram to Babasaheb Ambedkar,” Modi said while inaugurating the ‘Kranti Gatha’ gallery.

‘Kranti Gatha’ is a tribute to those from Maharashtra who contributed to the Indian freedom struggle, from the First War of Independence in 1857 to the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 1946.

The gallery will feature exhibits dedicated to freedom fighters from Maharashtra, including Vasudev Balwant Phadke, Lokmanya Tilak, V.D. Savarkar, Krantiguru Lahuji Salve, Anant Laxman Kanhere, Bhikaiji Cama, and Ganesh Pingale. The gallery will also house an exhibit on ‘Abhinav Bharat’, the society founded by Savarkar and his brother in 1904.

Exhibit on Bal Gangadhar Tilak at Kranti Gatha gallery | Picture Courtesy: Raj Bhavan
Exhibit on Bal Gangadhar Tilak at Kranti Gatha gallery | Picture Courtesy: Raj Bhavan

But the gallery is being criticised by some, including Congress leader Sachin Sawant, who took to social media to term the gallery as an attempt to “undermine [the] mainstream non-violent freedom struggle & reinvent history of freedom movement (as RSS was not part of it) to showcase it through Right-wing prism”.

“Since museum is created under guidance of Dr Vikram Sampath, there is grt possibility that the RSS prism may have been used,” Sawant wrote on Twitter.

The Raj Bhavan, however, has clarified that this is not the final structure of the gallery. 

“We have not closed the gallery. We will add more revolutionaries as and when required. We welcome anyone’s suggestions regarding the same,” Umesh Kashikar, public relations officer (PRO) of the Raj Bhavan, told ThePrint.


Also Read: BMC’s push for tactical urbanism: Mumbai gets new open space in form of Dadar viewing deck


History of Raj Bhavan bunker

Located in Mumbai’s Walkeshwar area, the Raj Bhavan — the official residence of the governor of Maharashtra — is spread across an area of 50 acres and is surrounded by the Arabian Sea on three sides.

The then governor, C. Vidyasagar Rao, is credited with discovering a British-era bunker beneath the governor’s bungalow on 16 August 2016.

This bunker, the Raj Bhavan believes, was built before World War I. Spread across 15,000 square feet, it has 13 rooms and a 20-foot-high gate resembling the entrance of a fort. It also has a ramp that was used by British soldiers to transport cannon. 

British soldiers used the bunker as a secret storage space for arms and ammunition, evident by the names borne by rooms inside it — Shell Store, Gun Shell, Cartridge Store, Shell Lift, Pump, Central Artillery Store, Workshop, etc.

“Older people knew that there could be a bunker inside the Raj Bhavan, but in the 1970s, that place was permanently closed because of some incidents of thefts and thieves using it as a hideout,” said Kashikar.

“However in 2016, the then Governor Vidyasagar Rao decided to restore it. Earlier, people were scared because it was very dark and a long tunnel, and when the excavation work was done, its structural audit was done and we found out that it was very weak,” he added.

After its discovery in 2016, the bunker was subjected to multiple structural audits, followed by restoration work.

Renovated in 2019 and developed into a museum dedicated to freedom fighters and revolutionaries from Maharashtra, the ‘bunker museum’ was inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind on 18 August 2019. 

Rooms of the bunker still lying vacant have now been converted to host the ‘Kranti Gatha’ gallery.

To the fascination of historians, at the time of its restoration, the underground bunker still had a proper drainage system, along with a lighting system, ventilation and a “lamp recess” (light fixture).

“While doing the restoration work and converting this into a museum, special attention was given to maintain the originality of the bunker,” the Raj Bhavan said in a press note issued Tuesday.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)


Also Read: Keep your MLAs close, Independents closer – lesson for Maha Vikas Aghadi after Rajya Sabha polls


 

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