NEW DELHI: The last date for an exhibition here, commemorating 70 years of Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to India with a display of rare archival material, has been extended to February 16, after which it will be made available online, officials have said.
The exhibition titled ‘Jammu & Kashmir Saga’, hosted at the National Archives of India (NAI), was inaugurated on January 11 and was scheduled to end on February 10.
“We have decided to extend the last date for the exhibition, by another week, so that more people can come and learn about the story of the Indo-Pak war of 1947-48 and the state’s accession,” NAI’s Director General, Pritam Singh, told reporters.
The large-scale exhibition, which uses digitally interactive walls and sensors to engage the audience, also has on display a copy of the original Instrument of Accession.
On October 26, 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, had signed the instrument of accession, thus allowing the state to be acceded to India.
“Some of the rarest documents, related to the Accession, and the 1947-48 War, and maps from 1840s and 1860s are on display. After the exhibition ends, we will host it digitally online,” the Director General said.
While many of the documents were displayed through prints of their digitized copies, including of the Instrument of Accession, the NAI has also exhibited, original copies of a maps of Kashmir (1861) and routes of Kashmir (1840).
Lok Sabha Member Shashi Tharoor and veteran politician Karan Singh, who served as the first governor of Jammu and Kashmir, have visited the exhibition.
Other exhibits include war diaries with operational details of the 1947-48 war, original letters, telegrams, documents, and citations.
Visitors can also watch old documentaries from India’s Films Division and British Pathe, including a rare color film.
The NAI Director General said, “Kashmir is in news a lot of times, but the youth is not so much connected or acquainted with the issue coming out of the state, or the situation there, its people and culture. So the purpose of this exhibition is also make them learn about the state.”
“Also, many experts take 1965 Indo-Pak War as first the reference point for the conflict between the two sides, but this exhibition portrays those stories from 1947-48 war,” he said.
Singh said that a lot of efforts and research went into the making of the exhibition, with material coming from the defense ministry, the Army and the Air Force, besides NAI’s own rich archives.
The exhibition also features rare documents like The Treaty of Lahore – March 11, 1846; The Treaty of Amritsar – March 16, 1846; and a map showing the ‘Cease-fire Line’, later redesignated as the Line of Control.-PTI
