Not Just One Family: Nehru Memorial Museum And Library Will Now Be Called Prime Ministers Museum And Society

Almost a year after Prime Ministers' Museum inauguration at the Teen Murti Complex, the official residence of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the name of the Congress leader has been dropped from the Complex.

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) will henceforth be known as the Prime Ministers Museum and Society.

This decision was taken during a special meeting of the NMML Society on Thursday (15 June). The meeting was presided over by the vice-president of the society, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

The NMML Society has 29 members including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the chairman, and several Union Ministers like Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, G Kishan Reddy, and Anurag Thakur.

Teen Murti House was originally built from 1929-30 as part of Edwin Lutyens’ imperial capital. It was the official residence of the Commander-in-Chief in India.

After independence, it became the official residence of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru in 1948. Nehru lived there until his death on 27 May 1964.

Subsequently, the government decided that the Complex should be dedicated to Nehru and house a museum and a library. On 14 November 1964, President S Radhakrishnan dedicated the Teen Murti House to the nation on the occasion of Nehru's 75th birth anniversary and inaugurated the Nehru Memorial Museum.

The NMML Society was established two years later to manage the museum and has remained so ever since.

In 2016, PM Modi proposed establishing a museum dedicated to all Prime Ministers of India on the Teen Murti complex premises.

In response to this, former PM Manmohan Singh wrote a letter to PM Modi expressing his concerns about an "agenda" to “change the nature and character” of the NMML and the Teen Murti complex.

During the meeting on Thursday, Rajnath Singh welcomed the proposal to rename the institution.

The museum will showcase the contributions of all Prime Ministers from Nehru to Modi in nation-building and their actions in response to different challenges faced by them, Singh said, according to a statement from the NMML.

According to the statement, the executive council felt that the museum's name should reflect the institution's current activities, which also include a sangrahalaya depicting the collective journey of democracy in Independent India and highlighting each Prime Minister's contribution to nation-building, reports Indian Express.

Describing the Prime Minister as an institution, Singh emphasised that all the colours of a rainbow should be proportionately represented in order to make it beautiful.

The refurbished museum begins at the renovated Jawaharlal Nehru museum building, now updated with technologically advanced displays on the life and contribution of the first Prime Minister.

Housed in a new building are the stories of other 13 Prime Ministers of independent India – with the displays highlighting how they navigated the nation through various challenges.

According to NMML Executive Council Chairman Nripendra Misra, this recognition of all Prime Ministers is an effort to democratise institutional memory.

Nripendra Misra said that a change in name was also necessary, saying that the Prime Ministers Museum expresses the nation's deep commitment to democracy. Therefore, the name of the institution should reflect its new form, he added.