The Nehru Museum of Science and Technology is a museum in
Kharagpur, West Bengal
Kharagpur () is a planned urban agglomeration and a major industrial city in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Kharagpur subdivision. It is the largest, most populated, multicultural and cosmopol ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. It was founded in 1990 at the Hijli Detention camp building, later the
IIT-Kharagpur Heritage Building, which is now named as Hijli Saheed Bhavan. The imposing building, bearing resemblance to the
Byzantine style of architecture, was used by the
British rulers of India to detain the freedom fighters during the 1930s.
Building history
Although there were few other
detention camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
s around the country in those days, the Hijli detention camp was the only one to witness the death of two detainees by police firing within jail compound.
The incident led to strong protest, to register their indignation by prominent national figures like
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
,
Subhas Chandra Bose
Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945
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*) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperia ...
and many others. Soon after independence, the building was used to house the first
Indian Institute of Technology (known initially as the Higher Technical Institute).
Museum contents
The museum has many indoor exhibits which include technical models collected from various institutes and organisations across India. The park outside the museum contains 14 open-air demonstrations and outdoor exhibits including a hunter plane, and a steam engine. The museum has an archive room showcasing documents relating to history of the institute and Midnapore district.
See also
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Swami Vivekananda Planetarium, Mangalore
External links
Nehru Science Centre official SiteNehru Museum at Indian Institute of Technology
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References
IIT Kharagpur
Science museums in India
Museums in West Bengal
Museums established in 1990
Monuments and memorials to Jawaharlal Nehru
Science and technology in West Bengal
Tourist attractions in Paschim Medinipur district
1990 establishments in West Bengal
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