Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum of Indian History (CSMMIH) is a private historical museum founded by

François Gautier François Gautier (born 1950) is a journalist based in India who served as the South Asian correspondent for multiple reputed French-language dailies. He advocates for an Indigenous Aryan narrative. He is also the founder of a private museum ...

in 2012 under the banner of his not-for-profit organization, the Foundation For Advancement of Cultural Ties (FACT). The first phase the museum was inaugurated by Ravi Shankar and endorsed by

Ajit Pawar Ajit Anantrao Pawar (Marathi pronunciation: �d͡ʒit̪ pəʋaːɾ born 22 July 1959) is an Indian politician. He is the Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, and was the 8th Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra in his ...

and Nitin Gadkari. In addition to various exhibits the museum also has a freely accessible digital library on their website that has hundreds of books on Indian history and culture. FACT Inauguration Guruji

Layout

The museum complex has twenty two buildings, each housing a unique exhibition. Among them are displays regarding

Aurangzeb Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...

, based on his own

firman A firman ( fa, , translit=farmân; ), at the constitutional level, was a royal mandate or decree issued by a sovereign in an Islamic state. During various periods they were collected and applied as traditional bodies of law. The word firman com ...

s, on Maharana Pratap, the only Rajput to fight the Mughals and win; Dara Shikoh, two exhibitions on the great

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shivaji Bhonsale I (; 19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680), also referred to as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle Maratha clan. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the declining Adilsh ...

, as well numerous exhibitions on women warriors, like Alyabhai Holkar, Tarabai of Maharashtra, Rani Kittur Chennama of Karnataka. Francois Gautier also wanted to highlight the suffering of Hindus throughout the ages, thus there are exhibitions on the Portuguese Inquisition,

Tippu Sultan Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He int ...

, the Hindu Holocaust. The museum complex also has one of the two temples in India dedicated to Bharat Mata (Mother India). The architect of the Bharat Mata temple and the future Museum is MRS Sheetal Harpale of Pune. The museum houses a series of exhibitions, for example, a miniature painting exhibition on the life of Shivaji, a 17th-century Indian king; an exhibition on Hindu tolerance throughout the ages; and another exhibition that "scientifically refutes the

Aryan invasion theory The Indo-Aryan migrations were the migrations into the Indian subcontinent of Indo-Aryan peoples, an ethnolinguistic group that spoke Indo-Aryan languages, the predominant languages of today's North India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lank ...

". In July 2013, the

14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...

inaugurated a Tibetan pavilion showcasing an exhibition of text and pictures on the travails of people from Tibet over the last 60 years. An open exhibition on

Dara Shikoh Dara Shikoh ( fa, ), also known as Dara Shukoh, (20 March 1615 – 30 August 1659) was the eldest son and heir-apparent of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. Dara was designated with the title ''Padshahzada-i-Buzurg Martaba'' ("Prince of High Rank" ...

, was also inaugurated by

Uddhav Thackeray Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (Marathi pronunciation: d̪ʱːəʋ ʈʰaːkɾeː born 27 July 1960) is an Indian politician who served as the 19th Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2019 to 2022. He was also the president of Shiv Sena prior to ...

The museum is open daily with free entrance. In 2022, it received 15,000 visitors, many of them school children. The future museum is proposed to cost about 17

crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...

rupees Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...

spread across an area of 100,000 square feet and will house 70 exhibitions with state of the art research and archival facilities. It will be in the shape of

Swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...

, an auspicious symbol in many Indic religions. It is scheduled to open in 2018.

Exhibits and exhibitions

Videos and documentaries produced by the museum

The museum has produced the following videos and documentaries: * Christian conversions * Kashmiri Pandits * Brahmins and Upper castes * The Trauma of Partition * Mumbai train blasts *

26/11 The 2008 Mumbai attacks (also referred to as 26/11, pronounced "twenty six eleven") were a series of Terrorism, terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist terrorist organisation from P ...

, The true story * Biopic of Shivaji Maharaj * The legend of Lachit Borpukan

References

External links

Free ebooks at FACT website
{{Pune topics, state=collapsed 2012 establishments in Maharashtra Museums established in 2012 History museums in India Museums in Maharashtra Buildings and structures in Pune district Tourist attractions in Pune district

Layout

Exhibits and exhibitions

Videos and documentaries produced by the museum

See also

References

External links