New Delhi
Close to the Indian Parliament and India Gate, the country’s World War I memorial, sits the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML). Designed by British architect Robert Tor Russell in the early 1920s, the structure served as an office and residence for British colonial forces. After India’s 1947 independence, the site became the home of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister. After Nehru’s 1964 death, Indian leaders converted the residence into a museum and library of Indian history, with a strong emphasis on examining the leaders and principles behind India’s independence movement. The museum preserved rooms such as Nehru’s bedroom and study as they were at the time of his passing and collected mementos personally used by him. The museum also features a gifts gallery displaying the gifts Prime Minister Nehru accepted on behalf of his country as well as exhibits chronicling crucial moments in Indian history, such as the 1857 rebellion against British rule, the founding of the Indian nationalist movement, and the success of Mahatma Gandhi’s “Quit India” movement.
Next door to the museum is the library. For researchers, the library consists of two spaces: one is a large reading room home to thousands of books, in a variety of languages, on Indian history and society.
The other space is the second floor manuscript room where researchers submit archival material requests and review the individual and institutional papers of prominent Indian political and social figures and organizations.
Besides the aforementioned plethora of books on Indian history, the library also houses the many volumes of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi and a full collection of the multivolume Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru. In addition, the library possesses Hindi and English languages collections, going back many decades, of notable Indian publications such as Indian Economic and Social History Review, Economic and Political Weekly, and Indian Currents.
Visitors arrive at all times during the library’s operating hours (9 A.M. to 7 P.M) and work at small, study carrels. Researchers utilizing the manuscript room have three opportunities to submit requests for archival papers per day (10:00 A.M, 12:00 P.M. and 2:30 P.M) and receive ten files per request. Around 1 P.M., the library staff breaks for lunch and the canteen next door is packed with researchers snacking on samosas and gulping down chai.
In a massive city like Delhi, one can imagine it as a solely urban environment, nothing but cement and asphalt for miles in each direction. The 45 acres that make up the grounds of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library are something different: a peaceful, green refuge in the heart of the city. I know when I am frustrated by a lack of research findings or my eyes have grown tired from staring at documents, I can head outside and walk the library’s well-manicured grounds for rejuvenation and peace of mind.
Clearly, one of the best parts about doing research here are all the animals that call the NMML home. Dogs can be found laying on cooler surfaces or in the shade. Cats saunter into the canteen meowing for attention but also a bite of your lunch. Peacocks strut along the grounds and it is not uncommon for a researcher’s concentration to be broken by their loud calls.
Whether you’re there to examine the papers of Indian Prime Ministers or need a quiet place to write, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library is a great place to conduct research and get work done. Scholars of Indian history, especially post-independence, could spend a lifetime going through the library’s vast collection of books, impressive repository of photographs, and papers of important Indian leaders and civic organizations. With so much valuable material available to researchers, the NMML is a crucial archive for every type of scholar of Indian history.
