 The origin of this Museum goes back to the
period soon after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on the
fateful evening of January 30, 1948, when the slow process
of scouting for, collecting and preserving the
personal relics, manuscripts, books, journals and documents,
photographic and audio-visual material, all that could go into a Museum
on the life, philosophy and work of Gandhiji--began
in an unostentatious way in Mumbai.
Later the work was shifted to Delhi and
in early 1951 the nucleus of a Museum on Gandhiji was set
up in the Government hutments adjoining Kota House. Later still,
in mid-1957, it was shifted to the picturesque old mansion at 5,
Mansingh Road.
It was finally brought to its present new and permanent home,
most appropriately built opposite the SAMADHI of Mahatma Gandhi
- free India's most revered place of
pilgrimage-at Rajghat, New Delhi, in 1959. The imposing
two storey Museum was formally inaugurated by Dr.
Rajendra Prasad, the President of
India, on January 30, 1961.
The Museum was named 'Gandhi Memorial Museum' (Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya),
now commonly known as 'National Gandhi Museum' (Rashtriya
Gandhi Sangrahalaya)
as there are also a number of regional Gandhi memorial museums
in India.
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