The Gandhi Smarak Bhawan at Sector 16, Chandigarh, run by the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, houses the Gandhi Museum, which displays several exhibits on Mahatma Gandhi’s life, ideals and philosophy to the masses. The Museum was inaugurated by the Governor of the UT and Punjab, V.P. Singh Badnore, on Gandhi Jayanti day (October 2nd) in 2018.

The chief attraction here are the nearly 200 rare photographs depicting Gandhi’s life and work at various stages. Beginning with ‘Early Years’, it moves on to ‘Apprenticeship in South Africa’, ‘Swaraj - The Struggle for Indian Self-Rule’, ‘The Great Trail and The Salt March’, ‘Negotiations Over Round Table Conferences’, ‘Freedom and Partition of India’ and ‘Pilgrim of Peace’. The final segment called ‘The Light Has Gone Out of Our Lives’ deals with the assassination of Gandhi, along with images of his funeral procession and of mourning followers.

The exhibits can help visitors get a sense of his life as well as an outline of the country’s struggle for independence. In between the images, one gets to see objects used by Gandhi, such as his slippers, various utensils, begging bowl, spectacles, and bed. Different models of charkhas too have been displayed, out of which one was originally used by him. One section called the ‘Years of Arrest’ has a replica of the prison cell he was confined in when he protested against the ill-treatment of Indians by the British in South Africa. A world map points to all 160 countries that have issued dedicated postal stamps in Gandhi’s memory. The stamps are displayed along with the map. Visitors get to listen to audio clips of Gandhi speaking in Hindi and English by picking up the receiver of a telephone placed in the gallery. The Hindi speech was delivered by him on 11th June 1947 at a prayer meeting in Birla House, New Delhi. The English one took place at the Asian Conference in 1947, also held in New Delhi. Viewers can also see an early avatar of the Indian flag with the charkha in the centre and gain knowledge of the different designs of our flag.

Apart from the Museum, the Smarak Bhawan has a public library with 5,000 books either written by or on Gandhi. Besides these, there are close to 18,000 books on other subjects like history, geography, literature, science, religion, sociology, etc. Hindi, English, Punjabi and Urdu newspapers as well as journals and periodicals too are available for readers. The children’s section has about 3500 books.