Partition trauma storyboard style: Revisiting history at a digital exhibition

Illustrations on display at the exhibition. Pics Courtesy/Nikhil Gulati

Whose story makes it to the pages of history books? The ones that made it out of the rubble of the past and are dug out or those restructured by the narrators telling them? With an aim to present a holistic view of the 1947 Partition that cuts across nationalist narratives, ReReeti Foundation will launch a digital exhibition titled Un.Divided Identities: Lesser-known Stories of the Partition. This immersive experience - developed as a classroom education resource - shares the experiences and histories of survivors of the Partition through choice-based and graphic novel-style storytelling. The exhibition has been put together in partnership with the British Council and Glasgow Life Museums, and opens this weekend with an online launch at which Urvashi Butalia, a Partition scholar and publisher, will be the keynote speaker.

(Left) Bhanu Gahlot and Tejshvi Jain

The stories that are part of the exhibition are situated in Sindh and Punjab between 1946 and 1948 with fictionalised characters, and narratives rooted in available academic research and oral histories. "The decision-making aspect transports people to the chaos of the times and brings to fore themes of loss, displacement, grief, trauma and uncertainty," explains Bhanu Gahlot, project head of Un.Divided Identities. The exhibition calls for users to pick a character and decide on where to go and how to get there, which will determine the consequences of their lives and families, where the final choice is established to convince users to abandon everything familiar. Each story includes a fact file alongside narratives that display information on crucial aspects of the Partition, curated to be inclusive of gender and class. "The focus was also on the emotional facets of this event. By putting the viewer in the driver's seat, we wanted to highlight the turmoil, dilemma, hopes, and fears of the people who went through the Partition. History is more than events, facts, and numbers; it's about people, their decisions, struggles, and what they experienced emotionally," says founder Tejshvi Jain.

In order to engage young people in the stories of mass migration and personal histories, and to attempt a pedagogical shift in the study of the Partition in schools, ReReeti Foundation invited eight young South-Asians from India and Glasgow to contribute to research and creative aspects. School students across the Subcontinent contributed by conducting oral history interviews that were used as research for the exhibition. "Scholars and practitioners have recorded and archived oral histories of Partition survivors, managing to shift the gaze and allowing us to have agency. I think it is time now to think of what we can do with these archives, and make it engaging for future generations," Gahlot signs off.

ON October 15; 6 pm; accessible till October 2023
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