The unheard stories of Partition find a voice

Many nations have curated their crises of conscience, now India too has a museum to document its own

Perhaps there are no coincidences in life, because this year, when the world’s first Partition Museum will be completed in Amritsar, the theme for the International Museums Day was “museums and contested histories: saying the unspeakable in museums”.

A far-fetched idea perhaps in India, where museums have usually been very safe zones — meditating upon a vast heritage of art and culture. These repositories have reflected pride and endeavour — but rarely failure or defeat. They have looked at cultural triumphs 5000 years ago, and forgotten the events of just 70 years ago. Museums have been more about collections than experience. About documentation rather than memory. About history through objects, rather than story telling. And usually the collections, if donated, are from the wealthy, not from the marginalised.

Alternative histories, and ‘subaltern’ experiences have been left out — as have the contemporary plural narratives, because no one wanted to document, or reflect upon the dark shadows. These have been usually deemed unsuitable for a museum space. Unsurprisingly, all these years, we have not had a partition museum . But now we have changed all that to speak the unspeakable, by setting up the Partition Museum at Town Hall, Amritsar — which has a huge emotive connect — and has already received (with a small curtain raiser exhibition) over 30,000 visitors. The entire museum will be completed by August.

In this environment, a museum on the partition of India might appear like a unicorn — but the kind response and help coming from all over the world — from partition survivors and their families, and also from academicians and media alike makes one understand that this was a long felt absence. This museum is being put together because people feel that we have sorely neglected this part of our country’s history. They want the stories of their parents and grandparents to be part of it. It has taken us 70 long years to get to this point.

And yet other nations have successfully attempted to curate difficult experiences and ideas — and dedicated museums to their most challenging moments. Museums should not be dead spaces after all, but vibrant ones which generate debate and discussion, especially when a nation’s torment lies exposed. Whether it is the most recent 9/11 Museum in New York, or the Hiroshima Memorial, or the Apartheid Museum — every nation has preserved its collective crisis of conscience. In India, thus far, we have excelled at collective amnesia. This has especially been applicable to the partition of India — a narrative which we should have carefully preserved — because in that exodus from a much loved home lay the essence of a generation’s grief and resilience. This trauma was probably passed onto the next generation whilst still cocooned in silence. Even when those recording oral histories had first reached out to partition survivors and their families a few decades ago, their stories remained captured in books and archives, unavailable to the larger public .

And it is these once unspeakable memories that form the core of the Partition Museum in Amritsar, a people’s museum, based on their recollections, and on the material they are providing us everyday . Most of the memories are impossible to forget. One person who recently recorded for the Partition Museum is 77 years old , but his wife says he still cries in his sleep, remembering the mobs that had surrounded his house in 1947.

The thousands who came as children during partition share a common history. A history of a displaced childhood accompanied by forced penury. A history of silence as they were vulnerable and innocent when they went through the largest and most painful migration the world had ever experienced. They lost their childhoods, their schools, their toys and playmates, forever—and yet went on to build the new India, with remarkable fortitude.

We do hope that this year August 17 ,will be declared as Partition Remembrance Day. This was the day when partition was actually announced . On this day, every year, we should think of the martyrs and survivors of 1947, and learn from their spirit and resilience. One way we could all acknowledge the debt we owe them is to visit the Partition Museum on August 17, and together we could remember them.

Kishwar Desai is the chairperson of The Arts And Cultural Heritage Trust. The views expressed are personal

ONE PERSON WHO RECENTLY RECORDED FOR THE PARTITION MUSEUM IS 77 YEARS OLD , BUT HIS WIFE SAYS HE STILL CRIES IN HIS SLEEP, REMEMBERING THE MOBS THAT HAD SURROUNDED HIS HOUSE IN 1947