Partition memories exhibition in SOAS Library

Thirty-five people attended the afternoon, from the British Library, SOAS staff, and students and family members whose stories are shared in the exhibition.

Together, they have curated a Partition exhibition centering around inter-generational families, a literary discourse connecting migration, displacement, homeland, and a sense of belonging. The content includes work carried out by Dr. Kumar meeting families connected to the UK diaspora. An examination of the Hindu Sindhi narrative and the diasporic communities that eventually formed across the world. Resistance poetry to express the trauma experienced during and after Partition. An oral interview (as a transcript) conducted by Farzana with a Partition survivor, who at the age of twelve had to cross the border from Rawalpindi, in what is now present-day Pakistan to Delhi.

Farzana’s father’s Partition survival memories are gathered in this space, alongside some archival photographs. She also shares extracts of her paternal Uncle’s manuscript, where he reflects on homesickness for relatives as he remained in India, while the rest of his family all left for Pakistan. Citizenship, borders, and visas are examined in this commemoration of the largest mass migration recorded in human history.

The exhibition is being held in the Lady David Cases, SOAS Library.

It is on until 31 December 2023