Kolkata Partition Museum

Kolkata Partition Museum

Established	August 2018; 6 years ago (August 2018)
Type	Historical museum
Founder	Rituparna Roy
Architect	Aurgho Jyoti
Website	kolkata-partition-museum.org

The Kolkata Partition Museum is an initiative dedicated to documenting the Partition of India from the Bengal perspective. Dissimilar to the Punjabi context, the Bengal province had been divided twice: once in 1905, and then in 1947. The aftermath of the second partition, as recorded by many historians, unfolded distinctly in postcolonial Bengal vis-à-vis Punjab.^[1][2][3] Not only was the impact long-drawn and can be witnessed even 75 years after the Partition, its affect can also be seen in the neighbouring states of Bengal and the rest of the country owing to refugee resettlements spread out to as far away states such as Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.^[2][4] The idea behind the Kolkata Partition Museum is to preserve and present the vanishing memories of partition, to emphasise both the "rupture and continuities between West Bengal and Bangladesh – in terms of language and literature, food, fabric, and the performing arts – and to encourage collaboration between them."^[5][6][7] The museum aims "to do so by involving public participation in its programs and gearing all its activities in a way that makes it more accessible and interesting to the public at large."^[5]

History

The Kolkata Partition Museum Project was envisioned by Rituparna Roy, a Partition scholar and lecturer of English literature, initially in 2007 when she witnessed the Holocaust Memorials of Berlin and "wondered why there was no such comparable public memorialisation of the partition in India."^[8][9][10] The Palestine Museum in Birzeit, near Jerusalem, was also one of her early inspirations.^[8] In August 2016, as part of an international conference commemorating 70 years of Partition at the Indian Museum in Kolkata, funded by The New Zealand India Research Institute (NZIRI) and The Ministry of Culture, Government of India, which was co-convened by Roy alongside historian Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and Dr Jayanta Sengupta, this project was formally introduced and later on 20 August 2018 registered as a trust—The Kolkata Partition Museum Trust (KPMT).^[8][5]

It is important to note that there are similar initiatives such as The 1947 Partition Archive founded by Dr Guneeta Singh Bhalla in 2010^[11] and The Partition Museum, Amritsar founded by The Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust (TAACHT) in early 2015.^[12][13] Historian Urvashi Butalia theorised the idea for a museum chronicling the partition around 2011 and also pointed out some of the pitfalls.^[14][15] In 2010, a few students from several Mumbai schools—Cathedral, JB Petit, Ambani, as well as HR and Jai Hind colleges—had jointly "launched a project titled "Remembering Partition" in collaboration with two organisations, Citizens for Peace in India and Citizens' Archive of Pakistan."^[15] Their goal was "to increase awareness about the partition of India and to honor those who experienced partition."^[15] It is not known what became of this project. However, the characteristic feature of the Kolkata Partition Museum Project is that it seeks to document the Bengali experience of partition, albeit not exclusively. While both the Archive and the Museum in Amritsar have documented the partition of Bengal, through oral testimonies of individuals who witnessed the partition first-hand or microhistories of family members, the emphasis on systematically memorialising the specific history of Bengal is lacking. KPM aims to dedicate itself towards filling in this gap and bringing forward the unique trajectory of Bengal, starting with the Partition of Bengal in 1905.^[16]

Plans

On August 15, 2022, which marked 75 years of partition, the Kolkata Partition Museum announced the launch of a virtual museum (V-KPM) in collaboration between KPMT and Architecture Urbanism Research (AUR), an architecture firm based in New York and New Delhi, headed by Aurgho Jyoti.^[17][18][5] The primary objective of this virtual museum initiative was to "create a time travel experience to access Bengal’s history: Bengal Partition, Museum, Border, Subaltern space, and Time & Memory."^[18] Notable historical events like the Partition of Bengal in 1905 ordered by viceroy Lord Curzon, the Bengal famine of 1943, the Great Calcutta Killings of 1946, the Independence and Partition in 1947, the 1958 Resettlement project for East Pakistan refugees in Dandakaranya, the Birth of Bangladesh in 1971, and the Marichjhapi Massacre of 1979 were highlighted.^[18] Apart from the launch of a virtual museum, the KPMT has organised film screenings of partition related films, art exhibitions, and conferences regarding history, partition, and memory.^{[19][20][21][22]}

As of June 2023, a physical museum is yet to be constructed. However, Roy does plan on launching a physical museum, "house a Partition Public Library, and inaugurate a Partition Walk in the city" in the future.^[8]

See also

• The 1947 Partition Archive
• The Partition Museum, Amritsar
• Partition Museum, Delhi

References

1. Chatterji, Joya (2007). The Spoils of Partition: Bengal and India, 1947–1967. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521515276.
2. Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar; Basu Ray Chaudhuri, Anasua (2022). Caste and Partition in Bengal: The Story of Dalit Refugees, 1946-1961. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. ASIN B09VH6KMN8.
3. Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar (2006). From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India. India: Orient Longman. ISBN 978-8125057239.
4. Bhattacharya, Isti (10 August 2022). "Kolkata and Partition: Between Remembering and Forgetting". JSTOR Daily.
5. "About". Kolkata Partition Museum.
6. Chakraborty, Udita (27 September 2022). "Kolkata Partition Museum founder Rituparna Roy on importance of preserving memories". Telegraph India.
7. Chatterjee, Madhumanti (8 March 2019). "স্বাধীনতা উদযাপিত হোক, কিন্তু দেশ ভাগের হাহাকার যেন না ভোলে এই শহর". Bengali Indian Express (in Bengali).
8. "Rituparna Roy". International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS).
9. Desimone, Arturo; Baird, Jon; Khair, Mohammad (6 January 2021). "The Healing Power of Art, From a Museum in Kolkata". Progressive International.
10. Dirghangi, Arna (2019). "The Partition of Bengal and Its Silent Aftermath: An Interview with Rituparna Roy". Refugee Watch Online.
11. Singh Bhalla, Guneeta (2023). "The 1947 Partition Archive: A Living, Evolving Crowdsourced Archive on India's 1947 Partition". Third Text: Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Culture.
12. "The Partition Museum". The London School of Economics and Political Science.
13. "This museum in Amritsar revisits horrors of Partition". The Express Tribune.
14. Butalia, Urvashi (2011). "Confronting the Past: Thoughts on a Partition Museum". Context. 8 (2): 21–26 – via ProQuest.
15. Raychaudhuri, Anindya (2012). "Demanding the impossible: exploring the possibilities of a national partition museum in India". Social Semiotics. 22 (2): 173–186 – via Taylor and Francis Online.
16. "A Critical Moment". Kolkata Partition Museum.
17. "Kolkata Partition Museum, a virtual museum on Partition, launched". India Today. 24 August 2022.
18. Sen, Abhijit (27 October 2022). "Kolkata Partition Museum: A Virtual Tour". The Space Ink.
19. "Kolkata event will revisit Bengal Partition through films from India, Bangladesh". Scroll.in. 14 August 2019.
20. Dirghangi, Arna (17 August 2020). "Artists' Interpretation of the Great Divide and its aftermath - A Report". Refugee Watch Online.
21. Lahiri, Isha (2 September 2020). "Chronicling the Search for a Home in Post-Partition West Bengal". The Bengal Gazette.
22. Mitra, Debraj (2021). "Historian slams attempt to recount horrors of Partition to add fuel to fire of divisive politics". Telegraph India.

Further reading

1. Butalia, Urvashi. (2015). Partition: The Long Shadow. Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-9383074778
2. Butalia, Urvashi. (2017). The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. Penguin Random House India. ISBN 978-0140271713
3. Halder, Deep. (2019). Blood Island: An Oral History of the Marichjhapi Massacre. HarperCollins India. ISBN 978-9353025878
4. Malhotra, Aanchal. (2018). Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory. HarperCollins India. ISBN 978-9353022952
5. Menon, Ritu; Bhasin, Kamala. (1998). Borders and Boundaries: Women in India's Partition. Kaali for Women. ISBN 978-8186706008
6. Pandey, Gyanendra. (2002). Remembering Partition: Violence, Nationalism and History in India. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-8175961098
7. Schendel, Willem van. (2004). The Bengal Borderland: Beyond State and Nation in South Asia. Anthem Press London. ISBN 9781843311454

External links

• Official website
• Museum of Material Memory
• Museum of Shadows of Partition
• The Palestine Museum, Birzeit
• The New Zealand India Research Institute (NZIRI)