Artist Arpana Caur reads the Guru Granth Sahib every day. It’s special. Her maternal grandfather brought it on his head from Lahore to India after the Partition in 1947. Caur’s grandfather, a doctor, was holidaying in Kashmir when the news of the Partition came. He took 20 days to cross the border to bring back his aged parents and in-laws from Lahore. The Guru Granth Sahib came with them.
The 65-year-old artist might not have been born then but the mention of Partition makes her voice shaky. “I relieved it as a child in my dreams,” she says.
Being part of an exhibition hosted at the Partition Museum of India, Amritsar, was not just a natural choice for her, but one that rings closer home.
Moving away from her recurrent theme of night and day, the artist has contributed a terracotta artwork to the museum. Titled ‘Memories Unlocked: Partition, Migration, Identity’, the exhibition-cum-fundraiser commemorates the 73rd anniversary of the Partition with artworks by renowned Indian artists as well as upcoming contemporary talent.
The artists participating this year include Krishen Khanna, Anjolie Ela Menon, Jogen Chowdhury, Jatin Das, Paresh Maity, Arpana Caur, Jayasri Burman, Atul Bhalla, Viren Tanwar, Manisha Gera Baswani, Seema Kohli, Ayesha Singh, Purvai Rai, Ekta Singha and Divya Singh. Fifty percent of the list price of the artworks will go as a donation to the museum.
Like Caur, each artist has his/her own story to tell about the Partition. For instance, Jogen Chowdhury has given a sketch done in 1958 titled ‘Refugees in Sealdah Rly Station’. The 81-year-old artist shares the scars of Partition through his poignant work, “I was a student in the Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta, between 1955 and 60. Even then a lot of refugees used to cross the border. I have memories of going to Sealdah railway station where refugees would stay. This work was done then,” he says.
The artist, who feels a profound connection with the exhibition, says, “We are originally from East Bengal and I have a deep relationship with the Partition.” While Chowdhury remembers his ties with East Bengal, for some like Purvai Rai, the Partition Museum gives voice to the oral histories she’s grown up with, for example, the story of her father.
The 25-year-old artist says, “My practice is based on memories, identities, and how ultimately your experience makes you who you are.
The artwork that I’ve given for this is basically from one of my series called ‘Magnetic Fabric’ which looks at landscapes of identity through time. I feel Partition or migration has been documented through a story that tells you a collective narrative. What’s lost is personal narrative.
My father, who was from Jhang in Pakistan, tells me his stories and I feel those narratives are important.”
The Partition Museum of India was launched on August 17, 2017, with the support of the Delhi-based Art Alive Gallery.
It narrates the story of the division of British India through the voices of millions who lived through it.
The idea was born out of a discussion between Art Alive Gallery director Sunaina Anand and author Kishwar Desai. It struck a chord with Anand, who remembered her own grandfather sharing stories on Partition.