Depicting trauma of partition through tales of survivors

Silence can become a burden, the unspoken, unshared pain or fear, unintentionally being passed down as inter-generational trauma. In most ethnic communities from the sub-continent, the trauma of the partition of India in 1947 comes embedded in community memory, often reflected through art, literature and an increased sense of community sensitivity or confusion. For the second generation Punjabis, part of the larger diaspora, this inter-generational trauma brought a strong urge for identification with ancestral roots and pain.

One such story is being told by Suman Gujral. The UK-based visual artist, who works with natural elements and media, brings her exhibition, titled, 'After the Partition: A Shared Cultural Heritage', her first in India which highlights the memories of people settled in the east of England about their experiences of the Partition before 1947. The Partition Museum will host the exhibition, which opened to the public from Saturday (October 18).

Suman, who is based in Harlow Essex, did not grow up hearing the stories of partition. "Until I was 13, my mother never really talked about partition or what the family went through during the forced migration after lines were brutally drawn between what was once the undivided Punjab. Once I turned 13, my mother shared these stories. How she arrived at Ambala, which had one of the biggest refugee transit camps, and how there she met my father, who was also 16 or 17. When they decided to leave India in 1965, they rebuild their lives but never forgot their roots," she shared.

The confusion that followed Suman, who had never really witnessed or been privy to the horrors of partition or forced migration, eventually pushed her to explore the subject through the community lens.

"In the UK, there were many women from the sub-continent, who were survivors of forced migration, with same stories of grief and inter-generational trauma. That prompted me to work on art that projected my own grief and trauma through this shared experience," she said.

Her art series includes themes of bloodshed, geographical division and segregation of communities through thread and paper as medium. Daag, an immersive, personal piece of art, stands out in depicting the brutal severing of Punjab, where Suman uses surgical sutures on a piece of handcrafted Himalayan paper to show how India was chopped by the British. The artwork also symbolises a blood-stained stream that ran through India and Pakistan during the time. 'Papaji's Rumal' or 'Father's Handkerchief' is another such depiction. Suman also has created prints of her mother Tarlochan Kaur's original Phulkari embroidery. She has also displayed a poem she wrote in her mother's memory, who passed away last year at the age of 90.

But her work is not about reliving the tragic stories of Partition

"It has been over 75 years since over half a million Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims came to Britain because of the upheaval of Partition and the promise of economic opportunities and a safer life. Sikhs, Hindus and Muslim communities in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex reflect on over seven decades of life in eastern England, reflecting on their family experiences, challenges, successes and social change from 1947 till date. How has the British culture changed and how have they changed the British culture? With few original settlers surviving, this is the last chance to bring three generations together to document the fortunes of settlers and their families, who can trace their migration directly to partition. We are keen to focus on lived experiences since partition, rather than on the experience of partition itself, opening opportunities to explore this unique cultural context within and between communities. As time passes and memories fade, it is important for Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims to capture what shaped their modern heritage for posterity, and to reflect on wider issues of migration and colonialism today," said Inderjit Singh Sandhu, Creative Director and CEO, Essex Cultural Diversity Project, the United Kingdom.

They have developed this exhibition in the east of England around the partition with key elderly people and their families who moved to the east of England from Punjab in India. Through our project, we shared the oral history, stories, materials with the Partition Museum in Amritsar, through a collaboration," she said.

The Essex Cultural Diversity Project will promote the Partition Museum, Amritsar, to UK-based residents through cultural tourism, with a view to attract more visitors from the United Kingdom to the Partition Museum in Amritsar and other cultural and heritage sites.

“The exhibition will create a new partnership between the Partition Museum in Amritsar and Essex Cultural Diversity Project and other key heritage/cultural venues in east of England, including Essex Record Office, Suffolk Record Office and Norfolk Museum to share stories of the partition,” Inderjit Singh Sandhu said.