Fragments of Memory: India’s Partition and Curating Narratives in Partition Museums

Abstract

The Partition of India in 1947 into two nations, India and Pakistan, was a cataclysmic event marked by violence and mass displacement. Although a subject of intense study among scholars, Partition was never memorialized in a designated space—no museum, or commemoration of the event was ever attempted. It was in the 71^st year of India’s independence that a newly conceived Partition Museum opened in the historic border city of Amritsar in Punjab. Another Partition Museum was set up in the capital city of New Delhi in 2023. The Museums display of ‘artefacts’ carried by the fleeing survivors of Partition violence; Art works by eminent artists depicting Partition horrors and trauma; audio-visual and archival galleries of photographs and interviews with Partition refugees—all focus on the ‘voices silenced in the pages of history.’ In today’s world rising awareness no longer confines the construction of historical narrative to the historian’s domain but has placed it into the hands of society as a whole. This paper explores the role of Partition Museum in Delhi for curating the memory of Partition, examining how narratives of violence and loss, courage and resilience, hope and optimism are displayed and mediated through exhibitions. Some important questions to be addressed would involve the kind of collective memory being invoked—nationalistic or reconciliatory? And more importantly how it impacts contemporary attitudes towards Partition—whether the memory generated is mindful of the complexities of our collective past or not.