BORDER CROSSINGS November/ December 2022

Thanks for following the activities of the AHRC-SOAS Border Crossings research project. Border Crossings seeks to examine how public narratives and memories of the partition of 1947 in Britain have developed and changed over time. We are working with Project Dastaan to explore how Virtual Reality (VR) technology and visual media can be used to facilitate new dialogues across different generations and communities. 

BORDER CROSSINGS and PARTITION IN INDIA AND BRITAIN 

The Border Crossings project is focusing primarily on conversations within the South Asian diaspora but the team are also working on a connected project – Partition in India and Britain. This project is interviewing individuals and families from European and white British communities who were in South Asia during the time of partition to understand the impact of 1947 and its legacies on their lives. This work is taking place in conjunction with the Partition Museum who will display some of these stories in their oral history collection.  

 

These are two distinct – but obviously connected – projects and our research findings will explore connections, as well as differences, across the two sets of conversations. Though you have signed up for information about Border Crossings we thought you might be interested to know about the Partition in India and Britain project too and have included information about both below.  

 

We are continuing to undertake interviews and participatory workshops for both Border Crossings and Partition in India and Britain. If you would like to be involved in these – or know of other people who may want to contribute to the project – please forward this information or email us on bordercrossings@soas.ac.uk.  

 

Share your stories 

The Border Crossings team have been conducting interviews with members of the UK South Asian diaspora to understand the impact and ongoing legacies of 1947. We are particularly interested in hearing from individuals who are in touch with family across the different South Asian countries, or from those who have links to East Africa and regions in the Middle East.  

If you have a story, or know of others who would like to talk to the research team please do get in touch.

Project Dastaan installation and tour in Derby and Bradford 

The Border Crossings team supported Project Dastaan’s Child of Empire VR installation and animation screenings as the tour moved to Derby Museum and then Bradford Cathedral as part of the inter-faith week there in November 2022.

World Café workshop at SOAS  

In October, the Border Crossings team held an interactive world café workshop at SOAS using conversation-based prompts and activities in small groups to facilitate reflections for in-depth collective exploration on issues pertaining to the legacies of the partition in the region and the diaspora. We had 20 people join use for the conversation and feedback from the workshop was positive with participants commenting that they had found the event a space for very ‘meaningful conversation and engagement’.

We plan to have another world café in the new year in London. Details will be announced via our social media and website. However, if any schools or community groups are interested in having us run a bespoke world café session either at SOAS or on site, please do get in touch. The sessions

usually run around 1.5 hours long. 

Book talk by photographer Graciela Magnoni  

In November, the SOAS library hosted a talk by Graciela Magnoni whose photographs had been exhibited in the Wolfson gallery in September and October.   

Graciela spoke about her recent book Watan (Homeland) which features photographs of everyday life taken in Punjab across the India-Pakistan border. Watan is available to purchase from the SOAS Bookshop.  

 

Collaboration with the Partition Museum  

The team is working in collaboration with the Partition Museum on both the Border Crossings and Partition in India and Britain projects. The oral histories collected through the Partition in India and Britain work will be shared with the Partition Museum and displayed in their collections. Border Crossings is helping to bring Project Dastaan’s Child of Empire installation to the museum in January, where it will remain a permanent part of the Museum’s exhibits/ 

 

The Partition Museum opened its Amritsar branch in 2017. Preparations for a new site of the Partition Museum at Kashmere Gate in Delhi are underway with the new museum space due to open sometime in early 2023. Project PI, Professor Tej Purewal, made a visit to the new site in November 2022 and met with the curatorial team there. 

 

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