First, there is the entrance gate. Then a series of concentric circles representing pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial architecture. This is followed by the core which resembles an archaeological site. Around it are panoramic fragments of memory embedded in concrete walls. The roof of the central space has a number of cylinders in flight mode. Each cylinder represents a district of undivided Bengal. Dear reader, you are now inside the Virtual Kolkata Partition Museum (V-KPM). A collaboration between the Kolkata Partition Museum Trust (KPMT) and Architecture Urbanism Research (AUR), the project was launched at ICCR in late August. This museum is a free educational resource and will soon be in the public domain.
Elaborating the contours of the project, Aurgho Jyoti, founder & creative director, AUR in a whatsapp call said: “This is a collective effort. I met Rituparna Roy, managing trustee, KPMT, through an online event in 2020. As talks with KPMT gained traction, the idea of a virtual museum took shape. The content and research teams were set up in March 2021.” Aurgho’s associates from the architectural space joined soon after.
For V-KPM, Aurgho is the principal architect and designer, Rituparna Roy heads the content team, Anindita Ghoshal is the lead historian for the project, Sayantan Maitra and Debasish Mukherjee are lead curators and Subhradip Roy is the project architect. A group of young research scholars were also roped in. They were Sumallya Mukhopadhyay, Mohana Chatterjee, Gitanjali Roy, Firdousi Akhtar, Asmita Ray and Swagatalakshmi Saha. Anam Zakaria and Ananya Jahanara Kabir came in as advisors.
The team’s objective was to create a time travel experience to access Bengal’s history. The broad heads were Bengal Partition, Museum, Border, Subaltern space and Time & Memory. The focus was on the landmark years: 1905 (Bengal partition ordered by viceroy Lord Curzon), 1943 (Bengal famine), 1946 (The Great Calcutta Killings), 1947 (Independence and Partition), 1958 (Resettlement project for East Pakistan refugees in Dandakaranya), 1971 (Birth of Bangladesh) and 1979 (The Marichjhapi Massacre).
The dominant construction material of every era was chosen for the concentric circles. For the pre-colonial era, the choice was laterite and terracotta, for colonial period it was brick and mortar and for post-colonial era, concrete. The virtual museum has three major components– Oral History Project, Visual Art Gallery and Events Gallery. In Aurgho’s words, “The subaltern narratives under the Oral History Project have been given the highest priority.” This section has been enriched by interviews of Partition survivors, old letters, pictures and pages from old diaries.
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Here are a few examples. Rina Dutta Roy, after seeing rioters enter her Lahore home, fled to Delhi. Nikhil Chandra Dey kept the legacy of his East Pakistan club alive even after resettling in Bansdroni in southern Kolkata. Gitapriya Bhattacharya of Sylhet found his neighbours at a refugee camp in Kailasahar, Tripura. For many women, marriage was the easiest mode of migration.
The dominant construction material of every era was chosen for the concentric circles. For the pre-colonial era, the choice was laterite and terracotta, for colonial period it was brick and mortar and for post-colonial era, concrete. The virtual museum has three major components-- Oral History Project, Visual Art Gallery and Events Gallery. In Aurgho’s words, “The subaltern narratives under the Oral History Project have been given the highest priority.” This section has been enriched by interviews of Partition survivors, old letters, pictures and pages from old diaries.
Lead historian Anindita Ghoshal’s personal recollections are equally interesting. In a telephonic interview, she said: “I grew up in Tripura but my mother’s family came from Santahar (now in Bogra district of Bangladesh). My grandfather, a doctor, was called Kabiraj Thakur by locals. Despite that, his name topped the rioters’ hitlist during Partition. His patients gave him a burqa and helped him cross the river and find a safe haven in India.
About her role, Ghoshal said: “We always kept in mind the subaltern perspectives. Voice of the displaced was our main focus. That included not only West Bengal but also the north-eastern states of Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya.”
Sayantan Maitra is one of the two players handling the modern, contemporary and the children-oriented sections of the Visual Art Gallery. His experience of the public art exhibition ‘No Man’s Land’ organised a few years ago on the Indo-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya, proved handy. Maitra said: “Ten artists from India and 15 from Bangladesh expressed their first impression of the barbed wire fence and the Radcliffe Line separating the two nations. Till you see it, yourself, the barbed wire remains a romanticised space.”
Maitra said: “The modern section of V-KPM includes works by Chittoprasad, Somnath Hore, Ram Kinkar Baij and Zainul Abedin. They actually witnessed the post-partition incidents and documented them. Contemporary artists include Mahbubur Rahman and Tayeba Begum Lipi. We have invited many artists to send their collection on this theme. Besides, we have built a huge collection of the 1971 War films. Permission to screen them is awaited.”
On the structure of V-KPM, Maitra felt, “We thought let’s make this museum a gravity-defying space. We don’t walk in virtual space, no one can tie us down. Then why not fly instead?”
Project architect Subhradip Roy, during his presentation at ICCR, highlighted the modes of migration and habitation, post-Partition. The displaced people came on trucks, hand-carts, bullock-carts and on foot. He also explained how Partition changed the physical environment of those displaced. From permanent homes they had to shift to temporary structures like refugee camps and shanties. All these are part of the V-KPM installation.
KPMT managing trustee Rituparna Roy said: “Our ultimate goal is to set up the partition museum in physical format. But for the present, our aim is to make the virtual museum work and reach out to everyone interested in partition history.”
Roy added, “Though we are by no means whitewashing Partition history, we have two primary aims: first, to Memorialise the historical specificity of Partition experience and its aftermath in both West Bengal and Bangladesh and second, to stress on cultural continuity, that is to shift the common discourse of violence, horror, trauma, forced migration to the common living heritage like food, clothing, language, art and literature.”
This festive season, let Shorshe Ilish, Kacchi Biryani, Goalondo steamer chicken curry, Dhakai jamdani and Rabindrasangeet bring the two Bengals closer and strengthen the bond of Maitree.
Images courtesy: KPM
More information on the virtual museum can be accessed at https://kolkata-partition-museum.org/.
Notes:
- Maitree- Bengali for friendship
- Sorshe ilish- Hilsa fish curry with mustard paste
- Kacchi biryani- A version of biryani popular in Bangladesh
- Goalondo steamer chicken curry- A boatman’s chicken curry from Bangladesh
- Dhakai jamdani- A woven saree from Bangladesh and West Bengal
