A new exhibition at the University of Greenwich looking at 1947’s Indian partition asks the audience what it’s like to leave everything behind.
This free exhibition is on at the Stephen Lawrence Gallery until Friday 17 May
Ajay, of art and performance company Nutkhut, has teamed up with Greenwich history lecturer Dr Gavin Rand, Partition survivors, community groups, schools, heritage volunteers and artists to create this installation.
The Partition of India in 1947 resulted in the largest mass migration in human history. 14 million Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, were displaced. This lit the fuse for a series of events that not only changed the Sub-Continent but also Britain forever. Partition carries a living legacy in the UK and across the world and this is one of the last opportunities to hear and learn directly from the generation who experienced this climatic upheaval.
The show includes photographs by renowned Time magazine photographer Margaret Bourke-White and uses sounds recorded at the time and old news footage.The exhibition takes its name from a line in WH Auden’s poem, Partition, written 20 years after the subcontinent was divided along borders drawn up by a British barrister.The show coincides with the launch of an educational toolkit for primary school pupils on Wednesday 8 May.The launch will be attended by Nutkhut’s patrons Lord and Lady Dholakia, Danny Thorpe, leader of Greenwich Council, and colleagues from across the University.