In a metal box in a burnt-down house in Punjab lay a wedding photo, crumpled and yellow. A young lad in a suit and his wide-eyed bride, her head covered with a shawl. They look content, staring into a future that held much promise. But it proved to be a short-lived happiness. Two months later, partition happened. The house of Khalid Muhammad and his new bride Nazia was burnt down by a Hindu-Sikh mob. Fearing for his young wife’s honour, Khalid shot her dead and moved to Pakistan, leaving his Sikh neighbour to take care of his ancestral property. No one from Khalid’s family ever returned to India to reclaim the property, which is now being looked after by the neighbour’s son.
The wedding photo is part of documentary photographer Taha Ahmad’s series on partition—Drawn Into Two: Which Way Home?—now being exhibited at the Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford, Canada. The exhibition—Duje Pase Ton (From the other side): Arts Across the Border. From the Two Punjabs—brings together the work of 22 international artists from India and Pakistan. “I never wanted it to be just about testimonies of the last-remaining partition survivors,” says the Lucknowi photographer. “Today, in Punjab, we see caste discrimination, drug issues and gun violence. But sometime during my research, I realised that all these problems are actually the aftermath of the seeds planted during partition. So, I went back and started searching for those seeds which would depict how, over the years, partition has shaped today’s Punjab.”
Denne historien er fra June 20, 2021-utgaven av THE WEEK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra June 20, 2021-utgaven av THE WEEK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Trump And The Crisis Of Liberalism
Although Donald Trump's election to a non-consecutive second term to the US presidency is not unprecedented—Grover Cleveland had done it in 1893—it is nevertheless a watershed moment.
What Will It Take To Clean Up Delhi Air?
IT IS ASKED, year after year, why Delhi’s air remains unbreathable despite several interventions to reduce pollution.
Men eye the woman's purse
A couple of months ago, I chanced upon a young 20-something man at my gym walking out with a women’s sling bag.
When trees hold hands
A filmmaker explores the human-nature connect through the living root bridges
Ms Gee & Gen Z
The vibrant Anuja Chauhan and her daughter Nayantara on the generational gap in romance writing
Vikram Seth-a suitable man
Our golden boy of literature was the star attraction at the recent Shillong Literary Festival in mysterious Meghalaya.
Superman bites the dust
When my granddaughter Kim was about three, I often took her to play in a nearby park.
OLD MAN AND THE SEA
Meet G. Govinda Menon, the 102-year-old engineer who had a key role in surveying the Vizhinjam coast in the 1940s, assessing its potential for an international port
Managing volatility: smarter equity choices in uncertain markets
THE INDIAN STOCK MARKET has delivered a strong 11 per cent CAGR over the past decade, with positive returns for eight straight years.
Investing in actively managed low-volatility portfolios keeps risks at bay
AFTER A ROARING bull market over the past year, equity markets in the recent months have gone into a correction mode as FIIs go on a selling spree. Volatility has risen and investment returns are hurt.
