The coronavirus pandemic gave 1947 Partition Archive an unlikely shot in the arm — a series with speakers from both sides of the border

A majority of the speakers who have featured in 1947 Partition Archive’s new series come from families of Partition migrants and have enduring cross-border stories of love and friendship to share. “In mainstream politics and pop culture, Partition is often used as a test of someone’s nationality and allegiance,” says Bhalla, whose Archive has documented almost 10,000 stories since its inception in 2010. One of the purposes of the series is to bring forth this truth.” In the past seven episodes – recordings of which can be accessed on the Archive’s Facebook page – the speakers have included author Urvashi Butalia, whose book The Other Side of Silence is one of the first to narrate the oral history of Partition survivors, and Bhai Baldeep Singh, an eminent 13th-generation musician of Gurbani kirtan, who gave profound insights into the syncretic Hindu-Muslim musical traditions of undivided Punjab. Like many other speakers of the show, she talks of how Partition has enabled the “crystallisation of religious identities with nations” which “uproots people from the only home they have ever known.” “Pakistani children often find it hard to believe how Shah Rukh Khan can be Muslim and yet Indian,” says Zakaria while narrating an anecdote from one of her classroom interactions on the show.