Partition survivors reveal mementos and memories from a united India

05 September 2015
Prized possessions: Basra Pearls given to a young girl in Rajasthan, taken back to her hometown of Jalandhar, and carried across the border to Lahore.
AANCHAL MALHOTRA
Prized possessions: Basra Pearls given to a young girl in Rajasthan, taken back to her hometown of Jalandhar, and carried across the border to Lahore.
AANCHAL MALHOTRA

In October 2013, Aanchal Malhotra visited the home of her maternal grandfather in north Delhi’s Roop Nagar. She was accompanying photographer Mayank Austen Soofi, who was going to the house for a project he was working on. Malhotra, an artist who was living in Montreal and pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) from Concordia University at that time, had come to Delhi on a break.

In 1947 Lahore, there lived a money-lender. During the Partition, along with grabbing a few valuables left by other people in her care, she also took these tailoring scissors.. AANCHAL MALHOTRA In 1947 Lahore, there lived a money-lender. During the Partition, along with grabbing a few valuables left by other people in her care, she also took these tailoring scissors.. AANCHAL MALHOTRA
In 1947 Lahore, there lived a money-lender. During the Partition, along with grabbing a few valuables left by other people in her care, she also took these tailoring scissors.
AANCHAL MALHOTRA

The bungalow she and Soofi were going to visit, called Vij Bhawan, was where Malhotra’s mother had grown up. It had housed nearly three generations of a largely joint family and was built in 1955 by Chunni Lal Vij, the family patriarch who co-owned a jewelry business in Chandni Chowk. The house left Malhotra with the distinct impression that “everything had remained the same since its original construction.” She and Soofi spent several hours with her grandfather, Vishwa Nath Vij, and his brother, Yash Pal Vij, talking, about the architecture of the building and unravelling the history that surrounded it.

Sukruti Anah Staneley is the creative director at The Caravan. 

Keywords: Partition Indepedence memory 1947 Aanchal Malhotra photographs
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