Healing and Learning: Giving voice to untold stories
Help us tell the incredible untold story of how the Second World War, the Independence Movement and the 1947 Partition impacted us. As a global diaspora, much of our tremendous lived history has been lost and forgotten in the struggle of restarting new lives in new cultures.
Thanks to support from thousands of community sevadars (volunteers) like you, The 1947 Partition Archive has worked tirelessly to preserve first-hand accounts (12,000 and counting) of this critical turning point in South Asian history, when Punjab and Bengal were partitioned between two new countries and changed forever.
Today, we are attempting to learn about this past through a scholarly and critical lens, but at a grassroots level by gathering the untold voices of those who lived it. After fifteen years of conversations, an incredible tapestry of our history is beginning to come to life. It's time to share this story with the world. We are working to create an exhibit, designed through a critical lens, that will travel through America. The exhibit will travel through museums and community venues, including gurdwaras, starting in California.
With your help we will launch a beautifully crafted exhibition tour across North America. We will start initially in major metro areas in the United States, launching in California by August 2025. This Vaisakhi, your Dasvandh will fund the development of the exhibit. Here's our timeline for development:
- April 16th: Pre-development research with professional historians
- June 1st: Curation and exhibit design
- July 15th: Exhibit construction
- August 10th: Exhibit launch in SF Bay Area
- Ongoing: We will continue location specific sponsorship drives, to bring the exhibit to every possible gurdwara
Your donation today is the first step, in helping to create this exhibit and realize this dream. Please join us and help us bring this story to life so that we learn important lessons from it and empower our community members with a deeper knowledge of their ancestors and identity.
Defeating authoritarianism
During World War II, the British Indian Army was amongst the largest in the world. Many of our community elders spend as long as a decade away from home, defeating the scourge of dictatorships, genocidal regimes and authoritarianism. They made a significant contribution to world history. We bring to you their incredible stories.
Remembering Partition: Lives Forever Changed
The dust settles on a chaotic street, where a man leans out of a worn-down vehicle, his eyes searching for something lost. The Partition of 1947 uprooted his world, forcing him to leave behind his home, his land, and the life he once knew. Amidst the bustling roads and the weight of survival, he still carries the echoes of that painful journey. Time has moved on, but for him, the past lingers in every glance, every road, and every fleeting moment of longing.
Generational Trauma, Lingering Emotions
He is a survivor of the 1947 Partition, a time when loved ones were torn apart, and the world around him changed overnight. The silence between his words carries the weight of the pain, the longing, and the resilience of those who lived through it. Behind him, broken walls stand as echoes of the past, whispering stories of a land once united.
This fundraiser will help us support the research, design, curation and physical development of the exhibit, which sevadars will then display at venues including Gurdwaras.
