Sudha Bhattacharya is archiving the Partition stories her parents rarely told

Sudha Bhattacharya’s parents locked their home in Dera Ghazi Khan in May 1947 and moved to Delhi with their family. Born in Delhi to refugee parents, the 74-year-old is now archiving memories they rarely spoke about for her children.

At a Partition Horrors Remembrance Day gathering on August 14, the Partition Museum and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts brought together personal accounts of displacement, violence, loss and rebuilding. The museum’s seven galleries trace the period from resistance to British rule through to the aftermath of Partition; its final Gallery of Hope and Courage focuses on how survivors rebuilt their lives.

Kishwar Desai, founder and chair of the Partition Museum, said the museum was designed to leave visitors with one thought: “This must never happen again.” Sachchidanand Joshi of IGNCA said preserving firsthand testimony has become urgent as those who lived through 1947 grow older.

In a message to the gathering, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu said the rehabilitation of displaced families helped shape Lajpat Nagar, Punjabi Bagh and Model Town, while Khan Market also has roots in that resettlement. Delhi’s earlier museum gathering likewise centred survivors’ accounts of a city remade by migration.