Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition of India through Material Memory

Remnants of a Separation is a work of narrative non-fiction focusing on material memory. It is the first and only material study of the Partition of India, taking into consideration those objects that refugees brought with them when they migrated across the border.

The essence of the research is this: What do you bring with you when you don’t know whether you will ever return to your home? Do you take what is valuable, or do you grab what you can as you leave in haste? These objects tell stories of families, they speak of society, of love, of relationships, of loss and displacement and a yearning for a home that now exists on the other side of an unnatural border. It attempts to understand the intangible through physical, tangible means, to explore belonging through belongings. And most importantly, it draws on the malleability of both personal and collective memories of those who witnessed the Partition. Written as a crossover between narrative non-fiction, history, anthropology, material culture, and travelogue, it uses the object or the possession as a catalyst to understand the experiences of migration and piece together an alternative history of the time.