Remnants of a Separation (HarperCollins) is an Oral History archive and 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, those objects that were left behind in houses and lastly, those objects that were lost in the midst of the journey of migration. It comprises of primary interviews conducted in both India and Pakistan with members of various religious and ethnic communities.

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.

The book will be published by Harper Collins India in Fall 2017.

Aanchal Malhotra is an artist and oral historian, working with memory and material culture. She was educated in traditional Printmaking and Art History at the Ontario College of Art & Design, Toronto and Concordia University, Montréal, and has exhibited in Canada, United States, UK and India.

She is the co-founder of the Museum of Material Memory, a digital repository of material culture of the Indian subcontinent, tracing family histories and social ethnography through heirlooms, collectibles and objects of antiquity. She can also be found at her photoblog, The Hiatus Project.

She currently lives in New Delhi. Remnants of a Separation is her first book.

http://aanchalmalhotra.com/Remnants-Of-A-Separation-text
http://aanchalmalhotra.com/Remnants-Of-A-Separation-visuals"
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