Preserving Stories of Partition

As we mark Pakistan and India’s Independence Days, a group called  The 1947 Partition Archive expands its mission to collect oral histories of Partition. While there is no accurate count of lives lost at this tumultuous time, estimates are that up to 2 million died on both sides of the border and over 10 million people were uprooted. Guneeta Singh Balla began the archive two years ago to document the stories shaped by Partition in order to preserve the last remaining memories before they were forever lost. Ms. Bhalla shared her impetus for the project with The New York Times. Her late grandmother’s harrowing story of fleeing Lahore for Amritsar with three young children spurred her to document other stories by survivors and families. She and dozens of volunteers have video-recorded 647 oral histories from more than seven countries and stored them digitally.

Posted: August 14th, 2013