![]() This rush led to even more chaos.Ĭyril Radcliffe, a British judge assigned to draw the borders of the two new states, was given barely forty days to remake the map of South Asia. In early June, India’s last Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten stunned everyone by announcing August 15, 1947, as the date for the transfer of power-ten months earlier than expected. Paritosh Sen was born in Dhaka and after the Partition, moved to Calcutta. Paritosh Sen was among the founding members. Six among them formed the Calcutta Group. They felt the need to develop a visual language that would express the anguish, suffering and crisis of urban society. The British began to speed up their exit strategy and on the afternoon of February 20, 1947, Attlee, announced that British rule would end on “a date not later than June, 1948.” Struck by poverty, famine and the ravages of war, a group of artists of the time rejected the lyricism and romanticism of the Bengal School of Art that depicted “beauty” in all forms. “I want that those who stand as an obstacle in our way should go their own way.” As riots spread to other cities and the number of casualties escalated, the leaders of the Congress Party, who had initially opposed Partition, began to see it as the only way to ‘ rid themselves of Jinnah and the Muslim League‘. The first series of widespread religious massacres took place in Calcutta, in 1946. His award winning “Falling Series” was inspired by this childhood memory. Witnessing this, a young Tyeb fell ill and continued to be haunted by what he had seen. A mob had gathered around a young man and smashed his head – because he was Muslim. When Tyeb was a child, he saw a man getting slaughtered on the streets just below his house. They reflect the death and dislocation that followed the Partition in 1947. Tyeb Mehta’s paintings are filled with images of violent separation, falling figures and fractured forms. Tensions were often heightened by local and regional political leaders. People moved away from, or were forced out of, mixed neighborhoods and took refuge in increasingly polarized ghettos. In the backdrop of the Quit India Movement and the Civil Disobedience, the tension between Jinnah, Nehru and Gandhi reached its height. Communal Violence on the streets began to escalate. Painted by Pran Nath Mago, who was also an Art Critic and Art Historian from Lahore. 1945, the last phase of the Second World War saw many more young recruits from Punjab. What form of government is to replace the present regime is for India to decide but our desire is to help her to set up forthwith the machinery for making that decision. My colleagues are going to India with the intention of using their utmost endeavours to help her to attain her freedom as speedily and fully as possible. British Prime Minister Clement Attlee described its mission in ambitious terms: A Cabinet Mission was dispatched to India in early 1946. Pin It for Laterīy the end of the War, Britain’s place in the world had changed dramatically and the demand for India’s Independence could no longer be ignored. Britain’s devastated economy could not cope with the cost of ruling the over-extended empire. So here are 10 artworks (interspersed with artist-experiences) that narrate the story of our divide impartially & capture the ongoing legacy of loss, desperation and separation. ![]() I realise that we in India and Pakistan grow up with different textbooks that give us different historical perspectives. Overwhelmed by the hospitality of our Lahori-friends, the only question I pondered over the years was – was the Partition truly inevitable? Performing Toba Tek Singh had not taught us what our friend’s experience did. Right from finding the house to meeting the new occupants and finally realizing nothing had changed in the house, emotions ran high and my friend couldn’t find a way to control her tears. In the week that we spent across the border, we gathered many memories and in particular an emotional visit by a dear friend to her Nana’s home is what stayed with us. A decade ago, a group of us girls having staged our first play ‘Toba Tek Singh’ found ourselves excited at an invite extended to us by the Government College, Lahore.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |