The Partition Museum in Delhi, inaugurated its ‘The Lost Homeland of Sindh’ gallery which portrays the journeys of Sindhi refugees.
‘The Lost Homeland of Sindh’ pays homage to the resilient but, above all, enterprising forefathers and mothers who lost everything in the 1947 Partition and rebuilt their lives in new lands across the world, relying on their wits, skills, and business acumen.
Weaving architecture, crafts, memorabilia, and oral history with archival material and contemporary art, the gallery provides a living discourse of a displaced culture, which went on to integrate and thrive in its new avatar across the globe.
The gallery was inaugurated on October 5, at the Partition Museum, Dara Shikoh Library Building, Ambedkar University, Lothian Road, Delhi.
This gallery was made possible by the Embassy Group, The Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust (TAACHT), which set up the Partition Museum, and The Sindhi Culture Foundation.h
The gallery was inaugurated in the presence of Lady Kishwar Desai, Founder, Partition Museum and Chair of The Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust (TAACHT); Jitu Virwani, Chairman & Managing Director, Embassy Group; Aruna Madnani, Founder – Managing Trustee, Sindhi Culture Foundation and Gallery Curator and Pratibha Advani, Media Personality. Guest of Honour Meenakshi Lekhi, Former Minister of State, also joined the festivities.
‘The Lost Homeland of Sindh’ offers itself as a bridge between generations — a memorial to those who have remained connected to their roots and an invitation to the ones who yearn to discover or revisit them.
“This is an attempt to share the tangible and intangible heritage, the trials and triumphs of the displaced Sindhi community,” said Aruna Madnani, Founder, Managing Trustee, Sindhi Culture Foundation and Gallery Curator, “while offering the younger generation a way to connect and interact with their roots.”
Visitors are welcomed into The Lost Homeland of Sindh by a map of the River Indus, the heart of the Sindhi community, guiding them through vintage portals into a meticulously reconstructed Sindhi haveli. This space, built from the remnants of displaced heritage, showcases artifacts donated by former refugees.
A highlight is the Ulhasnagar Matrix, which portrays the journeys of Sindhi refugees post-Partition through LED profiles, electronics, and handwritten text, created by CAMP and collaborators.
The gallery is located within the Partition Museum at the Dara Shikoh Library in old Delhi.
Focussing on the national movement leading up to Independence and Partition, the mass migration of 20 million refugees, and the subsequent stories of survival and rehabilitation, each gallery in the Partition Museum features a collection of people’s oral histories, objects, and archival material.