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SUMMARY:Border crossings - mapping UK discussions about partition at the 7
 5th anniversary of 1947 - Eleanor Newbigin (SOAS\, University of London) 
DTSTART:20230601T160000Z
DTEND:20230601T170000Z
UID:TALK199399@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr AM Price
DESCRIPTION:Recent years have seen significant public engagement in the UK
  with the history of the partition of British India. In 2017\, a campaign 
 was started to introduce a national day to commemorate the partition in th
 e UK\, as well as to include this history as a compulsory element of the B
 ritish national curriculum. But how is 1947 and its legacy viewed and unde
 rstood by diaspora South Asians and wider sections of British society? \n\
 nSince July 2022\, I have been working as part of the research team on Bor
 der Crossings\, a project to examine memories and public narratives of the
  partition of 1947 amongst the UK South Asia diaspora at the current momen
 t. Through surveys\, interviews and participatory workshops we have been e
 xploring how 1947 is being memorialised\, with a focus on changes or shift
 s across generations of the South Asian diaspora\, and amongst non-South A
 sian Britons. Through a multidisciplinary approach\, focused on gender\, b
 orders\, the partition\, and religious identities in South Asia\, the proj
 ect considers how historically embedded logics of religious difference\, l
 ogics that are heavily grounded in memories and public narratives of the p
 artition of 1947\, are experienced\, navigated and even challenged by dias
 pora communities in the UK. The project looks at how people are using digi
 tal technology\, virtual reality and gaming tools to creatively engage wit
 h this history\, and how this is opening up new ways of thinking about 194
 7 and its legacies. \n\nI will use this talk to discuss the project and sh
 are some of our findings. In particular I will examine how understandings 
 of partition vary across generations and communities\, as well as how thes
 e acts of remembrance and personal accounts of partition complicate and ev
 en challenge the historical narratives that are more dominant in the subco
 ntinent. Through this material\, I hope to reflect on what contemporary di
 scussions of partition in the UK can tell us about the potential\, and pit
 falls\, of public movements to think critically about empire and its legac
 ies at this present global juncture.
LOCATION:Long Room\, Gonville and Caius College (central site off Trinity 
 Street)
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