Blog

5 August 2019 The COUNTDOWN to our event this month has begun! Post 1 – Stating today, we will feature the filmmakers and/or the films that we will be showcasing as part of our Partition Commemoration from 16-19 Aug at Jadunath Bhavan. We start with our Guests of honour from Bangladesh – Tanvir Mokammel & Akram Khan. The Partition has featured prominently in Tanvir Mokammel‘s work. This comprehensive interview in ‘The Daily Star’ gives us a very good insight into all aspects of that artistic preoccupation….Continue Reading “Countdown to the Film Fest in August 2019”

~ Review by Rituparna Roy; originally published in The Wire ~ Speaking to our times: “Our focus on Muslim migration is deliberate. It addresses a glaring lacuna in Partition Studies, of course. But it also challenges essentialized accounts of ‘Muslim identity’ in a global climate of Islamophobia” – so declare the authors Joya Chatterjee, Claire Alexander and Annu Jalais in the ‘Introduction’ to their book The Bengal Diaspora. It’s rare to find an academic book that not only stretches disciplinay boundaries (here, history has been…Continue Reading “The Bengal Diaspora: Rethinking Muslim Migration”

Humayun Kabir

Humayun Kabir (Bengali: হুমায়ুন কবির) was a Bengali politician and writer. Kabir was born on 22 February 1906 in Komarpur village near district town of Faridpur District currently in Bangladesh. His father, Khan Bahadur Kabiruddin Ahmed, was a Deputy Magistrate in Bengal. He came first, with star marks, in his matriculation examination in 1922. He was educated at Presidency College, Calcutta, completing his Intermediate in Arts (I.A.) in English with first class third, and Calcutta University, where he completed his B.A. (Honours) and M.A. in…Continue Reading “Humayun Kabir”

KPMP-Logo-Blog-Post-Featured-Image.

It was convenient that I was to create both the KPMP website and the logo – it is usually simpler to insert an additional element of design into one’s own creation. In case of this particular project, while I did have a free hand, it was (not unpleasantly) bound by extremely specific instructions, likes, and dislikes from and of the only person I coordinated with: Dr. Rituparna Roy, the Managing Trustee of the Kolkata Partition Museum Trust. She spoke to me on behalf of the…Continue Reading “The KPMP Logo: Concept~Visualization~Actualization”

From Keeper of Stories to Collector of Objects: My Journey with the Partition

Growing up in a traditional, middle-class Bengali household, I was introduced to the spectre of 1947 Partition by Ma. Once done with her household duties, she found her retreat in books that she discerningly read in Baba’s study. With impish delight, I would take the opportunity to play around our home, avoiding Ma’s careful eyes. However, mostly, I also saw her reading to understand how books were an integral part of our family for both Ma and Baba. I vividly remember one afternoon, when after…Continue Reading “From Keeper of Stories to Collector of Objects: My Journey with the Partition”