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In the news -- Highlights
August 18, 2017 | Dawn -- Karachi
Online: Time to heal
August 13, 2017 | NPR News -- Washington
Online: Giving Voice to Memories From 1947 Partition And The Birth of India and Pakistan
August 8, 2017 | BBC -- London
Online: Collecting ‘difficult memories’ from the birth of two nations
August 14, 2013 | The New York Times -- New York, NY
Potent Memories From a Divided India
August 7, 2017 | The Tribune -- Chandigarh
Online: Largest collection of Partition witness accounts set for release
August 7, 2017 | The Times of India -- Delhi
Online: Notes From The Great Divide: Witnesses of Partition unite to tell tales of pain and separation
April 24, 2017 | Dawn.com -- Karachi
Online: Partition Stories, from those who witnessed it
August 6, 2017 | Mumbai Mirror -- Mumbai
Online: Revisiting Partition: 70 Years On, Mumbaikars Come Together To Reflect On The Past
August 17, 2016 | The Nation -- Lahore
August 14, 2016 | The Times of India -- Mumbai
August 12, 2015 | Al Jazeera - Doha, Qatar
August 18, 2014 | Huffington Post -- New York
Online: Recording History: The 1947 Partition Archive
August 12, 2014 | The Wall Street Journal -- Delhi
Online: Oral History Project Races to Record Voices of Partition Survivors in India and Pakistan
February 2, 2014 | Hindustan Times -- Delhi, India
Online: History in the Making
Print: History in the Making
The 1947 Partition Archive
A global digital museum for everyone.
ABOUT THE 1947 PARTITION ARCHIVE:
We at The 1947 Partition Archive are dedicated to documenting the people's history of the 1947 India-Pakistan Partition. Our flagship oral history project has helped preserve over 9,000 memories of Partition witnesses. Oral histories in the archive are widely distributed on social media and to universities across the world for access to researchers. Our work is not purely academic but is public history with humanitarian undertones. We are devoting our lives to serving witnesses and to creating a more empathetic world.
We democratize historical documentation - We are a modern digital archive that is dedicated to documenting everyone's history. We continuously innovate techiques in crowdsourcing and other non-traditional methods that allow us to reach all segments of society, including those that are often 'left out' and don't fall under the radar of conventional studies. We empower people to document their own histories. You can think of The 1947 Partition Archive as a global digital museum accessible to everyone, everywhere, and built by everyone, everywhere.
Preserving memories of Partition via CROWDSOURCING: The 1947 Partition Archive, "The Archive" has been preserving oral histories of Partition witnesses since 2010 through a combined program that includes an innovative technique for crowdsourcing by Citizen Historians, as well as collection by trained scholars. Over 9,000 oral histories have been preserved on digital video, making The Archive the largest documentation effort focused on Partition. Oral histories have been recorded from 450+ cities in 12 countries across the world. A tiny staff supported by interns work tirelessly behind the scenes to support the 110+ Story Scholars who are and have contributed oral histories, and over 600 Citizen Historian volunteers who have devoted an estimated 100,000 hours in volunteer labor towards recording stories. In addition to oral histories, The Archive also digitizes and preserves antiquated and current photographs of significance, family portraits, as well as objects of significance from the time of Partition. Over 60,000 photographs are preserved in this manner.
Public education on Partition: Over 1,000,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter have shared witness stories - posted twice daily - 10's of millions of times, resulting in many reunions of old families and friends. The 1947 Partition Archive's effort to bring lived memories to the public also include hosting "Voices of Partition," witness storytelling events across the world, as well as curating audio visual traveling exhibits that bring stories to art and culture spaces.
Turning the tide on public acceptance: The sharing of lived memories over social media, millions of time,s has helped create a "critical mass" acknowledgement of the human suffering that resulted from Partition. As a result, we are watching a change in tide of public constiousness. We are watching as memories of Partition are becoming accepted in the mainstream and drawning attention from popular film makers, media makers, news organizations and educators. An honest look at our past, with scrutiny will help us move toward a more just future.
How you can help: The Archive is truly a labor of love, built for people, by people from diverse backgrounds. You too can join us. Learn how to record and share a story from your community now! Or support another story through your donation.
ORAL HISTORIES GO PUBLIC!
Online access to oral histories in The 1947 Partition Archive has begun via the Stanford University Digital Repository!
The 1947 Partition Archive is excited to partner with a consortium of universities to make the complete oral history collection available and accessible to the public. Fifty (50) oral history interviews from The 1947 Partition Archive's complete collection are now accessible via online streaming from Stanford University Library's Digital Repository at this Spotlight Exhibition. The complete collection will be released as funding becomes available. Please contact us if you would like to donate to this effort.
Physical exhibits containing the complete works of The 1947 Partition Archive, with 9,000 oral history interivews and 60,000 digital documents, will be coming soon to Lahore University of Management Sciences, Ashoka Unviersity, University of Delhi, Guru Nanak Dev University and Habib University. Read the complete coverage here: The New Indian Express, The Tribune India, Dawn.com, Business Standard (IANS), Financial Times (IANS), Times of India (IANS), The Wire (IANS), The Week (IANS)
Video: Ali Shan migrated from East to West Punjab (full interview coming soon)
Video: Kazi Shamsuzzaman migrated from West to East Bengal (full interview coming soon).
Video: Ajit Cour migrated from West to East Punjab (full interview coming soon).