Counter-Cartographies of Partition Memory
Recovery, Displacement and Digital Public History
Drawing on archives, feminist historiography, survivor memoirs, literary representations, and digital humanities, the project interrogates how the 1947 Partition has been remembered, regulated, and spatially narrated by the state and by those whose lives were displaced
Who owns the memory of Partition, and how can public history recover experiences that official archives have silenced without reproducing the same forms of coercion, simplification, and erasure?
This story matters because Partition memory is still shaped disproportionately by national and official frameworks that can obscure the agency, trauma, and unresolved experiences of those most affected by displacement. By foregrounding abducted women, displaced communities, and the underexamined refugee geographies of central India, the project reveals that even purported acts of humanitarian recovery could reproduce displacement. Its digital-history dimension is equally important because emerging technologies can either flatten difficult histories into consumable narratives or create more critical, participatory spaces in which ambiguity, silence, and competing memories remain visible.
Mapping policies of recovery
Rudransh Kantharia examines the aftermath of the 1947 Partition of India, focusing on women’s experiences of abduction, recovery, displacement and state intervention. The project uses digital visualisation to question how official categories define what counts as return or restoration.
Women’s lives beyond administrative categories
Research on the Abducted Persons (Recovery and Restoration) Act, 1949, alongside feminist and oral-history scholarship, shows how official recovery programmes intersected with personal autonomy, family ties and the aftermath of violence.
A counter-cartography of memory
By bringing scholarship into a public-facing visual presentation, the work challenges maps that treat borders and population movements as sufficient explanations for people’s experiences.
Explore the interactive project
The original work is hosted on its creator’s platform.
Explore the Prezi projectSources & Credits
Original project references, visual sources and creator credits are collected here in one place.
- Creator & project
Rudransh Kantharia. Interactive Prezi presentation. Who Owns Memory? Digital Public Exhibition, First Cycle 2026.
(1) Inter-Dominion Conference, Lahore, 6 December 1947 (and the resulting India–Pakistan arrangements concerning the recovery and restoration of abducted persons)
(2) Government of India, The Abducted Persons (Recovery and Restoration) Act, 1949 (Act No. 65 of 1949)
(3) The State of Punjab v. Ajaib Singh and Another, Criminal Appeal No. 82 of 1952, Supreme Court of India, judgment dated 10 November 1952, reported as AIR 1953 SC 10; 1953 SCR 254
(4) Rameshwari Nehru, “Memorandum on Recovery of Women” (20 June 1949), Rameshwari Nehru Papers, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi.
(5) Patel, Kamla. Torn from the Roots: A Partition Memoir. Translated by Uma Randeria. Women Unlimited, 2006.
(6) Castaing, Anne, and Sarah Chave. "In History’s shade." Clio. Women, Gender, History 53 (2021): 189-202.
(7) Kidwai, Anis. In freedom’s shade. Penguin UK, 2011.
(8) Butalia, Urvashi. The other side of silence: Voices from the partition of India. Penguin UK, 2017.
- Visual and media material
Photographs, documents, illustrations, video and audio are attributed through the project text, captions and contributor documentation wherever that information was supplied. This exhibition page does not grant additional reuse permissions.
- Digital exhibition edition
Web presentation adapted for Who Owns Memory? (2026), with layout and language editing. The original contributors retain authorship of their research, interpretation and creative work.