Material Memory - Series 1

Part 1 - Refrigerator Magnets and Memory 

Refrigerator magnets are popular souvenir and collectable objects. They carry the memories of the places that people have visited. There are also other memorabilia which people collect like T-shirts, mini-Taj Mahal etc. Travellers often take these material objects and proudly display them on their refrigerators. It is like a taking piece of the land that they have visited. The New Indian Express published an article recently about an artist who has started turning memories into clay art. Based in Thiruvanthapuram, Rithu Kurup began this project during the lockdown days to keep herself engaged. What she does is creating miniature versions of memory as a fridge magnet or tabletop decor. 

Part 2 - Material Memory Museum

Museum of Material Memory is a digital repository of the material culture of the Indian sub-continent. The project aims to trace family histories and social ethnography through heirlooms, collectables and objects of antiquity. The project aims to unfold generational narratives about objects. The project was co-founded in 2017 by Aanchal Malhotra and Navdha Malhotra. The former is an artist and oral historian who works with memory and material culture. Her book 'Remnants of a Separation - History of the Partition through Material Memory [ 2017) is a wonderful collection of interviews and oral testimonies based on the Partition of 1947.  Access more details about the project — http://www.museumofmaterialmemory.com/

Part 3 - Gandhiji's Pen, Chekutty Doll 

While working in the Kingdom of Bahrain, we used to make regular trips to Virgin Mega Store inside the City Center Mall. One day we were eye-shopping, we came across this pen, It was a pen with Gandhiji's figurine attached to it. There was a sense of wonderment to see an object which carried the heaviness of the Indian cultural memory. There was an instant connection with our land and home. We also realised how universal is Gandhi and his life. While working abroad ( Libya, Oman and Bahrain) the locals identify the Indianess in us by talking about Big B, SRK and Gandhiji. In 2016, while travelling through all the major cities of Rajasthan ( from Jaipur to Bikaner) we came across this puppet/doll in a roadside Dhaba. It was left dangling from a nail on a window frame. The doll had a worn outlook and it was gathering dust. Puppetry is a major art form in Rajasthan. The traditional marionettes of Rajasthan are known as Kathputli. Stories from mythology and legends are told through puppets in Rajasthan. The other states of India where puppetry is famous are Orissa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. These dolls are also part of the collective memory of these states transmitting the rich tradition of oral history and folklore. 

Chekutty Doll is part of the public memory of Kerala. An article appeared in The NewsMinute news portal which was written by Korah Abraham. The details posted here are from this article which is titled ‘ Chekutty Dolls: How Kerala got its new symbol of hope - A project by social entrepreneurs Lakshmi Menon and Gopinath Parayil. Chekutty is a doll up-cycled from the Chendamagalam handloom sarees that were destroyed during the Kerala floods. Chekutty is a handmade doll and it has become a symbol of hope to almost 600 weavers. It is also known as the Chendamagalam Kutty. If you visit the website - www. chekutty.in, you can read the following lines. ‘Chekutty has scars, Chekutty has stains; but Chekutty represents each of us who survived the floods’ Apart from supporting a weaving community financially, the Chekutty project is a significant area in the public memory of Kerala during the 2018 Kerala floods. One of the rare cases where Memory Studies talks about hope and resilience instead of trauma and silence. 

Part 4 - 'Remnants of Separation' by Aanchal Malhotra 

 Preface to the Paperback Edition 

The preface is written by the author Aanchal Malhotra, and it discusses the following ideas, How was the research for the book done? The reasons behind writing this book. The journey or the revisitation to get the signature of the interviewees. The research is centred around the objects or things that people carried across the border. The author interviewed men and women who were directly or indirectly affected by the Partition of the Indian subcontinent. The technical and historical name for the line that separated India and Pakistan is known as the Radcliffe Line. Aanchal Malhotra was very persistent in her research, and it involved years of study. She continues with her research into the 'unknown' and 'unspeakable' zones of 'migratory memory' and its consequences. One object that Aanchal mentions in the book is a sword from Rawalpindi, which was carried to Mirpur. 

Another object or thing is a Karachi Club membership card that was issued before the Partition. Aanchal believes that there is 'a need to talk about what happened. Even though we have a massive volume of information available on Partition, there is still 'much we do not know'. The stories that are part of the book are all 'stories of courage'. Most of the men and women spent years in silence, unable to relive the trauma of the Partition. The third generation has inherited the fragmented stories and memories of the event. Aanchal quotes the author Raghu Karnad who said that people die two times. The first is at the end of their lives, and the second is when people who remember them are all gone. This work has helped to immortalise the memories of the people who got 'scattered like leaves due to partition.' Schindler's List ends with the survivors and the actors who portrayed them visiting Schindler's grave and placing stones on it, which is a traditional Jewish sign of respecting the dead. Aanchal Malhotra, after the release of the book, visited all the men and women whom she interviewed, asking them to sign on the page where their story appears in the book. This is a fitting tribute to the 'Partitioned generation' and their memories. 

Archives and the Great Divide - Review of the Foreword 

Prof. Rudrangshu Mukherjee writes the Foreword for Aanchal Malhotra's The Remnants of Partition. He talks about the creation of an archive that is based on memory, stories, the violence of lost friends and relatives. It is an archive that is about lives lived and lost. All these together becomes the stuff of 'remembrance of things past'. 'Separation' and 'Uprooting' seems to be the two words that figure in the discussion on Partition. There are two types of archival documents. The first one is the well-known and the well-mined one and mainly include the official written documents prepared for the Partition. The second type of archive is based on the narrative to understand how the Partition and Independence happened together. These archival documents do not touch the lives of millions of women and men directly involved in the Great Divide—the stories from a population that moved. Memories, possessions also moved along with this movement of the people. Many of the displaced people were unable or unwilling to speak. According to Prof.Rudrangshu, even silence can be the material for history. The objects that were brought from the 'other side, too, were silent. Some of the pertinent questions asked in this book are; What objects do people take when they leave? How do they differentiate between what is valuable and what is essential? Most of the time, people carried memories 'too heavy to be borne.' Aanchal Malhotra's book is about loss, about memories, but also hope. 

Part 5 - Kindi – An emblem of Material Memory 

Material Memory Kindi is used to keep water at the entrance of the house, so that visitors can wash their feet with this water, and also to wash hands after meals. It is normally kept outside the home and it is used for ablutions before entering a home. It is also given to new brides at the time of their marriage as a gift. It is known as a unique artefact from Kerala. This is almost the North Indian equivalent of a 'lota' which is used in Bengal, Pakistan for cleansing purposes and religious ablutions. These days 'kindi' is used as a showpiece and is exported to the US and European countries as a symbol of nostalgia. The diasporic communities use it as a mnemonic reminder of their 'real or original homes'. It is also part of the nostalgia and the trip down memory lane. Today, it has become a collector's item. Kindi also has become a derogatory word especially after it was represented in the movie Manichitrathazhu. The movie is regarded as a milestone in Malayalam cinema which led to many remakes in more than 5 languages in India. The movie, however, gave 'kindi' a bad reputation. This note is inspired by the research in memory studies done by Aanchal Malhotra which is published in her book Remnants of Separation' The book traces the histories of the 'objects' (household items) carried across the border during the Partition of 1947. The objects are regarded as physical evidence into the inner recess of one of the darkest times in human history. According to Aanchal Malhotra, 'the material memory remains an incredibly important way of understanding personal and collective histories'