Lead Historian: Anindita Ghoshal
Lead Research Associate: Sumallya Mukhopadhyay
The Oral History Project is not only specific to those affected by the Partition in Bengal but also more specifically, to the subaltern population of migrants. The project highlights oral histories of those marginalized voices that were agonized to the utmost and remain in a similar state, as a repercussion of drawing fictional and arbitrary lines on land. A great content team of researchers collected interviews and some Partition scholars have dedicated their personal oral history research for the project. It highlights people’s history of involuntary migration. The project is a citizens’ initiative and places refugees at the center of discourse. The intent is to learn how to learn from the subaltern and create enabling conditions for agency by highlighting their stories. Some of the selected narratives highlight the subaltern experience within the context of contemporary politics protracted from the Bengal Partition.)
For the work of the Oral History Project, apart from the lead historian and six research associates in the V-KPM team, a number of College & University students also helped us with the transcripts. They are: Aisik Maity, Hemantika Chatterjee, Nayanika, Sagnik Bhattacharya, Sankalpa Pattanaik, (Late) Sneha Chatterjee and Soumalya Chatterjee. We are very thankful to them for their support. A special thanks is also due to Sourajit Pramanik for video-editing all the interviews.