MANISHA GERA BASWANI: POSTCARDS FROM HOME

MANISHA GERA BASWANI

POSTCARDS FROM HOME

1947 and the partition of India

MANISHA GERA BASWANI

POSTCARDS FROM HOME

1947 and the partition of India

14 May 2022 – 12 Mar 2023

Gallery 29

Admission FREE

New Delhi-based artist Manisha Gera Baswani is a multidisciplinary artist who weaves expressions of painting, photography, sculpture, and writing in her work.

Her exhibition, Postcards from Home, marked the 75th anniversary of India’s partition. It featured postcards of 47 artists from India and Pakistan, all with a shared history of the partition of India in 1947.

Each postcard carried an image of a contemporary artist photographed by Baswani, while the reverse of the card carried a poignant memory of that artist reminiscing the ‘home’ lost.

The installation invited the audience to visual and textual frames of nostalgia, to revive a shared connection of a common history, with the South Asian diaspora that arrived in Britain before, during, and after 1947.

A montage showing all 47 postcards on display in the 'Postcards from Home' exhibition

All 47 postcards in the 'Postcards from Home' exhibition. Images © Manisha Gera Baswani

Manisha Gera Baswani was born in 1967 in India to parents of pre-partition India. Her childhood was embellished with stories of her parents reminiscing, with nostalgia and pain, their ‘home‘ in present day Pakistan. Forced to flee overnight, they left everything, including deep friendships nurtured through generations, never to return. This exhibition was Baswani’s homage to her parents’ memories of ‘home’.

Images all © Manisha Gera Baswani

Artist Amin Gulgee photographed by Manisha Gera Baswani

Amin Gulgee, on his terrace studio, Karachi 2015

'My mother, Zaro Maladwala, was from Bombay and she took me there a few times when I was a child. What I found intriguing and magical was that my aunt would elegantly walk to work in a sari with an umbrella over her head, shielding her from the sun.'

Bharti Kher at her studio, Gugaon 2012

'When I went to Pakistan to teach in 2002, my friend Rashid took me to Kasur where my mother, SarojKapahi was born. We managed to find the family house and I was surprised we found it. I remember it was a beautiful bright day. Several families now lived in the house, which still had the Hindu ‘Om’ sign on the outside.'

Meher Afroz at her studio, Karachi 2015

'In accordance with my wishes, my father, Syed Farzand Husain, took me with him for the first time in a tonga, to admit me to the arts college in Lucknow. Halfway during our journey, we were engulfed in heavy rainfall. And as soon as the tonga reached the Dali Gunj bridge that crossed the Gomti river, I could see the magical view of the rising minarets and the domes of historical buildings in the pouring rain. I was mesmerised.'

Gopi Gajwani at his solo exhibition, New Dehi 2017

'Looking back almost seventy years, at the pages of faded memory, is like reopening a healed wound. I was born in Rohri, a small town, now in Pakistan. I remember, as a small kid, jumping and rolling with friends on dusty, powdered, narrow lanes. The town was known for its numerous Sufi peers and faqirs..'

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Sheila Makhijani, in front of her solo exhibition, Talwar Gallery, New Delhi 2013

'What always stayed in my mind is how my great grandfather, Wadhumal Jagtiani, stayed on in Hyderabad, Sindh, after Partition to send my grandfather Jagatrai Hemandas Gidwani’s most prized possession — his books!'

Anjum Singh at her solo exhibition, Vadehra Gallery, New Delhi 2009

'I have grown up with stories of Partition from my parents and stories of pre-Partition Pakistan from my father, Paramjit Singh. His eyes still light up when he speaks of his 'nanka' in Lahore. My 'dadi' belonged to a jeweller’s family from Lahore. Although she sold a lot of her jewellery so that my father could go to art school, I am lucky to have two beautiful pieces.'

Nilima Sheikh at her solo exhibition, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi 2011

'My maternal grandparents lived in Burnley in the north of England where my grandfather, Naunidh Rai Dharamvir, was a practising doctor. Their home was often a resting point for visiting nationalist Congress leaders and they were increasingly drawn into the fervour of nationalist aspirations. They were persuaded by Lala Lajpat Rai, who had just lost his mother to tuberculosis which was rampant in South Asia, to come and set up a hospital in Lahore. So they went to start afresh in Lahore.'

Ahmed Khan at his studio, Lahore 2015

'I was born in Shahjahanpur in 1931. As a child, I used to draw and write on the walls of my house. I can still relive the taste of poori-halwa my dear friend, Naval Kishore’s mother used to make for me.'

Nalini Malani, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi 2014

'Dearest Nalini, Your friend, the artist Manisha, has very kindly sent this portrait of you taken at age sixty-nine. t’s 69 years since we left what we called home. At that time I wondered what it would be like to live on this side. My language was alien here as was the food we cooked. In some parts of India, we Sindhis were even called half-Muslim.'

Anjana Mehra, Jaisalmer 2007

.'My father Durga Saran Mehra was from Lahore. He belonged to a very wealthy family. They owned a 100-room bungalow, with a garden so huge that it is now used as a public garden.'

Mohammad Zeeshan at his solo exhibition, Gallery 28, New Delhi 2014

'Our father’s older brother, Muhammad Shafi, worked in the military and convinced the family to take the train from their home in Revari, which would be followed by a military convoy. That way, he ensured that all family members would reach Pakistan safely.'

Salima Hasmi, en route to Lahore, 2015

'I have vivid memories of playing in Lodhi gardens — I was just four years old and my baby sister was in her pram. In a fit of sibling jealousy, I pushed her pram down the slope of the little bridge in the gardens — my fear and remorse at what I had done remained with me all the years when Delhi became a remote place never to be seen again — until I brought my own children back to the city where I had been born and stood with them on the little bridge in Lodhi gardens in memory of a childhood left behind.'