Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

In Ruins: Cultural Amnesia at the Aam Khas Bagh

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Partition and the Practice of Memory

Abstract

This chapter is based on a community co-produced heritage exhibition in Punjab which was funded by the British Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The event was designed to highlight the layered and interwoven histories of Sirhind and its twin town, Fatehgarh Sahib. In post-partition Punjab, much of the area’s Islamic built heritage has deteriorated beyond recognition, mirroring the increasingly fragile and fragmentary memories of a pre-partition Sirhind, which was a Muslim-dominated area. The interest and investment in Sikh sights has led to the neglect of Islamic architecture. By discussing the process and politics of staging a public exhibition that attempts to restore to memory the significance of Sirhind’s Islamic past, this chapter works through some of the conditions and complexities of memory and memorialisation in the contemporary Punjabi landscape.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Marianne Hirsch, “The Generation of Postmemory,” Poetics Today 28, no. 1 (2008): 104.

  2. 2.

    Farina Mir, The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2010).

  3. 3.

    For a summary of historical descriptions see, Subhash Parihar, “Historical Mosques of Sirhind,” Islamic Studies 43, no. 3 (Autumn 2004): 481.

  4. 4.

    Subhash Parihar, History and Architectural Remains of Sirhind: The Greatest Mughal City on the Delhi-Lahore Highway (New Delhi: Aryan Books, 2006), 18.

  5. 5.

    Alexander Cunningham, Archaeological Survey of India, vol. 1 (Simla: Government of India Press, 1871), 208–209.

  6. 6.

    Murray’s Handbook to India (London: John Murray), 195b.

  7. 7.

    Manish Chalana, “‘All the World Going and Coming’: The Past and Future of the Grand Trunk Road in Punjab, India,” in Cultural Landscapes of South Asia: Studies in Heritage Conservation and Management, ed. Kapila D. Silva and Amita Sinha, 92–110 (London and New York: Routledge, 2016), 98.

  8. 8.

    Subhash Parihar, Some Aspects of Indo-Islamic Architecture (New Delhi: Shakti Malik, 1999); Parihar, History and Architectural Remains of Sirhind.

  9. 9.

    Parihar, Some Aspects of Indo-Islamic Architecture, 90.

  10. 10.

    For overviews of historical consciousness militancy nationalism see, for example, Hamik Deol, Religion and Nationalism in India: The Case Study of the Punjab (London: Routledge, 2011); Purnima Dhavan, When Sparrows Became Hawks: The Making of the Sikh Warrior Tradition, 1699–1799 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).

  11. 11.

    Amaninder Pal, “The Tale of Closed Doors of Rauza Sharif Shrine,” The Tribune, 28 December 2015, http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/community/the-tale-of-closed-doors-of-rauza-sharif-shrine/176083.html. Accessed 15 May 2017.

  12. 12.

    Ketan Gupta, “3-Day Annual Urs Begins at Sirhind Shrine,” Hindustan Times, 21 December 2014, http://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/3-day-annual-urs-begins-at-sirhind-shrine/story-cdHt9hglyY53U90nnkWO9K.html. Accessed 15 May 2017.

  13. 13.

    Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs: 1469–1838 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004); Tony Ballantyne, Between Colonialism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations in an Imperial World (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006); and Anne Murphy, The Materiality of the Past: History and Representation in Sikh Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).

  14. 14.

    William J. Glover, “Shiny New Buildings, Rebuilding Historic Sikh Gurdwaras in Indian Punjab,” Future Anterior, IX, no. 1 (Summer 2012): 32–47.

  15. 15.

    This analysis took the form of briefings which took place throughout our design process in 2013–14 and combined Rai’s own extensive fieldwork, interviewing local stakeholders, with discussions with state agencies such as Punjab Tourism and national and international heritage agencies such as UNESCO.

  16. 16.

    Critical studies of Punjab and India, especially in the context of colonialism, have proposed a series of models to capture some of the formations underpinning societal structures and individual identity. In her analysis of syncretic practices in nearby Malkerkotla, for example, Anne Bigelow borrows from Glenn Bowmans’ description of “semantically multivocal” places to account for the co-presences of faiths and communities at religious sites: “As interactive nodes between individuals, religions, genders, classes, age groups, and so on, the bodily and discursive practices and experiences at these sites are opportunities for the public performance of community and individual identities characterized by openness and inclusiveness rather than exclusivity and hostility.” Anne Bigelow, Sharing the Sacred: Practicing Pluralism in Muslim North India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 431. For a further discussion see Karenjot Bhangoo Randhawa, Civil Society in Malerkotla, Punjab: Fostering Resilience through Religion (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2012).

  17. 17.

    Sudipta Kaviraj, The Imaginary Institution of India: Politics and Ideas (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 56. See discussion in Dipesh Chakrabarty, “Modernity and Ethnicity in India,” in Multicultural States: Rethinking Difference and Identity, ed. David Bennett (London: Routledge, 1998), 91–110.

  18. 18.

    For an example of how contradictory subject-positions produce effects of “impossibility,” see Gayatri Gopinath, Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005).

  19. 19.

    Andreas Huyssen, Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 84. See also Sarah Dillon, The Palimpsest: Literature, Criticism, Theory (London: Continuum, 2007).

  20. 20.

    Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994), 59. For a discussion of how the palimpsest metaphor is later used to visualise layered cultures/histories in Salman Rushdie’s writing (apparently inspired by Nehru), see Anna Guttman, The Nation of India in Contemporary Indian Literature (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 75–77.

  21. 21.

    Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium Eater and Other Writings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 135–136.

  22. 22.

    Jacques Derrida, Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).

  23. 23.

    The move to considering oral histories has made one of the most significant impacts; see Pippa Virdee, “Remembering Partition: Women, Oral Histories and the Partition of 1947,” Oral History 41, no. 2: 49–62.

  24. 24.

    Ananya Jahanara Kabir, Partition’s Post-Amnesias: 1947, 1971 and Modern South Asia (New Delhi: Women Unlimited, 2013), 49.

  25. 25.

    For some useful contemporary debates about what “counts” as heritage see Yahana Ahmad, “The Scope and Definitions of Heritage: From Tangible to Intangible,” International Journal of Heritage Studies 12, no. 3 (2006): 292–300; Bahar Aykan, “How Participatory Is Participatory Heritage Management? The Politics of Safeguarding the Alevi Semah Ritual as Intangible Heritage,” International Journal of Heritage Management 20 (2013): 381–405.

  26. 26.

    An analogue of this situation, especially in terms of visualising the displacement of a Muslim population and the consequences for built history Querycan be seen in studies of nineteenth-century Greece, where the imperative for Greek nation-building was to return to “ancient” history and civilisation as a way of de-emphasising and erasing an Islamic past. For discussions of this see Artemis Leontis, Topographies of Hellenism: Mapping the Homeland (London: Cornell University Press, 1995); Stathis Gourgouris, Dream Nation: Enlightenment, Colonization, and the Institution of Modern Greece (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996).

  27. 27.

    See Senses of Place: Senses of Time, ed. G.J. Ashworth and B. Graham (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005) and for a useful overview of the use of memory in heritage studies, Sara McDowell, “Heritage Memory and Identity,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity, ed. Brian Graham and Peter Howard (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), 27–54.

  28. 28.

    Simran Chopra and Ioanna Mannoussaki-Adamapoulou assisted in facilitating the workshops and delivering the event in Sirhind, Delhi and London.

  29. 29.

    Part of CRCI’s work involved obtaining protected status for the bridge from the government of Punjab; this was eventually awarded in 2016.

  30. 30.

    This is not representative of the entire year; there are pilgrims who visit in organised tours, although these are infrequent.

  31. 31.

    While oral histories have been significant in Partition Studies, the purpose here is not to produce a comprehensive alternative view of Sirhind’s history but to expose students to alternative trajectories in authorising accounts of the past. Each interview lasted approximately 20 min and was led and recorded by a student.

  32. 32.

    While Sikhs are in the majority in Sirhind, making up approximately half of the population , there is a significant Hindu population (46%), with just under 3% of the population registering as Muslim according to the 2011 Indian census (http://www.census2011.co.in/data/town/800185-sirhind-fatehgarh-sahib-punjab.html).

  33. 33.

    See Steve Watson and Emma Waterton, “Heritage and Community Engagement,” International Journal of Heritage Studies 16, no. 1–2 (2010), 1–3, who speculate whether “the cosiness of some accounts of engagement actually mask abiding and inequitable imbalances between professionals and communities in relation to the control of resources and narratives” 2.

  34. 34.

    Bahar Aykan, 383. See also Yahaya Ahmed on the specific politics around UNESCO and ICOMOS’s role in communities and heritage management.

  35. 35.

    Emma Waterton and Laurajane Smith, “The Recognition and Misrecognition of Community Heritage,” International Journal of Heritage Management 16, no. 1–2 (2010), 4–15.

  36. 36.

    Waterton and Smith, 10.

Works Cited

  • Ahmad, Yahana. “The Scope and Definitions of Heritage: From Tangible to Intangible.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 12, no. 3 (2006): 292–300.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashworth, G.J., and B. Graham, eds. Senses of Place: Senses of Time. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aykan, Bahar. “How Participatory is Participatory Heritage Management? The Politics of Safeguarding the Alevi Semah Ritual as Intangible Heritage.” International Journal of Heritage Management 20 (2013): 381–405.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ballantyne, Tony. Between Colonialism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations in an Imperial World. Durham: Duke University Press, 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhangoo Randhawa, Karenjot. Civil Society in Malerkotla, Punjab: Fostering Resilience Through Religion. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bigelow, Anne. Sharing the Sacred: Practicing Pluralism in Muslim North India. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chakrabarty, Dipesh. “Modernity and Ethnicity in India.” In Multicultural States: Rethinking Difference and Identity, ed. David Bennett. London: Routledge, 1998, 91–110.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chalana, Manish. “‘All the World Going and Coming’: The Past and Future of the Grand Trunk Road in Punjab, India.” In Cultural Landscapes of South Asia: Studies in Heritage Conservation and Management, ed. Kapila D. Silva and Amita Sinha. London and New York: Routledge, 2016, 92–110.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham, Alexander. Archaeological Survey of India, vol. 1. Simla: Government of India Press, 1871.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derrida, Jacques. Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dillon, Sarah. The Palimpsest: Literature, Criticism, Theory. London: Continuum, 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dhavan, Purnima. When Sparrows Became Hawks: The Making of the Sikh Warrior Tradition, 1699–1799. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Quincey, Thomas. Confessions of an English Opium Easter and Other Writings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deol, Hamik. Religion and Nationalism in India: The Case Study of the Punjab. London: Routledge, 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glover, William J. “Shiny New Buildings, Rebuilding Historic Sikh Gurdwaras in Indian Punjab.” Future Anterior, IX, no. 1 (Summer 2012): 32–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gopinath, Gayatri. Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gourgouris, Stathis. Dream Nation: Enlightenment, Colonization, and the Institution of Modern Greece. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, Ketan. 3 day annual Urs begins at Sirhind Shrine. Hindustan Times, December 21, 2014, http://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/3-day-annual-urs-begins-at-sirhind-shrine/story-cdHt9hglyY53U90nnkWO9K.html. Last Accessed 15 May 2017.

  • Guttman, Anna. The Nation of India in Contemporary Indian Literature. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch, Marianne. “The Generation of Postmemory.” Poetics Today 28, no. 1 (2008): 103–128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huyssen, Andreas. Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kabir, Ananya Jahanar. Partition’s Post-Amnesias: 1947, 1971 and Modern South Asia. New Delhi: Women Unlimited, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaviraj, Sudipta. The Imaginary Institution of India: Politics and Ideas. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leontis, Artemis. Topographies of Hellenism: Mapping the Homeland. London: Cornell University Press, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • McDowell, Sara. “Heritage Memory and Identity.” In The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity, ed. Brian Graham and Peter Howard, 27–54. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mir, Farina. The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, Anne. The Materiality of the Past: History and Representation in Sikh Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray’s Handbook to India. London: John Murray, 1909.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nehru, Jawaharlal. The Discovery of India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pal, Amaninder. The Tale of Closed Doors of Rauza Sharif Shrine. The Tribune, December 28, 2015, http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/community/the-tale-of-closed-doors-of-rauza-sharif-shrine/176083.html. Accessed 15 May 2017.

  • Parihar, Subhash. History and Architectural Remains of Sirhind: The Greatest Mughal City on the Delhi-Lahore Highway. New Delhi: Aryan Books, 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parihar, Subhash. “Historical Mosques of Sirhind.” Islamic Studies 43, no. 3 (Autumn 2004): 481–510.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parihar, Subhash. Some Aspects of Indo-Islamic Architecture. New Delhi: Shakti Malik, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, Khushwant. A History of the Sikhs: 1469–1838. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Virdee, Pippa. “Remembering Partition: Women, Oral Histories and the Partition of 1947.” Oral History 41, no. 2: 49–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waterton, Emma, and Laurajane Smith. “The Recognition and Misrecognition of Community Heritage.” International Journal of Heritage Management 16, no. 1–2 (2010), 4–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, Steve, and Emma Waterton. “Heritage and Community Engagement.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 16, no. 1–2 (2010): 1–3.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

    Churnjeet Mahn

Authors
  1. Churnjeet Mahn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Churnjeet Mahn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Churnjeet Mahn

  2. Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Anne Murphy

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Mahn, C. (2018). In Ruins: Cultural Amnesia at the Aam Khas Bagh. In: Mahn, C., Murphy, A. (eds) Partition and the Practice of Memory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64516-2_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64516-2_12

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64515-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64516-2

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation