Aanchal Malhotra at the Festival of Muslim Knowledge and Creativity

Join the New Delhi based oral historian and Remnants of Partition author Aanchal Malhotra for a discussion on archiving and the role that oral history can play, as a form of activism, in subverting and reclaiming narratives.

About the Book

The emotion and trauma of the Partition are buried deep, but Aanchal Malhotra has found a way to recover them. Through the possessions saved by her own great-grandparents as they fled their homes, she discovers the unique power of such objects: to unlock the secrets of a colossal human migration, and a life that once was.

Remnants of Partition is a remarkable alternative history, telling the family stories hidden within items carried between the new India and Pakistan, amid chaos and violence. They uncover a rich tapestry of pain and rupture, but also of hope and connection – in belonging through belongings, and identities reforged.

From a string of pearls to a young woman’s poetry, this extraordinary book gives voice to the voiceless, restoring the everyday to a great drama of the twentieth century. Its power and poignancy will haunt the reader.

Aanchal Malhotra is a New Delhi-based artist and oral historian. She is the cofounder of the Museum of Material Memory, a digital repository tracing family histories and social ethnography through heirlooms, collectibles and antiques from the Indian subcontinent. She can be found on Instagram (@aanch_m), Twitter (@AanchalMalhotra) and her website (www.aanchalmalhotra.com).