The 1947 Partition Archive

The 1947 Partition Archive empowers South Asian Americans to document oral histories in their local communities from witnesses of the world's largest mass refugee crisis that occurred during the 1947 creation of India and Pakistan, and remains a nearly forgotten memory today. Witnesses of Partition who were adults in 1947 are well over 90 years old and time is running out to document their plight. Furthermore, there are immense lessons to be learned from Partition that are relevant to America today, given the mass communal polarization that occurred during Partition leading to unprecedented violence and major nuclear standoff.

About the Organization:

California

The Issue:

Imagine if the Holocaust in Europe had not been documented, or that Hiroshima had no witness accounts. How different would our world be today? We would not have the knowledge of dictatorships that we do, or the existence of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). We would not have the nuclear non-proliferation movement or knowledge of how devastating an atomic bomb detonation can be. Yet, during the 1940's an event of similar scale took place and went largely undocumented: The Partition of India and Pakistan which led to a mass refugee crisis as well as mass violence with reverberations that can be felt to this day. Wounds such as Kashmir still fester, and the communal divisions seeded in 1947 continue to play out in South Asian American communities. We must learn from those who remember, and won't be with us for long, urgently, before it is too late.

The Solution:

1) To increase awareness of Asian American culture in our community, we are the first nonprofit organization in the county that brought cultural blending concerts with a focus on Asian Americans into communities. Our concerts and events blend music from Asian and other cultures, and are performed by Asian American musicians, musicians from other cultures, and students from different backgrounds. Also, we collaborate with local music groups and introduce Asian music and songs for performance, and we volunteer in culture events.

2) To address the issue of Asian American history being missing from our public education system, we are planning to create an educational program, Enriching Education Through Asian and Asian American Music, to provide K-12 students in Clark County an introduction of Asian and Asian American experience through music. Once implemented, this will be the first program in Clark County to introduce Asian American culture in public schools.

The 1947 Partition Archive