This August 15 when the Tricolour is hoisted at the Red Fort for the 70th time since 1947 and helicopters shower rose petals on those gathered to celebrate India’s Independence, there will be some wiping tears, nursing their unhealed wounds and trying hard to erase memories of shattered hearts and homes.
The survivors of Partition continue to live with the trauma of witnessing one of the worst tragedies of the 20th century.
On August 11 at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, singer Sonam Kalra of the Sufi Gospel Project fame will revisit this event that impacted the lives of over 14 million people through her show ‘Partition: Stories of Separation.’
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Personal connect
“Though I have not lived through the pain myself, I have grown up in a family that hailed from the part of Punjab that is now in Pakistan. My mother’s family was from Rawalpindi and my father’s from Sargoda. As a young girl, I have heard several stories about Partition. So there’s a personal connect. These emotions have now found their way into songs,” says Kalra, who is the grand daughter of General Jagjit Aurora, hero of the 1971 Bangladesh war.
Recalling a few such heart-rending tales, Kalra narrates how her great aunt’s father had a sprawling estate in Rawalpindi and provided refuge to many affected families.
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“One day he told my great aunt, ‘Listen puttar (child) you need to make a promise to me’. She said, ‘yes Darji, tell me’. Which is when he said, ‘if the mob comes into the house I may have to kill you. Please don’t cry and break my heart’. This is what many daughters and fathers went through. A lot of women committed suicide or were killed by their families to escape rape. Let us ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself.”
Besides these horrific incidents, Kalra grew up listening to Punjabi poet Ustad Daman’s moving verse ‘Laali akhiyaan di dasdi hai, roye assi vi, roye tussi vi’ (the redness of our eyes shows that you have cried and so have I) that stirred her to put together this show.
Using the power of music, the voices of Manto, Ali Sardar Jafri, Daman, Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Amrita Pritam, as well as personal accounts, Kalra has woven together stories of separation also using theatre, installation art and video. Sharing the stage with her is award-winning theatre actor, Salima Raza as well as an ensemble of talented musicians, graphic designer Gopika Chowfla and poet Deepak Ramola.
“The aim,” says the singer, is not to open old wounds but to bring alive the era of happy co-existence and shared history. These stories need to be told to warn future generations against endorsing divides based on religion. But Ï want to engage the audience without being preachy.”
Since she is convinced music can convey every mood and transform minds, she employs different genres and languages to reach out to people with her message of hope and love.
Master of myriad tunes — jazz, sufi, Hindustani classical, shabad (Sikh hymns), Gaelic chants, gospel, bhajans — Kalra’s music rises above labels to convey the sound of oneness.