For this week's story on #MuseumofMaterialMemory, Sri Muktsar Sahib-based Khushveen Brar writes about a salwar and a pair of panjeb that belong to her nani, Hardev Kaur, and bequeathed to her by her elder sister-in-law, Gurdial Kaur, both of whom hailed from Faridkot, Punjab. 1/
Khushveen writes that she was only four years old when her nani passed, but the death impacted her mother deeply, who was the youngest of six siblings. She shares a photo of her grandparents in their late twenties, with their two eldest children. 2/
In maternal home in Ajitgill village, Faridkot, she came across a sandook belonging to her nani. Inside it, were clothes, trinkets, handwritten notes, photographs, and two objects of particular prominence - a green salwar and a pair of silver panjeb. 3/
"The story of the salwar begins with my nani’s mother in law," Khushveen writes. Brought as a part of her wedding trousseau, it dates to the late 1910s. The salwar is a beautiful shade of emerald green and sewn in silk satin. 4/
"What astonished me was the ginormous ghera. As opposed to the salwars of today that have a belt and pleats, this has no belt but a ghera measuring 98 inches – which is 8 feet long! The huge ghera does give it a very heavy look which modern day salwars can’t replicate." 5/
After the death of the matriarch, all her possessions were passed down to the middle son’s new wife, Gurdial Kaur, who was born in Phidde Khurd, Faridkot and married in 1931. Here she is seen with her mother, and later as a 90 year old in 2004. 6/
The silver panjeb or jhanjran, were a part of Gurdial's wedding trousseau. The local jeweller dates them at nearly a 100 years old, which means they must have been forged in the mid to late 1920s. The pair have an interlinked design and small flower motifs on the clasp. 7/
They are very heavy – each independently weighing 16.8 tole (168gm) or together at 33.6 tole (336gm). They are 12 inches in length, and the band is 1.5 inches. Gurdial Kaur was 5 ft 8, with big hands and feet, which explains the jhanjran’s big size. 8/
When Hardev Kaur got married in 1950, Gurdial Kaur, only 15 years older, performed the duties of mother-in-law at the wedding ceremony. She had no children of her own, and felt no need to keep anything for herself, thus, bequeathed everything to the new bride. 9/
..In this way, the heirlooms were passed from Hardev Kaur to her daughter, and further to her granddaughter, Khushveen, who writes that when her nani passed away at 74 from a heart-attack, it shattered her sister-in-law, who "laid her head in her lap and cried all night." 10/
Read the full piece here - Heirlooms from Faridkot by Khushveen Brar museumofmaterialmemory.com/heirlooms-from…

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More from @AanchalMalhotra

13 Jan
It really breaks my heart to write this, but Nazmuddin Khan sahib, on whom I wrote a chapter (probably my favourite one) in Remnants, is no more. Born in 1929 in Delhi's Hauz Rani, he passed away just short of 92 years. 1/
We didn't meet often, but when we did, he called me Munni. He was the first person to make me realize that my work was not merely on objects or Partition, but rather on identity and belonging. True belonging to land and home and soil; a belonging for the living and the dead. 2/
While working on his chapter, there were things I was confronted with that I’d never thought of before - things that made me feel small, made me question my privilege, my safety, and the lived difference between nationalism, patriotism and fanaticism. 3/
Read 9 tweets
27 Aug 20
In my work, I often write how the house of the past is perceived to be more beautiful than the house of the present - one filled with longing and memory. It is not unusual to come across interviewees who physically inhabit this belief. This is a thread on a house of the past 1/
Exactly four years ago, I witnessed something that sprouted in my heart an unavoidable and insatiable yearning to be able to physically move someone from India and take them to their childhood home in what was known as Mintgumri (now Sahiwal) in Pakistan. 2/
Stories about the past -particularly a traumatic one dealing with the 1947 Partition - begin either in indifference, silence, nostalgia or sadness. This began in tears. So suddenly and quietly in a way that nor I, or anyone sitting around us could do anything. 3/
Read 7 tweets
14 Aug 20
As someone who writes about Independence and the 1947 Partition all year round, the month of August feels particularly strange, despite its commemorative status, and the feeling inside my heart on the two historic days - 14th and 15th - is uniquely hollow. A thread 1/
These dates weigh on me, as they may also weigh on those who lived through them in 1947. I find myself wondering, year after year, do the people who witnessed Partition celebrate life and freedom, or mourn the price they paid for that freedom, or do both? 2/
I don’t know, but perhaps this is a question I should include in my interviews henceforth. But I wish that in the zealous way in which we celebrate the independence of the conjoined twins India and Pakistan, we could also celebrate the life they shared before August 1947. 3/
Read 7 tweets
11 Jan 20
The original front page of The Daily Milap newspaper from April 12, 1931, featuring the two Gandhis of Undivided India - Mahatma Gandhi and Gandhi of Frontier. 1/
In 1923, Arya Samaji Lala Kushal Chand started an Urdu daily out of Lahore called Milap, which quickly became the largest circulated Urdu newspaper, known for its powerful nationalistic editorials. It also published Fikr Taunsvi's famed 27-year long ‘Kaagaz ke Chhilke' column. 2/
During Partition, riots in Lahore lead to mobs raiding the offices of Milap, and burning machines and stacks of newspaper. Reports claim that the office was closed for six weeks, after one of its employees was stabbed. 3/
Read 6 tweets
5 Sep 19
Pran Nevile sahab once told me about #BhaionKiDukaan, most famous in all of Anarkali bazar apparently since the Mughal era for making oils, perfumes and scents 1/
When I met him just weeks before his death, with an air of great romance, he claimed that any one of the Bhaion ki dukaan fragrances could win the hearts of a "beau" or a "belle". For this it was famous not only in Lahore shehr but also the whole of Punjab 2/
When speaking of Lahore, he always had that faraway look in his eyes. The city of his birth, the city of my dreams, humara Lahore. He constantly asked me why I was so drawn to it, and quoting that it was also the city of my ancestors, I'd smile the question to an end each time 3/
Read 6 tweets

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