You are invited to a lecture on
Re-Viewing Partition, Re-Claiming Lost Ground:
A Critical Recovery of the Recovery Operation
by
Prof. Ayesha Kidwai, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
In the context of:
The Lightning Testimonies by Amar Kanwar
An eight projection video installation that brings together the testimonies of sexual violence against women during times of conflict, spanning multiple sites, eras and voices
As a part of the exhibition:
“Is It What You Think” [Ruminations on Time, Memory & Site] curated by Roobina Karode
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Date: Tuesday 8th July 2014
Time: 6.00 p.m.
Venue: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art
145, DLF South Court Mall, Saket
New Delhi 110017
This event is free and open to all.
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Abstract:
In this talk, the speaker argues for a re-examination of the by-now standard conclusion that Mridula Sarabhai and her social workers' efforts and intentions in the recovery of women abducted under the Abducted Persons (Recovery and Rehabilitation) Ordinances and Act, in force till 1957, were in consonance with those of the patriarchal State. Using the newspaper archive from the period, the speaker shall contend that the perception that the 'recovery' operation signaled, in the words of Das (1995: p.73) "an alliance between the state and social work as a profession, which silences the voice of victims by an application of the ‘best interest' doctrine" to be a reading that occludes the complexities of the past, and the internal history of the close to decade long recovery operation, in which Sarabhai and her ‘social workers' were headed on a collision course with social mores, the political class, police and administration.
Speaker:
Prof. Ayesha Kidwai teaches linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. This interest in the popular history of Partition stems from her other life as a translator of Anis Kidwai's memoir of the period (In Freedom's Shade, 2011), and her involvement with the contemporary women's movement.
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