In a first of a kind endeavour to record the memories of those who lived through pre-Independence India and the subsequent Partition on a public online forum, private agency called Karmayog, run by Vinay Somani, has invited individuals to share their personal memories, photographs, articles, letters, books and experiences of ordinary life from pre and post-Independence India.
Over 30 responses have already been received on Karmayog (.org) in the first couple of days since the launch of this project.
Japan still remembers
“The idea occurred to me when one day, out of the blue, my daughter Vidushi asked if I knew anyone who had personally interacted with Mahatma Gandhi. I had to answer in the negative. Her question stayed with me. The idea was later concretised when I visited Japan and discovered umpteen war memorials at every nook and cranny of the city. That’s their attempt at preserving a piece of history and ensuring they don’t forget,” says Somani.
That’s when he started inviting young volunteers to trace this generation, members of which will now be in their eighties, to upload their recollections and experiences on the website.
History outside the classroom
“A piece of history will be lost when this generation is no longer amongst us. I was totally overwhelmed with the initial response and the amount of knowledge our older generation has bottled up for so many years. I am of
Posts on the Karmayog site
>Ramesh Kumar Suri, who migrated from Pakistan in 1947, remembers paying school fees of one paisa per month, greeting people with ‘Jai Hind Ji’ and radios that were bigger than computer screens.
“There were more Urdu News papers in Punjab (Indian) than Hindi/ Punjabi/ English newspapers. More poetry and literature was written in Urdu than in Hindi. Krishan Chander, Rajendra Singh Bedi, Amrita Pritam (Urdu and Punjabi), Prem Chander (Urdu and Hindi) wrote mainly in Urdu. It may be noted that in Punjab, there were hardly any Muslims left as most of them migrated to Pakistan. But Urdu remained the language of Punjabis. Prithvi Raj Kapoor used to write his dialogues in Urdu.”
>Kisan Mehta feels fortunate for having being imprisoned in Yervada Central Prison for participating in the Quit India Moment, initiated by Mahatma Gandhi and feels that the experience changed his life to a great extent.
>Gaur J K remembers witnessing Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘tryst with destiny’ speech at Red Fort, perched on his elder brother’s shoulder. He also recalls the dismay of people when Subash Chandra Bose did not come back to independent India.
See the article at –
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2010/aug/150810-karmayog-website-pre-1947-india.htm