Seventy-eight years in the past, as the clock ticked in the direction of midnight on August 14, India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru introduced the nation’s independence with an iconic speech, Tryst with Destiny, at Parliament House. In the Art Gallery of Kamaladevi Complex at India International Centre, New Delhi, earlier than I look at the exhibition, Hamaara Ithihaas Archives Of Freedom Fighters, I interact in a surreal research of my proximity with time and area from the place I stand, bodily and existentially. It leads me to juxtapose the distance of four-and-a-half kilometres from Parliament House and the practically eight a long time from 1947.
Surrounded by the maze of achromatic and sepia-toned portraits of revolutionaries — who selected to kiss the gallows over bootlicking the British colonisers — and the copies of newspapers that spoke fact to the powers that be, Nehru’s phrases come to thoughts: “At this solemn moment when the people of India, through suffering and sacrifice, have secured freedom…”. A peculiar set up, with a charpoy positioned atop one other charpoy and the Tricolour tied to 1 of its corners, catches my consideration. As I level my cellphone’s digicam to click on, a guard shouts out: “Pictures not allowed”.
Ghadar paper first version, San Francisco, USA 1st March, 1915
| Photo Credit:
Hamaara Itihaas Archives of Freedom Fighters (HIAFF)
“I can give you a tour of the place, if you like,” says Sagari Chhabra, who introduces herself as the founder-director of Hamaara Itihaas Archives of Freedom Fighters (HIAFF). I’m now a spectator to her demonstration, between considering the that means of freedom and wrestling with the thought of sections in which the retrospective has been organised.
The thought of the exhibition, says Sagari, is “to create a record of the known and unknown freedom fighters, in India and across the world. There was virtually no or little record of the work done by women freedom fighters. So, we have a special focus on our women freedom fighters. The purpose is to educate and inspire the new and coming generations.”
Coming from Punjab, my eyes search for Ghadarite Gulab Kaur’s image amidst portraits of Kartar Singh Sarabha and others, particularly as a result of Punjab Lok Sabhyacharak Manch — Punjab’s cultural organisation for social change and activism — is observing 2025 as the centenary yr of Gulab’s loss of life. But I’m rushed to different sections that depict the works of revolutionaries who fought for India from overseas shores.
Mehrunissa (left), Perumal, INA.
| Photo Credit:
Sagari Chhabra, Yangon, 2004, HIAFF
Sagari lists names after names: “International freedom fighters: Shyamji Krishna Varma, SR Rana. Other revolutionaries abroad: Taraknath Das, Bhupendra Dutt, Ajit Singh — uncle of Bhagat Singh. A special section on Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru, and women who helped them: Durga Devi Vohra aka Durga Bhabhi, Sushila Mohan aka Sushila Didi….” And then shares: “There is a special section on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army, based in South-East Asia with a particular focus on the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, one of the earliest all-woman military regiments of the world.”
Momota Mehta, Rani of Jhansi Regiment
| Photo Credit:
Preeta Jayaraman, 1998, HIAFF
Sourced from Arkib Negara, the National Archives of Malaysia; National Archives, Singapore; National Archives of India; Prime Minister’s Museum And Memorial Library; and a few authentic recordings of HIAFF, Sagari informs that just about three a long time of analysis has gone into curating the retrospective. “The archive contains oral testimonies, photos, audio, video, and film recordings across India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Myanmar. It displays photos and documents from London, Paris, Geneva, Stuttgart, San Francisco and other places, showing that India’s freedom struggle was both revolutionary and non-violent. It contains rare documents of the paper, Bande Mataram and Talvar started by Madam Bhikaiji Cama and the Ghadar Party based in Vancouver and San Francisco,” she provides.
Gandhinathan, Tokyo Cadet
| Photo Credit:
Sagari Chhabra, Kuala Lumpur 2004, HIAFF
As for the charpoy and Tricolour set up, Sagari coaxes me to look on the different aspect of the wall towards which the set up is positioned. It has footage of a number of ladies. “They raised the flag from inside the Lahore Women’s Jail in 1942,” she informs, pointing at the interview of Bibi Amar Kaur, one of the protesters from the jail, taking part in on the display screen from her documentary, Asli Azaadi. “The courage and sacrifice of our freedom fighters, most of whom have gone unsung and unrecognised, deserves to be recorded,” she states in the press communiqué.
The exhibition will likely be on view until August 23 at the Art Gallery, Kamaladevi Complex, India International Centre, 40 Max Mueller Marg, New Delhi; from 11am to 7pm.
