Tribune News Service
Amritsar, August 27
Mallika Ahluwalia, founder-trustee of the Partition Museum, recently interviewed US Ambassador to India Atul Keshap for the museum’s audio-archive collection. Keshap recounted his family’s traumatic experiences of the Partition while recording his oral history, stating that his “family’s debt to India is absolutely immense”.
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Keshap’s father, Dr Keshap Chandra Sen, originally belonged to Muzaffargarh, near Multan, and ultimately settled in Panipat after the Partition. Atul Keshap mentioned that his father’s family was lucky in comparison to million others, as they managed to reach India safely.
“However, under the circumstances that were created during the time, the experience of travelling to Amritsar by train was extremely traumatic. My grandfather basically decided that he would stay where he was as that’s where his job was, that’s where his land was, that’s where his ancestral properties were. It was when push came to shove that they left immediately with almost no notice and fled. My family’s debt to India is absolutely immense and my father was a very proud Indian throughout his entire life,” Keshap said.
Dr Sen served as an international civil servant and was posted around the world with the United Nations. Keshap’s mother, Zoe Calvert, had been in the US Foreign Services when she married Dr Sen. Ajay Keshap was born in Nigeria and later raised in the US.
Ajay Keshap recalled that every summer, for about 15 years, his father would bring him and his brothers to India to visit their grandmother in Panipat. He said his family, like many Punjabi refugees, were resilient, adding that they looked forward and worked hard to invest in their lives in India.
“Ajay Keshap’s interview will become a part of the Partition museum’s oral history gallery and will be displayed at the Partition Museum coming up at Dara Shikoh library in Delhi,” informed Mallika. She also presented her book, “Divided by Partition United by Resilience: 21 Inspirational Stories from 1947”, to Keshap.
The other eminent personalities whose oral history accounts are displayed at the Partition Museum in Amritsar include former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, late Milkha Singh and Hero Group’s Munjal family.
Apart from the world’s first Partition Museum set up in Amritsar, the Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust has also set up the first Independence and Partition Museum in Kolkata earlier this year and will be now setting up a museum in Delhi as well.
Amritsar's Partition Museum to display oral recounts of traumatic event
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