To mark the 70th anniversary of India’s partition, in August 1947, UK government has launched a project and named it as ‘Grand Trunk Road‘. This name suggests that as Grand Trunk Road has tied together India and Pakistan and their diverse cultures similarly this project will highlight the rich history that British Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus share. Volunteers from different communities like Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim will come together to stage this event.
11 special events are organized and funded by Department for Communities and Local Government to bring in together all the British-Asians of all faiths and backgrounds. The motive of these events is to make them reflect upon their shared history which ripped them apart in the past, thereby, bringing them closer in the future. These events will include a play written, produced and performed by the volunteers of various communities. The theme of this play will be 1948 London Olympics, the first time India and Pakistan met as competing nations in the country from which they had just gained independence. This play will be followed by an exhibition in Leicester, tracing the impact of migration from the subcontinent of East Africa. This exhibition will allow the visitors to listen to the corroboration of the local residents.These events will bring down different communities from the different parts of the subcontinent and will encourage their friendships and will foster new relationships.
These events will bring down different communities from the different parts of the subcontinent and will encourage their friendships and will foster new relationships. Even the Women’s Groups in Slough which includes women from different communities and of different age groups will talk about the impact of partition on their families.
This will help all the participants to learn about the history of partition first-hand from those who lived through the violence and displacement. They’ll get to know about the birth of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (1971).