Caroline and I have decided to curate a video series highlighting the work of Salt of the Sarkar since the beginning. The videos we will feature, demonstrate the collaboration with others interested in this important project.

The last three years have been a rollercoaster for Salt of the Sarkar with so many events and important collaborations. Highlights include the Kishan Devi Postcard events in London, presentations in Brighton, school and community workshops in the East and West Midlands as well as a BBC Listening Project Interview.

We are taking a pause to reflect on what was happening at the start of the project.

Rights to Publish

Shortly after getting the rights to publish the World War One Centenary edition of Across the Black Waters in April 2014, we were busy trying to arrange the launch at the House of Commons.

John McDonnell MP offered to honour the Undivided Indian soldiers with an event in October 2014 where the book and our project was launched. This coincided with the anniversary of the arrival of the first troops from Undivided India on the Front Line of the Western Front as described in Mulk Raj Anand’s novel. This was first published in 1940, not many years before India’s Independence and Partition.

John had previously hosted our event in 2006 about the Partition of British India when he was chair of the Panjabis in Britain All Party Parliamentary Group. We had a reading of A Lifetime on Tiptoes by Mazhar Tirmazi with over 100 people many of whom had lived through the Partition of 1947. The event was held in the Gladstone Room, the very room where Partition was decided.

As we fundraise for the first Illustrated edition of Across the Black Waters, we invite you to watch a short film of the interview with MPs John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn, which we’ve posted below.

We also reflect in this month of August on the 70 years since the Partition of 1947 which caused one of the largest forced migrations in history.

Check back with us in a week for part two of Salt of the Sarkar video series.

Interview at House of Commons (part 1) from Salt of the Sarkar on Vimeo.