A film festival showcasing short movies telling the stories of Partition of India will be hosted across four cities in the month of August, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) said on Tuesday.
IGNCA also said that the last date to submit entries has been extended till August 10. The last date earlier was August 9.People can send their entries themed on Partition, one of the worst human tragedies in history, on films4ignca@gmail.com."Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts cordially invites you to the #FilmFestival to commemorate #PartitionHorrorsRemembranceDay in 4 cities. #PartitionHorrors @PMOIndia @MinOfCultureGoI @AmritMahotsav @kishanreddybjp @arjunrammeghwal @M_Lekhi @Sachchida_Joshi @msignca," the IGNCA tweeted.
It also shared a poster bearing a historic image from the mass migration that followed the tragic event, and details about the festival. The festival dates are -- Delhi (August 12-13), Amritsar (August 17-18), Calcutta (August 20-21) and Hyderabad (August 24-25).
The Ministry of Culture on August 5 had announced on Twitter seeking entries for films based on Partition.
"Have a story to tell about India's freedom struggle and its heroes? @ignca_delhiis inviting entries for short films to be screened as part of, 'Partition Horrors Remembrance Day'," it had said.
A thematic exhibition on the Partition, organised by IGNCA, which comes under the Ministry of Culture, was on Monday inaugurated in the Parliament House complex here by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.The exhibition titled -- Partition Horrors Remembrance Day August 14 -- was hosted in the Parliament Library Building.
It drew from archival records and historic images.According to a poster on the exhibition, shared on the website of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotav, "The Partition of India in its most basic form is a story of unprecedented human displacement and human migration. It is story in which millions sought new homes in environment that were alien and restive".
"About 6 million non-Muslims moved out of what had become West Pakistan and another 6.5 million Muslims moved out from the Indian part of Punjab, Delhi, etc., into West Pakistan. In the east, an estimated 2 million non-Muslims moved out of East Bengal (Pakistan) and later in 1950 another 2 million non-Muslims moved into West (India) Bengal. It is estimated that about one million Muslims had moved moved out of West Bengal," the poster said.
Large-scale violence had preceded the actual Partition of India in 1947 into Dominion of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The new State of Pakistan was born on August 14, 1947 while India took birth as a free nation a day later, throwing off the yokes of colonialism and ending nearly 200 years of the British rule.The poster also said that "the estimate of those killed has varied from 5,00,000 to over 10,00,000.
The generally accepted figures stand at around 5,00,000".Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 14 last year had announced that the day would be observed as the Partition Horrors Remembrance Day in the memory of the struggles and sacrifices of people.
