A Punjabi Palimpsest: Cultural Memory and Amnesia at the Aam Khas Bagh

The Grand Trunk Road is a significant and historical highway which runs across the north of India, connecting Afghanistan to Calcutta. Although the exact route of the road has changed, its trajectory and purpose have remained constant: the transmission of knowledge, ideas, religion, tradition and innovation. Punjab is located at a crucial intersection on the road and has seen significant settlements from a range of communities including Jains, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Sufis and Sikhs. The area of The Grand Trunk Road in Punjab has been witness to a particularly dense contact of cultures which is especially evident in key clusters along the route. This project focusses on one important site along the Grand Trunk Road in a location of particular significance for Muslims and Sikhs. The Aam Khas Bagh is a Mughal Garden and Serai in Sirhind, Punjab which was constructed in the 1560s by Hafiz Sultan Muhammad Rakhna and was subsequently augmented by Jahangir and Shah Jahan. The gardens are located at a strategic point on The Grand Trunk Road, roughly equidistant between Lahore and Delhi which positioned Sirhind as a major settlement and hub for knowledge and commerce. The growing tension between the Tenth Sikh Guru and Muslims from the 1700s culminated in the execution of two of the Guru's sons in Sirhind. The town was subsequently sacked by the Sikhs with significant destruction across the settlement. Sirhind is now a twin town with Fatehgarh Sahib and is a predominantly Sikh area, with a significant proportion of the population being Pakistani Punjabi Sikhs who relocated after Partition. Despite the significant buildings and monuments ranging from the medieval period across Sirhind, there is minimum infrastructure for their protection and limited conservation, which is currently being addressed by CRCI.

Particular points include:
The lack of any legible signage at monuments of historical significance.
A lack of local knowledge about historical and cultural narratives associated with the buildings, a phenomenon being described here as cultural amnesia.

The lack of historical or contextual knowledge surrounding the monuments is largely attributable to the significant population change in the local area after Partition. The Aam Khas Bagh as the largest open space in Sirhind is a significant meeting point between the past and present as it remains a site that is frequently visited and explored. Although the site is a protected monument by the Archaeological Survey of India, there are very few measures to protect it from routine destruction and vandalism.

By investigating ways of recontextualising the history of the gardens through installations and interactions with key stakeholders, this project aims to research the ways in which Sikh and Muslim heritage co-exists in post-Partition Punjab in India. The expertise of the group includes the PI with experience of project management who has published a monograph on sites of contested heritage and forms of cultural erasure, a
visual anthropologist with extensive experience of fieldwork and a visual portfolio on Sirhind and an interactive and immersive designer who has developed a range of interactive devices around the themes of sustainability, as well as in the Aam Khas Bagh.