Prabhjot Parmar

A Patchwork of Remnants Sutured Together: Partition, Interconnectedness and the Ties that Bind

Krishna Lachoomun’s 2021 art installation “Muffled Stories” focused on co-existence despite differences (The Reach Gallery, Abbotsford). It brought subcontinental politics to the gallery space through, among others, a material representation of partition. Living in Abbotsford on the land of Stó:lō, many South Asian diasporans negotiate present and past, including memories of partition. “Muffled Stories,” I argue, intersects with the immediate locational culture and the intergenerational history of Stó:lō People. Underpinned by a spirit of reconciliation, I draw from “all my relations,” a philosophy that many First Nations follow and from the syncretic values of Sufi and Saint movements in North India to explore interconnectedness and offer alternative ways to contend with partition and its memories. Although partition is fraught with tensions, “all my relations” and Sufism have an inherent thread of opening minds to focus on connections, simultaneously rejecting and transcending divides. Therefore, instead of fractured borders, I explore spaces and voices acknowledging differences, promoting dialogue and reconciliation, and affording possibilities to (re)establish connections. I argue that the engagement with partition in tandem with the colonization of the Stó:lō and other Indigenous lands across Canada can encourage a focus on and participation in decolonial initiatives, including reconciliation. 

Biography

Prabhjot Parmar is Associate Professor of English at University of the Fraser Valley located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded land of Stó:lō in Abbotsford. She received her PhD in English in postcolonial studies from the University of Western Ontario and holds Masters degrees in English from Queen’s University and Panjab University. Her research and teaching interests include postcolonial literatures with a focus on South Asian literature and cinema, Partition, and Indian soldiers in WWI. She is the co-editor of When Your Voice Tastes Like Home: Immigrant Women Write and has published articles on resistance poetry, dementia and music, Partition, Bollywood, and history of Punjabi Cinema. Her work is strongly linked with community work and social justice—anti-racism, anti-colonial and decolonial narratives, Indigenization, migration, violence against women, and social justice, for example.  Combined with a spirit to contribute to one’s immediate and larger community, her commitment to anti-racism and equality reinforces her work as a volunteer with non-profit organizations since the 1990s. She has served on Archway Board of Directors since 2014 and the current Board Treasurer. She is also President of the South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy and founding member of West Coast Coalition Against Racism.