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ROLL NO 310

f��n�e� �� QUAID E AZAM MUHAMMAD ALI JINNAH e�i�e� ��: AHSAN KARIM NATIONAL COLLEGE OF ARTS L

A H O

R E

“100 STORIES OF RESILIENCE” 1947 PARTITION OF BRITISH-INDIA MEMORIAL “Our primary sources

INDIA IS NOW TWO DOMINIONS

were the Oral History accounts of witnesses of the 1947 Partition of India.

A total of 100 interviews of survivors conducted by The 1947 Partition Archive organisation and Citizens Achive Pakistan CAP) were studied prior to designing this Memorial - Ahsan karim

POWER TRANSFERRED AT MIDNIGHT 14th of August 1947

the world witnessed the birth of two nations, Pakistan and India. The fate of millions was decided with a line drawn on a map that divided one country into two - along religious lines (Sheikh 1989). The Partition of India was after all the largest mass migration in human history which makes it a humanitarian tradegy of devastating prop-ortions (Mallika 2018). The story of grief and loss that followed the Partition was never addressed due to the euphoria of independence (Urvashi butalia 2015).

Partition was an event that has played an important role in the formation of a national identity.

”

This thesis deploys an understanding of Memory and History as a tool to impart a deeper understanding of partition to the public and the future generation. This thesis explores the sentiments, emotions, beliefs and actions of those who were affected by the partition of British India. Therefore, it is important that the narrative on partition includes voices and experiences of the people who witnessed it. This thesis primarily focuses on the migration journey and the experiences of the refugees on both the sides but also focuses on the raw emotions and politically exggarated mindset of the general public during that event. The project shall commemorate the event and to act as a embalming and peacemaking platform for the people of the sub-continent in partners hip with the Government of Pakistan and Citizens Archive of Pakistan.

The Tower of hope rests with its reflection In this September 1947 photo, Muslim refugees clamber aboard an overcrowded train near New Delhi in an attempt to flee India.

Source: F.E Chaudhry, Circa 1947

Overview of 1947 Partition of British India MEMORY

Memory is the process of taking in information from the world around us, processing it, storing it and later recalling that information, sometimes many years later. There are things that can be eremebered other than events, skills, acts words such as emotions, feelings, ideas and goals. Great importance is given to this ability to remember. The reason behind this is that memories of our personal experiences,hold meanings that are important to us. They enable us to recall and learn from the negative and build upon the positive.

C

ollective memory thus functions as a framework within which individual memory is built and structured.

Partition as a Collective memory:

INDIVIDUAL MEMORY

Individual memory is a straight-forward concept.

It is one’s personal memory of a previous experience.

(Van Dijck, 2007)

COLLECTIVE MEMORY

Collective memories are the remembering of the same experience, but not necessarily in the same way (for example, an adult may remember the experience differently than a child). (Van Dijck, 2007). A.J Mayerand Nicolas Roussiau have pointed out that individual’s personal memories will always interweave with the impersonal memories of the group, for memory is ingerently shared and this social in character.

Clients Brief Government of Pakistan Citizen Archives pakistan Boy scouts association of Pakistan.

To design a Memorial for the 1947 Parition of India, that with the rich context of the site, has potential to be utilized as an informative interactive space and a Public attraction in the centre of lahore, while having a Historically and educationally proactive activity which shall preserve the History of the event and the site.

Architects Brief

‘’A

s an Architect i shall deploy an understanding of Memory and History, a tool to impart a deeper understanding of partition and humans under such a chaotic event. Architecture, linked to memory, has its own stories to tell. A Memorial is to be proposed and the origins of this museum shall lie in a peripatetic architectural experience, where memory is inscribed into the building, spatially locating knowledge in the architecture itself. The Architecture therefore shall provide an aid for memory, which is to be experienced by a body on the move. The building itself shall act as a storyteller.’’

-Ahsan Karim

SITE: WALTON, LAHORE

According to records the peak flow in one day towards this camp was 80,000 persons. Of these on the average over 6,000 people died every day of cholera and starvation.

Walton has become a government and private housing and office complex. No traces of the ‘Greatest Exodus in Human History’ exist there.

It is an apt reflection of our society today.

Proposed Programs for Memorial: 1 Museum 1 Library 1 Auditorium 1 Amphitheatre Lecture rooms Workshops1

In the lead-up to Independence from British colonial rule, which had Source: Lost Migrations. politicized South Asian religious identities in new ways, vigorous debates Project Daastan. were held about whether to divide – or “partition” – into two countries.

Splits within the independence movement, represented by the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League, prevented a consensus on powersharing formulas and guarantees for the rights of Muslims in a Hindu-majority India. Ultimately, then-British Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, enlisted a British judge Cyril Radcliffe to draw the borders of the new countries, though he had never been to the region. The new borders were only announced by the departing British days after India’s and Pakistan’s independence. As tensions were already on the rise, many began migrating prior to the official announcement.

Administration Block 1 Recording room 1 Archives Public Bathroom Public Parks Public Sport Parks

STEP 1:

Users: Men (18-50 years old) Women (18-50 years old) Children (18-50 years old) Senior Citizens (50-80+ years old)

Map of subcontinent before 14th Aug 1947:

Collective memories fulfill multiple functions, all of which are related to social identity (see Páez et al., 2016). By providing narratives of a national past, collective memories preserve a sense of continuity and define what it means to be a member of the nation (Pennebaker et al ., 1997); by representing the continuity of the nation, collective memories also impact how members of a nation identify with their imagined group members across time and space (An derson, 1994; Liu & Khan, 2014).

This event shaped the identities of the two nations that were born and Seventy-five years ago, the world witnessed one of the largest migrations in recorded human history.

Our collective memory of Partition has always been through personal narratives from grandparents and depictions in books and movies, young people in India and Pakistan have constructed their own memories of Partition. Those who experienced Partition will be gone soon, the stories they told their children, and their grandchildren will live on, but those who come after us will have had no contact with the ones who survived the separation.

For such a central and defining set of events in both India and Pakistan, the stories of Partition witnesses and survivors were, for the most part, not given voice outside their own families. "Because their experiences weren't given importance for so many decades, they just learned to feel that what they experienced wasn't really worth talking about," says Guneeta Singh Bhalla ( Founder 1947 Partition Archive)

RADCLIFFE DEMARCATES EAST-WEST BOUDNARY LINE

Partition through the looking lens

STUDY: Number of Oral stories: 300

Map of subcontinent before 14th Aug 1947:

CONCLUSION

for the selection of the site, so that the site and its context provided us with enough reference to symbolise, In order to identify the region of the site, create and convey the a thorough Cartogrpahy analysis is message and the narrative.” conducted ahead to analyse positional -Ahsan Karim

relationships, refugee migratory patterns and the geographical effect of the 1947 Partition that shall guide us towards our Site.

Using Cartography to Analyse Identify Main train Migratory Routes and transit/Drop off Points:

WALTON REFUGEE CAMP, 1947 WALTON RAILWAY STATION

ARMY GARRISON

Research study Source: Partition project World Economic Forum in China

by Harvard University

East and West Punjab experienced the most inflow in terms of Refugee migration, Ethnic cleansing following acts of Violence, robbery. Food shortages and Diseases spread throughout this region.

Site selection s

Age in 1947: 15 Migrated from: Peshawar, KPK Migrated to: Haldwani, Uttarakand

RAILWAY TRACK

Telegram: “Father killed. Mother safe”.

SITE

GOVT. SCHOOL BUS STOP

WALTON GARRISON

1917 BOY SCOUTS BUILDING

WALTON ROAD

PACKAGES MALL

SITE SELECTION Punjab, Pakistan

STEP 2: Oral accounts of Survivors Manmohan singh

RESIDENTIAL

F

rom 1947 to 1948, an estimated 14 million Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs headed in both directions, many forcibly driven out by violent extremist groups on both sides. The summer of 1947 witnessed the biggest mass migration in human history. Unspeakable violence engulfed this large human displacement.

An estimated one to two million people were killed,

and hundreds of thousands of women were victimized by sexual violence. Communities that had coexisted for almost a millennium attacked each other in a terrifying outbreak of sectarian violence, with Hindus and Sikhs on one side and Muslims on the other—a mutual genocide as unexpected as it was unprecedented.

In Punjab and Bengal—provinces abutting India’s borders with West and East Pakistan, respectively— the carnage was especially intense, with massacres, arson, forced conversions, mass abductions, and savage sexual violence. Some seventy-five thousand women were raped, and many of them were then disfigured or dismembered.

(Map Source: Colomubia.edu)

“reference A trong historical was a pre-requsite

(Pitcture Source: Citizens Archive Pakistan, Collage made by editor)

Mahmud-ul-Hasan Syed

Age in 1947: 7 Migrated from: Phillaur, Punjab, India Migrated to: Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan “It was a dangerous journey. There were thick jungles we had to cross. It was raining heavily that night. Every ten miles or so, I would take a peek from the window of the truck, and see dead people. In some cases, I found dogs eating at the flesh of those dead bodies”.

Madan Lal Khurana

Age in 1947: 11 “There was human carnage all around me during the partition riots.

I saw the naked dance of death, the arson and mindless looting happening right in front of me.

There was death all around us”

Milkha singh

Age in 1947: 17 Migrated from: Govindpura, Punjab, Pakistan Migrated to: Delhi, Punjab, India ‘I have watched everything happen in front of my eyes. My brother and sister, my parents, all of them were killed in front of my eyes. And my Father’s only words were “Milkha Singh run and get out of here, Milkha singh run and get out if here, they will kill you too! Escape!”. I ran’

12 out of the 100 survivors acccounts used in this study.

Rashida Begum

Age in 1947: 14 Migrated from: Haryana, India Migrated to: Gujranwala, Pakistan “No festivities or celebrations were held during this time”

Dipti Lal

Riaz Qadeer

Age in 1947: 15 Location in 1947: Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan (did not migrate) Migrants were mainly coming from Delhi, Amritsar, and Jalandhar; they flocked towards the camp while residents of the street threw morsels and packets of food to them from the windows of their houses, “Sometimes a dog would intercept the food. To see a human being compete for food with a dog in the street was one of the most dreadful sights of Partition I’d seen”.

Ajit Cour Age in 1947: 13 Migrated from: Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan Migrated to: Delhi, India ‘I still remember at the stations, there were large drums kept separately with water meant for the Hindus and Water meant for the muslims. They were lablled as ’Muslim Water‘, ‘Hindu Water’.

Age in 1947: 10 Migrated from: Kalwadi, Pakistan Migrated to: Amritsar, Punjab, India “Many were killed and abducted that night. The group remained captive at Alibeg for about three days, before a rescue team from the Red Cross arrived. They put a stop to the arbitrary killings, and provided medical care, food, and clothes.”

Naz Rehman

Age in 1947: 8 Location in 1947: Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan (did not migrate) “Bloodshed was everywhere. Mangled and bloodied bodies were all around.

One community was especially targeted.

Children had to use stones for protection ,their elders used to advise them to keep chilli powder nearby, so that they could protect themselves in case of a t hreat’’



  

 

 

  Oral sources ‘tell us not just what people did, but what they wanted to do, what they believed they were doing, what they now think they did’ EXPERIMENTATION

- Alessandro Portelli

B

LOST

ANGER

INSECURITY+RELIEF

DESPAIR

EXPERIMENTATION

D

LOST

HOPE

RELIEF & FEAR

LOST TERROR

SECURITY

EXPERIMENTATION

RELIEF & INSECURITY

C

DESPAIR

LOST

RELIEF SECURITY +TERROR

ENT EXPERIMENTATION

A

RELIEF

SECURITY

FEAR/TERROR

HOPE

SECURITY & TERROR

RELIEF

ANGER

HOPE

LOST

FEAR

This thesis translates 100 oral survivor narratives into architectural language using adjectives extracted from their accounts.

Most Common Adjectives from Research Survey:

Terror - Fear - Pain - Lost - Hope - Despair - Relief - Security

RELIEF & FEAR

SITE: WALTON, LAHORE THE LARGEST REFUGEE CAMP SET UP IN LAHORE IN 1947

MASTERPLAN

DESIGN GRID FORMATION:

MOVEMENT OF REFUGEES:

LAYERING OF SYMBOLIC FORCES:

WAGHA BORDER, GANDA SINGH BORDER LAHORE RAILWAY STATION WALTON RAILWAY STATION

PROGRAM ZONING

29 sqm for a refugee camp (UNICEF) RESULTANT MASSING

MODULE GROWTH RESULTING INTO A GRID

ZONES CONCLUDED FROM THE GRID

Z-AXIS EXPLORATION ELEVATION AA’

RESULTANT OF INTERSECTION OF GRID AND SYMBOLIC FORCES

G’ B

A 0'-6"

C

UP

1'-0"

DN

G

UP

FIRE EXIT UP RAMP UP 2' SLOPE

10° SLOPE DN

-11'-6"

10° SLOPE UP

FIRE EXIT UP

30°

C

PE SLO UP 20°

20°

SLO

PE

E UP SLOP

-9'-6"

10° SLOPE UP

D

D

-12'-0"

FIRE EXIT UP

+0'-3"

+0'-2"

B

A

The Tower of Hope, standing 194’-7” tall, overlooks the entire site, evoking the refugee’s memory. The ascent symbolizes the migrant journey—each step carrying exhaustion yet embodying hope, culminating in a sense of relief at the top

SECTION AA’

 

This project reimagines the mosque as a dynamic community hub, deeply integrated with its surrounding environment. Drawing from the campus's existing octagonal geometry with irregular sides, the design extends these geometric lines to define the mosque's placement and form. This approach not only harmonizes the mosque with the campus but also reveals key urban parameters, guiding the spatial organization and functional relationships within the site. The chosen site emerges naturally from this geometry, anchoring the mosque as both a spiritual and communal centerpiece that resonates with the campus's architectural language.

LIBRARY SCIT/ SMC

BOUNDRY WAL

ADMINISTRATION

397

N

BOUNDRY WALL 7' HIGH

MAIN GATE

CAR PARKING

CAR PARKING

300

BOUNDRY WALL 7' HIGH

BIKE PARKING

MAIN GATE -2'-3" 

+ 0'-6"

- 1'-0"

BOUNDRY WALL 7' HIGH

-5'-0" - 2'-0"

- 5'-0"

RHSA

VOID UP

- 7'-0"

HOSTEL

BOUNDRY WALL 7' HIGH

ROAD

SITE GATE

DRIVEWAY

BOUNDRY WALL 7' HIGH

SITE PLAN N.T.S +1'-0"

LAWN AY

EW

IV

R

D

ROAD

BOUNDRY WALL 7' HIGH

CAR PARK ING

+1'-0"

CAR PARKING

CAR PARKING 52 51

ITE

S

PRAYER HALL

The mosque hall, with its square layout rotated 45 degrees, features doors on each edge, directly aligned with staircases or ramps for fluid access from all sides. The courtyard continues the campus’s grid pattern, which directs toward the qibla, seamlessly extending the mosque's presence outdoors. This allows for Jummah congregational prayers in the courtyard, where the grid intuitively guides worshippers, creating a sense of being within the mosque’s sacred space even when outside.

324

103

DRIVEWAY CAR PARKING

339

MAIN GATE

BOUNDRY WALL 7' HIGH

340

350

BOUNDRY WALL 7' HIGH

MAIN GATE

DRIVEWAY

DRIVEWAY

BOUNDRY WALL 7' HIGH

CAR PARK ING

331

GATE

GATE

BOUNDRY WALL 7' HIGH

TAROGIL ROAD

BIKE PARKING

BOUNDRY WALL 7' HIGH

MAIN GATE

MAIN GATE



 WALL 7' HIGH





The mosque's geometry is deeply symbolic, featuring a square rotated 45 degrees with a circle nestled inside. This design represents infinity—the outer square symbolizes constant rotation, while the inner circle signifies endlessness, reflecting the infinite nature of God. The architecture not only carries spiritual significance but also functions as a passive cooling system. The outer square, made of brick, and the inner curved concrete walls keep the interior cool. Inspired by the screening techniques of the Zebb Nissa Mosque by Studio Morphogenesis, apertures at each end allow air to flow through a jali system, enhancing ventilation and comfort.

 

The aim of this project was to understand the process of addition through subtraction and understand the concept of creating a "Void" in Architecture and to analyze the effects created by void in space. The only restriction was the cube, from which a public space was to be carved out

GALLERY

WORKSHOP

GALLERY

RECEPTION AXONOMETRIC SECTION