Gandhi’s handwritten notes to Lord Mountbatten on the eve of India’s partition go on present

On 2 June 1947, someday earlier than the outgoing British Raj formally introduced it might cleave its Indian territory into two new nation states, its viceroy Lord Mountbatten met with Mahatma Gandhi to barter the upcoming plans. Not a lot is understood about this dialogue, although its scope was probably restricted by the truth that it fell on a Monday, the someday of the week that Gandhi undertook a vow of silence.

Unable to speak by speech, the Indian activist chief, who could be assassinated seven months later, wrote Mountbatten 5 letters on the backs of used envelopes. On them he stated: “Once I took the choice in regards to the Monday silence I did reserve two exceptions, i.e. about talking to excessive functionaries on pressing issues or attending upon sick individuals. However I do know you don’t need me to interrupt my silence…”

These 5 hardly ever displayed artefacts now type the focus of a recent artwork exhibition at John Hansard Gallery in Southampton. Tangled Hierarchy (till 19 September) is curated by the Mumbai-based Jitish Kallat, who was invited by the gallery to think about these letters inside a bunch present round language, borders and loss, which coincides with the seventy fifth anniversary of partition.

“We do not know what Mountbatten stated that day,” Kallat says. “However in his silence Gandhi leaves us an archival residue from a second simply weeks earlier than one of many largest human displacements in historical past. They open quite a few questions on speech and silence, company and hierarchy. Was his silence a results of his already having expended his phrases difficult partition? We will solely speculate…”

For the present, he has introduced collectively works by artists equivalent to Kader Attia, who reveals a brand new movie, and the late artist Zarina, recognized for her sparse drawings of maps and floorplans. Two works by the British Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum are additionally included: a fragmented world map made from glass that’s suspended from a cellular, and sculptural set up that includes a paper map, minimize up and refashioned right into a bag.

They be a part of non-art historic artefacts and scientific instruments equivalent to trunks utilized by displaced individuals throughout partition and loaned from the Partition Museum in Amritsar, India. A mirrored field designed by the neuroscientist V. Ramachandran, which is used to deal with post-amputation sufferers experiencing phantom limb ache by creating the phantasm of two limbs, can also be included within the present. Together with a number of different works, it’s used to debate themes of loss, possession and the after-effects of trauma.

Kallat additionally reveals his new immersive set up work, Protecting Letter, that tasks onto a curtain of fog the phrases from a letter written by Gandhi to Adolf Hitler simply weeks earlier than the beginning of the Second World Conflict. That letter begins with the phrases: “Pricey good friend”, an unsuccessful plea from an advocate of non-violence to considered one of historical past’s most violent people.

Whereas the present was not meant to coincide with the seventy fifth anniversary of partition, Covid-related delays offered the chance to tie it to the historic second. However Kallat says he hopes for the exhibition to increase previous Gandhi or partition, and permit us to think about how acts of division and battle proceed into the current day.

“As we mirror upon the historic Gandhi notes, we discover ourselves as soon as once more in a tangled hierarchy—a world caught in a wierd recursive loop—the place a tragic human displacement of a scale just like that of the Indian partition is at the moment unravelling in Ukraine,” Kallat says. “It once more comes again to the everlasting return of human tragedy—or human folly—and aggression.”