Forgotten Narratives: How Lost Heer Project Is Highlighting Women’s Stories From Colonial Punjab

India’s colonisation by the British changed the face of the subcontinent in various ways, much of which still lies within the realm of debates and discussions to assess its deep-rooted impact. Our generation is learning, and often unlearning, the stories we were told. However, there was a common thread between most of them—the history of colonial India and its partition was dominated by narratives of men.

In 2014, Harleen Singh, a Delhi-born Toronto-based engineer, spent four months in India interviewing witnesses of the 1947 partition. Over the next three years of collecting these testimonies, Singh, who comes from a family of Partition refugees, realised the lack of female perspectives in our mainstream narratives. This was the starting point for The Lost Heer Project (TLHP), an Instagram collective that aims to understand Punjab's history through the eyes of women.

Singh, who started TLHP in 2018, is now in the process of turning the stories she unearthed into a book. Currently in India to research for the book, Singh talks about how she chose Heer as the name of the project.

“I believe there is a dearth of history projects centred around Punjab's history, my ancestral land, and it was very personal. As a grandchild of refugees growing up far from Punjab and not speaking the language, this project was also fundamental in helping me understand my origins and archive them for thousands like me. I chose The Lost Heer because, for me, Heer represents the 'quintessential Punjaban.' She is strong and daring, something unusual for a woman in 15th-century Punjab. Her mentions have been ubiquitous in Punjabi culture, folk, and lore for many centuries, invoked by Sufis, gurus, and feminists alike. Moreover, Heer transcends all identities and represents all Punjabi women, irrespective of caste, creed, or religion.”

"As children and grandchildren of Partition survivors, we don’t really have much that testifies to our roots and origins. We lack ancestral homes to return to and are missing heirlooms and family photographs, all of which were left behind. All we have is this wisdom, and this is the key to our past."

"But this is a treacherous road. Not all information is readily available for verification. Elaborating on the process, Singh says, "Since memory cannot always be trusted due to biases and other natural complexities, I always use the available archives when covering historic events. I am a big fan of archival newspapers and magazines, as they help me construct a timeline for events and provide a basis for verifying notable occurrences.'"

A conversation with a woman led Singh to learn about the first graduate of a women’s medical college. He ran the name of the college in various newspapers to find contemporary reports of the convocation and was able to verify this account. "This is particularly true for women's histories, which, unlike men’s, have not been meticulously recorded, especially in Punjab. Wisdom has passed from mothers to daughters, and it is this feminist genealogy that I’m interested in documenting," he adds.

One of the stories Singh has documented is that of Sarla Thakral, who was the first Punjabi woman to qualify as a pilot. She obtained her licence after flying between Karachi and Lahore in 1936. Often, the process also takes an emotional toll. "There are days when you find a very troubling story in the archives or come across the testimony of a World War II widow or an interview with a Jallianwala Bagh widow. I think it’s only natural in these cases. But then I remind myself that if there are stories of trauma and heartbreak, there are also stories of hope and success," he opines.

Researching for The Lost Heer Project also brought Singh closer to his family. "I feel I barely knew my grandmothers before I began this project. I never really thought about my forebears and had taken them for granted. I believe that after TLHP, I have become much closer to them and have greater respect for all they accomplished in their lives," he says.

Singh hopes to digitise the entirety of his research to make the information he has learned and collected available to everyone. It is pivotal to his efforts, he says, "As children and grandchildren of Partition survivors, we don't really have much that would testify to our roots and origins. We don't have ancestral homes to return to and lack heirlooms and family photographs (which were all left behind). All we have is this wisdom, and this is the key to our past."