At the annual conference, 'On History and Literature' held in Calcutta in 2025 Sarmistha Dutta Gupta delivered a talk drawing on the testimonials from families who had borne the toll of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre to trace the gaps and voices left unheard in official histories of the incident. Using poems, letters, songs and interviews, Dutta Gupta placed literary and oral testimonies alongside state records to recover what had been left out and hone her focus on histories of ‘survival’ rather than ‘martyrdom.’ 

The talk is available in print in the journal for the annual conference 'On History and Literature'. Alongside, here are some digital resources:

Ways of Remembering Jallianwala Bagh

https://www.youtube.com/watchv=uySeLHxW1z4

Tagore's letter renouncing knighthood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SowR1rNIfU0

Manto's short story Tamasha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9CEHRlSI_I

Krishan Chander's novel 'Amritsar Azadi se Pehle, Azadi ke Baad'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atEj_hurZYc

On curating the installation at Victoria Memorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsRaDKVVB6Q

Download the PDF of 'Recontextualizing Jallianwala Bagh at Victoria Memorial Hall', a conversation between Sarmistha Dutta Gupta, Sanchayan Ghosh and Vidhu Gandhi, Seminar 750 (Feb 2022): 12–19.

750-Dialogue-Sarmistha-Sanchayan-Vidhu.pdf

Download PDF • 426KB