UK's Coventry university leads digitization project to preserve 20,000 post-Partition documents

Coventry University in the UK is leading a new research initiative that will involve around 20,000 images, prints and documents from two decades following India’s Partition in 1947 being digitized.

The collection is housed at Hamilton Studios in Mumbai and spans nearly 100 years of Indian history and encompasses over 600,000 objects, according to a university statement on Aug 20.

The digitization project focuses on the two decades until 1967 and captures the history of the Indian subcontinent being divided into India and Pakistan at the conclusion of British colonial rule.

Coventry University said this project is inspired by the success of Coventry Digital, an online repository of more than 70,000 local images, videos and documents.

“The success of Coventry Digital has demonstrated the power of digital technology in preserving and sharing cultural narratives,” said Project Lead Ben Kyneswood, Associate Professor of Digital Heritage and Culture at Coventry University’s Research Centre for Creative Economies.

“I am eager to extend this legacy to the preservation of India's cultural heritage, ensuring that future generations have access to these invaluable historical records,” he said.

He will collaborate with Hamilton Studios and the National Institute for Design (NID) in Ahmedabad to digitize the Partition materials.

The project aims to bridge historical divides, foster cultural preservation and illuminate how the Partition continues to shape the stories of India and its people.

Many of the objects in the collection are passport photographs, reflecting the intention to travel from Mumbai, then Bombay.

Other digital assets include glass and celluloid negatives to produce high-quality reproductions of historical photographs; test prints and invoices to reveal photographic techniques and economic details; legal documents to shed light on legal frameworks; and products for advertisement to illustrate the marketing strategies and consumer culture of the time.

Beyond migration narratives, the project captures a diverse range of experiences and stories from the era, including the lives of maharajas as well as weddings, celebrations, business tycoons, marketing endeavors, family and office groups and vibrant street scenes.

The Hamilton Studios project is supported by the Modern Endangered Archives Program at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Library with funding from Arcadia, a charitable foundation that works to protect nature, preserve cultural heritage and promote open access to knowledge.

(PTI)