The past can be relocated in the present through a reconstruction of cities, sites and narratives, both literally and metaphorically, in the form of stories, songs, poems, slogans and sometimes festivals, and with collective community gatherings on several occasions in gurdwaras. The annual commemoration events held at memorial sites on the dates related to Chaurasi are significant. Radhika Chopra rightly remarks that
We do not leave our past behind; it’s a palpable presence in our present and we actively commemorate and remember the past in monuments and memorials, in texts, images, songs, stories, rituals, art, space and time and, I would add, in evocations of the spirit of persons.
She reiterates the contention of Halbwach and Eves, “It is in society that people acquire memory, localising the present in the past … the memory is collective not because its content is shared but because the process of remembering is shared”. Chopra engages with the split between the memorial and memories – while “memorials are placed in the dialogical relations of reference … remembrance is layered, weaving historical pasts and contemporary politics”. She recalls how the public places and the bazaars surrounding the site of events are also sites of remembrance. The bazaars surrounding Darbar…
Source: This book analyses the experiences of women survivors and witnesses of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots
