‘THE SCARS YOU CAN’T SEE’

A Community Collaborative Project

And I walked along the concrete road, crossing a BSF camp that heads towards the village of Rangutia in Bamutia, Tripura, and eventually reaching my destination. The space where I had come to explore and experience… As per plan, I would conceive a project of visual arts (outdoor) and curate the same, collaborating with a group of practicing contemporary artists originating from Tripura. Rangutia struck me as a small village made up of numerous mud houses and a few cement structures (which were new). A surreal environment with man-made forests all around… In the course of time, I discovered that it was one of India’s biggest rubber plantation sites, which was also the main source of livelihood for the villagers. I noticed this unconstructed road that leads into the forest to an unknown destination while wandering with the village and the villagers, listening to their daily acquisition of stories that made up their lives. I followed the path and walked ahead with a sudden sense of interest and tension. After reaching the end of the path, I discovered an endless curtain of barbed wire fences and gates, which were numbered. I realized it was where my country, India, ends and my neighboring country, Bangladesh, starts. It was the ‘BORDER’. I was stoned for some time, became emotional, and yet was unable to express myself… That moment, I was dealing with my own frustrations and misery.  A ‘reality’ I couldn’t fathom from the time I was formally introduced to it initially by our educational system and later on more realistically through my own research and study about it….And the ‘reality’ was ‘PARTITION’..

The land named ‘INDIA’ was suddenly divided into two and eventually three separate land masses. The land was suddenly broken up into fragments. As the ‘intruders’ ordered and the ‘beholders’ accepted and followed. Because self-made politics and greed for power and authority would not absolve us of our sins, a society was not brave and independent enough to oppose the order…as we gladly assisted the intruders fulfill their wicked wish.