Note from Curators
From the muhajirs to the girmityas, migration has created new territories of thoughts and ideas, throughout the areas with colonial proximity to the East India Company. Born out of the desire to learn, unlearn, and relearn the stories of this region, we invite you to engage and immerse in the प्रवासी / প্রবাসী / Pravasi (or immigrant) discourse. We understand that defining the Poorvanchal region is a complex task. Linguistically, it is assumed to be dominated by Hindi, while a range of languages, including Bhojpuri, Bangla, Maithili, Santhali, Urdu, and many more flow through its vernacular landscape. Politically, there has been a demand for a different state through the bifurcation of Uttar Pradesh; and geographically, it is simply the eastern parts of India. However, our focus is on including the spaces that exist in the present-day states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Eastern UP, and parts of West Bengal and Orissa. We intend to reflect on the movement of people and cultures from these regions to other parts of the country and the world and vice versa. This virtual project is an endeavour to understand how this movement affects the transit in identity, culture and history within these regions and the world.
Our Team
Akash Bharadwaj
Akash Bharadwaj is a doctoral candidate in the department of history and archaeology at Shiv Nadar University. His research interests include histories of museums, collections and exhibitionary practices to understand how they contribute to the making of a region, nation and the world.
Rini Rayna
Rini Rayna is a researcher, writer, editor and creative strategist working at the crossroads of media, ecology and culture. She has written for independent publications and creative agencies, approaching her work through an interdisciplinary lens, while seeking to understand how objects, bodies, rituals, borders and migration shape personal and collective histories.
Rumana Zabeen
Rumana Zabeen is pursuing her Bachelor in Fine Arts in Art Education from Jamia Millia Islamia. She works as a freelance artist in both traditional and digital formats with various small businesses and brands. She is interested in performance arts and its deployment as a therapeutic instrument.
Sudeshna Rana
Sudeshna Rana is a writer, editor, poet and researcher interested in culture, gender and ecology. She is a 2022 South Asia Speaks fellow and is currently working on her first book based on her hometown, Dhanbad.
Yagnaseni Mitra
Yagnaseni Mitra works in publication support services as an academic editor specialising in psychology and psychosocial healthcare. She is also involved in a research collaboration led by Northumbria University. Yagnaseni is also experienced in transcribing and translation work and continues to be involved in projects with the Living Waters Museum and IIT Kharagpur.
