When literature student (at Delhi and Oxford) Avani Tandon Vieira and filmmaker Ansh Ranvir Vohra came together, they created a unique online platform for artists of India and Pakistan to claim a common space to tell their stories to one another. This is not easy because the two countries have fought several wars with each other since 1947 when Pakistan broke away from India to become a separate country (at the same time when India won independence from British colonial rule). An estimated one million people died in the civil war that happened along with the partition of India. Even today the threat of another India-Pakistan war is ever present. But amid all the hostility, Tandon and Vohra have collaborated with 11 artistes from both countries to create the Pind Collective. ‘Pind’ is the Punjabi word for village or more colloquially — hood. Punjabi is a language spoken both in India and Pakistan.
- Could you tell us a little about the Pind Collective and yourselves. How old is the organisation?
Avani: The Pind collective is a collaborative, online community for young artists in India and Pakistan. As young people growing up on either side of the border, I think there’s a way in which all your ideas about the other nation are ideas you inherit. This can often be immensely limiting — it’s as if the only version of Pakistan you can engage with is a version that you have no role in creating. The collective is our attempt to correct this. We’re trying to reclaim agency as young artists.
2. How long has the Pind Collective been active?
Avani: I started working on the project about two years ago. Ansh came on board early last year and we launched online in July 2016.
Ansh: Yes, Avani initially wanted me on-board as a participating artist. When she first told me about the collective, I thought the idea had immense potential. I feel like, as storytellers, we need to continuously engage with mediums, structures and ideas that challenge us. So it’s extremely important to work in conjunction with an active community of artists and audiences, to ensure a healthy exchange of ideas and experiences. To have the opportunity to do that, especially with such a wide range of practitioners from either side of the border was an invaluable opportunity.
3. What has been the biggest challenge you face?
Avani: I think the fact that our community is online is both a blessing and a challenge. Digital mediums enable a connectivity that was unimaginable in the past but it can also be difficult to handle the logistics of a project where you never meet in person. Both Ansh and I have full time engagements — Ansh is a freelance filmmaker and I recently completed my Master’s degree in literature — so it can be difficult to balance everything. It’s more than worth the effort, though.
Ansh: And, aside from logistical roadblocks, we also sometimes lose out on very valuable opportunities to interact with each other in person, perhaps discuss ideas and exchange film and music recommendations with participants from Pakistan over a cup of coffee. Which is why we’re hoping to hold offline exhibitions in Pakistan at some point.
4. What has been the most inspirational moment?
Avani: For me, a very special moment came recently. Ansh’s grandmother, Nirmal Chawla, fled Pakistan in 1947 and he used film to tell her story for the collective. Another one of our artists, Sana Nasir (who is based in Karachi), created an incredibly thoughtful illustration in response to his film, capturing Nirmal ji’s story with the kind of love that we would never even have thought to expect. It was a deeply personal undertaking for her because her own grandmother was a Partition refugee as well. Looking at her piece alongside Ansh’s was incredible because it reminded me of how much our histories overlap and how beautiful it can be when we listen with compassion and kindness.
Ansh: That’s my pick too. It was an extremely emotional experience for my family to have somebody from Pakistan who, for generations now, existed only as a perceived enemy, put in such an incredible amount of effort to realize my grandmother’s journey on paper. My grandmother was deeply moved when she saw the piece, and wished a happy life for Sana.
5. What is the long term goal?
Avani: I don’t think our long term goals are set in stone but if I had to think about what we’d like to achieve, it’s the creation of a platform that allows people to tell their own stories, on their own terms, regardless of the borders that stand between them. Our community is steadily growing and if we are able to help more people speak, engage and be heard, I think we will be happy.
6. How essential do you think projects like yours are to break the ice between the two countries?
Avani: Unfortunately, I don’t think there are enough opportunities to connect with our contemporaries across the border. For me, a trip to Lahore was what prompted my engagement with this project. Most people do not have the opportunity or the means, to physically cross that border. That’s where we come in. It’s through projects like ours that we are able to re-imagine the relationship between our nations. We are mindful of the past, but we choose, also, to hope for a different future.
Ansh: As an artist, the greatest thing you can hope for is to be known for the stories you choose to tell. And in the Indian-Pakistan context, that takes on even greater importance, because when we’re choosing to identify each other through our work, we’re doing that by breaking through a perceived identity we’ve comfortably held on to for so long.
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