Project Dastaan

Project Dastaan
Founded2018
PurposePeacebuilding
Key people
Sparsh Ahuja, Sam Dalrymple, Saadia Gardezi
Websitewww.projectdastaan.org

Project Dastaan is a peace-building initiative that reconnects displaced refugees of the 1947 Partition of India that created the modern-day South Asian republics of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh with their childhood communities and villages[1] through bespoke 360-degree digital experiences.[2] Dastaan means 'story' in several languages of the subcontinent.[3]

The Project aimed to virtually reconnect 75 first-hand witnesses of the Partition to their ancestral homes by 2022; however, Covid-19 restrictions reduced this target to 30 virtual returns.[4] The Project has 3 features "Child of Empire", an interactive VR piece to be installed in museums,[5] a feature film titled "The Lost Migration" and another film titled "Where the Birds Live".[6]

Founded in 2018 by a group of four students at the University of Oxford, the venture is advised by high-profile historians, film-makers and advocates including Malala Yousafzai, Gabo Arora,[7] Suroosh Alvi, William Dalrymple and Aanchal Malhotra.[8]

Dastaan's Founding Director, Sparsh Ahuja, was a recipient of the San-Francisco based CatchLight Fellowship in 2018[9] in order to seed fund the project. The Project was also accepted onto Kaleidoscope VR's DevLab Accelerator in 2020[10] and is part of the UK-based National Partition Commemoration Project,[11] which launched the 'South Asian Heritage Month' Campaign at British Parliament in 2018.[12] In 2022, co-founder Saadia Gardezi was awarded a National Lottery Project Grant by Arts Council England to fund a multi-venue tour across the UK in commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of partition.[13][14]

  1. ^ Gould, William (30 January 2019). "Spaces before Partition: An Introduction". South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 42: 73. doi:10.1080/00856401.2019.1554489.
  2. ^ "A tale of two cities: Project aims to retell lost stories from Lahore, Delhi". Arab News. 22 January 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  3. ^ Ferrarese, Marco (8 January 2020). "Virtual reality reconnects casualties of Partition with ancestral homes". Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  4. ^ "Far from home, refugees build digital heritage with virtual reality". Reuters. 2020-09-24. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  5. ^ Balaram, Rajashree (10 December 2018). "The initiative reconnecting survivors of Partition with the homes they left behind". Elle. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  6. ^ "Project Dastaan – Reconnecting Partition refugees to their ancestral homes". Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  7. ^ Nair, Sumitra (24 August 2019). "Homeward bound". The Week. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  8. ^ "Advisors". Project Dastaan. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  9. ^ "Sparsh Ahuja". Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  10. ^ Ferrarese, Marco (8 January 2020). "Virtual reality reconnects casualties of Partition with ancestral homes". Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  11. ^ "Partners". Project Dastaan. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  12. ^ Hughes, Sarah (15 July 2018). "Declare an annual day to mark partition of India, MPs told". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  13. ^ "Project Dastaan: Technology and storytelling for social impact and awareness". warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
  14. ^ "Project Dastaan - Derby Museums". derbymuseums.org. Retrieved 2023-12-04.