Project Dastaan

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

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

The Project aims to virtually reconnect 75 first-hand witnesses of the Partition to their ancestral homes by 2022, and film both "Child of Empire", an interactive VR piece to be installed in museums,[4] and a feature film entitled "The Lost Migration".

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,[5] Suroosh Alvi, William Dalrymple and Aanchal Malhotra.[6]

Dastaan's Founding Director, Sparsh Ahuja, was a recipient of the San-Francisco based CatchLight Fellowship in 2018[7] in order to seed fund the project. The Project was also accepted onto Kaleidoscope VR's DevLab Accelerator in 2020[8] and is part of the UK-based National Partition Commemoration Project,[9] which launched the 'South Asian Heritage Month' Campaign at British Parliament in 2018.[10]

References
  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. Balaram, Rajashree (10 December 2018). "The initiative reconnecting survivors of Partition with the homes they left behind". Elle. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  5. Nair, Sumitra (24 August 2019). "Homeward bound". The Week. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  6. "Advisors". Project Dastaan. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  7. "Sparsh Ahuja". Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  8. Ferrarese, Marco (8 January 2020). "Virtual reality reconnects casualties of Partition with ancestral homes". Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  9. "Partners". Project Dastaan. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  10. Hughes, Sarah (15 July 2018). "Declare an annual day to mark partition of India, MPs told". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
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