YOUNG volunteers from youth group Aik Saath helped put on an exhibition about women’s experiences during the partition of India.

The exhibition contains interviews and memories from twelve local women who lived through the chaos that followed the partition of India and Pakistan, which killed over a million people and displaced as much as 12 million more.

Mayor of Slough, Ishrat Shah, who attended the opening event, said “It’s very appropriate that young people shared in the experiences of these women, since many of these women were themselves young at time of the Partition.

“It’s a good way of letting them share in these experiences, so they can carry them on to the future. We must remember that independence did not come without huge sacrifices.”

Cousins Anessa Hussain, 19, and Ruby Hussain, 15, joined Aik Saath after hearing about it through friends.

Anessa Hussain said: “We didn’t know very much about the Partition, it was very interesting to learn more about it. We did a lot of work for this research project, including researching at the National Archives.

“It made us realise the sacrifices others made to get us to where we are today – we’re both British Pakistani. It inspired us to talk to our family.

“We found that our granddad was a refugee during the Partition – we would never have asked, never have known, if it wasn’t for this project.”

Volunteer Sanna Malik, 15, said: “I joined Aik Saath because I wanted to get more involved in my community. I already knew a bit about the partition – my father is interested in history and talks about it a lot.”

“Interviewing the women taught me that destruction can be brought into a community so quickly but that healing can take place eventually.”

In addition to the talk by the young volunteers, there was a lecture on the history of the partition by Professor Sarah Ansari, in addition to a poetry recital by poet and host Vidhu Sharma, who goes by the stage name BananaSharma.

The event ended with a Giddha dance by the Apna Virsa community group.