Sarindar Dhaliwal | The Radcliffe Line and Other Geographies

Sarindar Dhaliwal
The Radcliffe Line and Other Geographies
St Catherines/Abbotsford/Oshawa, Canada: Rodman Hall Art Centre/Reach Gallery Museum/The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2017
222 pp., 18.5 x 15 x 2 cm., hardcover
Edition size unknown


Seventy-three years ago the British lawyer Cyril Radcliffe was tasked with dividing British-ruled India into the new independent nations of India and Pakistan, and was given five weeks to do it. The partition became known as the Radcliffe Line and it triggered perhaps the largest diaspora ever, outside of war and famine. The BBC calls the tension between India and Pakistan "one of the world's most enduring geopolitical fault lines." Fifteen million became refugees and there were between half a million and a million casualties. The division prompted both countries to develop nuclear weapons.

Oxford lecturer Dr Yasmin Khan puts the blame squarely on occupying Britain: 

“The British government had repeatedly delayed granting freedom in the 1930s, when it might have been more amicably achieved… the planning was shoddy and the date was rushed forward by a whole year; the original plan was for a British departure in mid-1948. The British come out of the story looking ill-prepared, naive and even callous.”

Author, broadcaster and human rights activist Yasmin Khan is blunter still in her assessment:

"The Partition of India in 1947 promised its people both political and religious freedom - through the liberation of India from British rule and the creation of the Muslim state of Pakistan. Instead, the geographical divide brought displacement and death, and benefited the few at the expense of the very many."

The Radcliffe Line and Other Geographies documents an exhibition at Rodman Hall which brought together works by Sarindar Dhaliwal from the last twenty years as context for her recent investigation into the legacy of the Partition of India.

Using sculpture, installation, video, photography, and painting, Dhaliwal "weaves compelling narratives that explore issues of culture, migration, and identity. Through lush, visually stunning imagery and poetic language she finds reparation for the past, responding to colonial histories with a critical approach that maintains reverence for wonder and imagination so that, as Dhaliwal describes, she may return beauty to the world."

The book features texts by Marcie Bronson, Richard Fung, Linda Jansma, Anne Koval, Deborah Root, Laura Schneider, and MJ Thompson, and photography by Toni Hafkenscheid. The title is designed by Lauren Wickware, who was nominated for an OAAG Award. The jury noted:

“An engaging piece that blurs the line between catalogue and art book. Great use of colour for chapter transitions and enhancing the subject matter. As you turn the pages, there are many surprises and delights. A real gem.”

The Radcliffe Line and Other Geographies is available from the publisher, here, for $30 CDN.


"There are instances where the gallery architecture adds unintended depth that enhances an exhibition. That Sarindar Dhaliwal’s The Radcliffe Line and Other Stories is at Rodman Hall (once a residential space built by the grandson of a United Empire Loyalist, described as a “stately Victorian mansion” and “transitional from late Gothic to early Tudor to Jacobean”) only augments Dhaliwal’s artwork.

Dhaliwal “weaves compelling narratives [exploring] culture, migration, and identity. Rooted in memories and dreams, Dhaliwal’s work reflects on the dissonance of the immigrant experience, often addressing her childhood experience and perceptions of Eastern and Western customs. Drawing out the themes of personal identity and familial relationships that appear throughout her practice, this exhibition brings together monumental works from Dhaliwal’s oeuvre of the last twenty years, contextualizing her recent interdisciplinary body of work exploring the history and ongoing consequences of the 1947 partition of India.”

In diverse media, Dhaliwal’s works are spaced around the building and even outside (a floral version of the cartographer’s mistake: the Radcliffe Line is on the front lawn; a chromira print of another manifestation hangs inside). Pieces like the green fairy storybook or the various book works in the front left room (notebooks and drawings in vitrines) take on an almost domestic feel, like you’ve stepped into an inhabited space."

- Bart Gazzola