Binita Kane: sharing hidden histories in heritage and health

Abstract

After violence broke out in his village in what is now Bangladesh, in the years following the 1947 Partition of India, Binita Kane's father Bim Bhowmick left India for the UK. “I saw newspaper articles from the time about how the village was burning and people were being slaughtered. The fact that my Hindu family escaped was just a miracle in itself”, says Kane, “but the circumstances under which a Muslim family risked their own lives to help them was just incredible…I feel the narrative that's been passed down the generations is largely one of hatred. We have really lost the narrative of neighbours sheltering neighbours, generations of Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and so many others living together side by side.” Her father eventually became a specialist in geriatric medicine who worked for almost 50 years in the UK National Health Service (NHS). “As a refugee, my dad lived in absolute poverty. His brother and sister died, his father died of a treatable disease…Just somehow, through the kindness of strangers and his own determination, he managed to carry on with his studies.” Their family story featured in a 2017 BBC documentary series on the Partition of India. “I was the first member of my family in over 70 years to go back to the place from where my then very young father fled in terror”, she says.