Date of Award
5-10-2026
Date Published
June 2026
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Art Photography
Advisor(s)
Yasser Aggour
Second Advisor
Romita Ray
Keywords
1947 Partition of Bengal & India;Noakhali;Photography;Post colonial Indian subcontinent;Religion & Politics in Bengal;Reyad Abedin
Subject Categories
Arts and Humanities | Fine Arts
Abstract
The project examines how the 1947 Partition of Bengal and India and its fraught legacies continue to shape communal identities and lived experience in Noakhali, Bangladesh. I have used photography as a tool to construct historical memory and to examine how memory and violence are inscribed in place, while visual practice can revisit histories and engage with contemporary lived experience, which official narratives have ignored. I chose Noakhali as a site to understand the regional realities of the Indian subcontinent in a post-colonial era. Noakhali is a southern district of Bangladesh, where I was born and raised. This area has gone through waves of rulers drawn from different faiths and ethnic backgrounds over several thousand years and has seen significant violence before and after British rule. In particular, the Noakhali Riot of 1946 played a vital role in foreshadowing the Partition of India. This riot rarely appears in national histories, mainly because its memory complicates official narratives of independence and liberation on both sides of the Bengal border and, more broadly, it challenges the religiously motivated celebratory frameworks through which Partition has been remembered across South Asia. Today, the history of the riot remains ignored, and ongoing violence continues to haunt its landscapes. Silence After Freedom begins here, returning to the sites where memory lingers, going to the community to document their lived experience and listen to their stories.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Abedin, MD Minhajul, "Silence After Freedom" (2026). Theses - ALL. 1030.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/1030
