GESTURISM ART

OBJECTS USED IN CHILDHOOD

Born 1954, Sen spent his young days in a squatted refugee camp in West Bengal. In memory of hardships his family and fellow East Bengal (now Bangladesh) refugees went through post India’s violent Independence 1947, he displays various household items they had used then, like cooking vessels and kerosene lamps. The only difference is that he had them painted with lovely patterns to keep his poverty stricken childhood in mind in his everyday life today.  

INDIA’S BLOODY INDEPENDENCEIN 1947

When India was partitioned 1947 to create Pakistan, a new country for Muslims, about 20 million people of Bengal and Punjab were displaced and brutally victimized. Sen’s wealthy, literate family had huge landed property in erstwhile East Bengal, the present Bangladesh, which was carved out to be East Pakistan for Muslims. So for being Hindus Sen’s family was overnight evicted from their home. Without taking any possessions, they fled for their lives amidst people warring over religion, and so became squatted refugees in West Bengal.