Memories make people; documents alone cannot.
A citizens’ movement at Park Circus Maidan invited people to share personal stories and photographs on a memory wall set up at the protest against the contentious revision of voter rolls.
The wall, organised by Nagorikata O Voteadhikar Raksha Mancha on Wednesday, is a space for recollections that connect citizens to their past and present — stories of inclusion, empowerment and empathy.
“People get dislodged from their houses, documents get lost, incidents of fire or cyclones damage papers, but memories remain forever. Memories cannot be taken away,” said Suraiya Parveen, 27, a forum member. She said that her mother, a booth-level officer during SIR, is not on the post-SIR list.
On the wall is a story of a “secular cup”, featuring a photograph of a teacup and a pair of glasses.
The writer recalls her childhood in her father’s office in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, where tea was made for all employees, but one man, “Shafique”, had a separate cup. Her mother broke that teacup — and thus the wall that separated him from the rest.
The writer, Nisha Biswas, a 72-year-old scientist from Patuli, shared the memory on the wall. She was at the protest to ask questions she believes are her right as a citizen.
“The SIR is a process of exclusion where people’s right to vote and that of a citizen is being taken away. As a citizen, I have a right to question why the healthcare system in the country is poor and why our children are not getting jobs. Who is there to answer these questions?” Biswas said.
Nausheen Baba Khan, a core forum member and government college teacher, explained the initiative: “We are asking people to share memories because identity cannot be reduced merely to documents. What is the point of being human if there are no memories and bureaucratic processes fail to recognise that?”
Khan highlighted how the SIR process overlooks many women’s lives in a patriarchal system that forces migration. “A woman’s life is nonlinear; many migrate, face hardships and experience abandonment. None of this is recognised, and she is being threatened with disenfranchisement,” she said.
One story celebrates Keshoban Bibi, a woman from a village in Birbhum in the 1960s, who drove a bullock cart and held a driving licence — at a time when most women stayed home. “Many used bullock carts... but my grandmother had a driving licence for a bullock cart... She carried crops, went to the market and helped the family... Her licence was not just a small piece of paper. It was a symbol of her courage and independence,” the story read.
Park Circus Maidan was also a site for the CAA-NRC protests, and some attendees said the SIR process brought back those unsettling memories.
“A country is about its people and not documents,” said Jhelum Roy, who identifies as an atheist.