The family pictured here is the extended Dhar family, one of the few Pandit families in this predominantly Muslim neighborhood. Perhaps this is the first photograph ever taken in Vicharnag. And as it turned out, also the last. The headgear of the senior male members was different from the junior male members. Also, the women were not in purdah, displaying some of the liberal social and cultural aspects of the community at the time. The family does not exist in Vicharnag anymore, after several migrations which took place in 1947 and then again in 1990 because of mass massacres and murderous assaults by terrorists on the Pandits. Their derelict temple complex and abandoned houses, now occupied by squatters, are the only memory of the community having lived here. indianmemoryproject/category/battle-and-conflict/violence/ethnic-cleansing/
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 16:41:08 +0000