Saline Notations
2023 – 2024
Saline Notations is rooted in a British-era directory from 1962, The Daily Gazette, documenting Hindu residents of Karachi, who most likely left Sindh during the Partition. The work refers to the mass migrations and resulting identity crises that followed this historical event. In the left frame, Kallat uses salt to highlight the professions and addresses of Hindu migrants, subtly referencing their past roles as lawyers, landlords, or merchants, while deliberately obscuring their names. In contrast, the right frame reveals their names but effaces their professional and residential details. The work invites deeper reflections on identity, memory, and erasure.
Salt, a recurring element in Kallat’s work, symbolizes both sustenance and transience, as it dissolves back into the sea, emphasizing the frailty of human life and the shifting nature of our individual and collective memories. It also recalls salt’s historical role in protests during the freedom struggle. Its significance as a preservative, aligns with Kallat’s oeuvre in preserving fading memory and resisting the tide of historical erasure.
Acknowledgements
Aruna Madnani, Sindhi Culture Foundation; Video Production: Kiran Keshav, W.M. Films
Poem: ‘Blind Smoke’ by Arjan Shad Mirchandani from Freedom and Fissures: An Anthology of Sindhi Partition Poetry, translated by Anju Makhija and Menka Shivdasani, (Sahitya Akademi, 1998).