Chennai: While studying in school, our history syllabus covers mostly about India’s struggle for independence. But the contribution made by the Indian Army during World War is often left forgotten.
As a result, most of us never really know about the glory of our armed forces. To bridge this gap of ignorance, the ReReeti Foundation started an unique exhibition called ‘Entrenched’ which was held in Bengaluru.
Speaking to ‘News Today‘, Tejshvi Jain, the founder-director of Rereeti talks about the work they do. “ReReeti is a not-for-profit foundation working towards revitalising museums and bringing them closer to local communities,” says Tejshvi. She adds that they work along with museums and cultural heritage spaces to observe, evaluate and then provide multiple solutions for the organisation, their staff and audiences.
About Entrenched
Speaking about the exhibition, Tejshvi says, “‘Entrenched’ is part of a larger project we do called ‘White pepper, Black pepper’ – a code word used by the Indian soldiers in the war. So white pepper means British soldiers while black pepper means Indian soldiers. Entrenched focusses on India’s contribution during World War.” She adds, “We chose this subject as this year marks the centenary year of World War One.”
The idea
Since 2014, Tejshiv had the idea to do a project like Entrenched. “The contribution of Indian Army is not known by many. I targeted school students and I wanted the project to be a long, interactive experience.”
For the curation of the information related to World War, ReReeti foundation partnered with three schools. The exhibition is presented like a conversation between a grandchild and a grandfather. “So its like the grandchild discovers a trunk and asks his grandfather what is it,” explains Tejshvi.
“The grandfather tells the grandchild that it belonged to his father who was in the World war. Together they unearth the contents of the trunk.”
She further adds, “The entire exhibition gives you feel like as if you are in a trench. It is designed in a way to emulate what a solider would experience in a trench. So the path is narrow and it has dark spaces.”
The organisers also held discussions with students. “They were made to do surveys. We asked them questions like what is the impact of war among people? Why is it important to commemorate war?”
How did the students react?
“It has been really overwhelming and wonderful,” says Tejshiv. “We went to a partner school and the teacher told us that there has been a spike in the marks scored by students in history. It was very rewarding to listen to.”
Future plans
Tejshiv is hopeful to organise it at more places. “If we get more funding, we are more than happy to do it,” she signs off.
For details visit, www.rereeti.org