Public historian Dr Diya Gupta sets up the art exhibition “Hunger Burns”, contributes to the BBC podcast “Three Million” and the upcoming National Geographic docu-series “Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color”.
By Eve Lacroix (Senior Communications Officer), Published (Updated )
What happens when large parts of history remain untold and what does it take to make audiences connect with those stories?
Dr Diya Gupta, Lecturer in Public History at City, University of London, is committed to bringing marginalised histories to the forefront.
Her research has a particular focus on people of South Asian heritage in the UK, and the history of the 1943 Bengal Famine.
To share these untold histories in a way that connects with a wider audience, she is incorporating creativity and storytelling. Over the past few months, she has been working with writers, producers and journalists across multiple media, contributing to a poetry exhibition, a podcast and an upcoming docuseries.
“My aim is to broaden our horizons of what British history itself is,” she says. “Looking at the legacies of empire in fresh, empathetic and perceptive ways is key to being a public historian.”
Art and poetry exhibition “Hunger Burns”
The art and poetry exhibition “Hunger Burns” highlights the man-made, war-induced 1943 Bengal Famine, bringing together art and poetry that responds to the memory and ongoing effects of the atrocity. The project was funded by a City HEIF Knowledge Exchange grant.
“At the launch, we will explore articulations of hunger and desire, loss and longing,” says Dr Gupta.
The exhibition opens to the public at 2 pm on 11 May 2024 at the Idea Store Watney Market, based in the Tower Hamlets library in East London.
BBC Podcast “Three Million” and National Geographic “Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color”
Dr Gupta was a key academic consultant for the BBC podcast series “Three Million”, launched in March and hosted by journalist Kavita Puri, which brought to life the realities of the 1943 Bengal Famine.
The podcast, which received an exceptional review in The Times, differs from other academic studies of the famine by focusing on the experiences and emotions of those who endured famine and those who witnessed it, and by employing voice actors to bring to life archival material from that time.
To do so, the podcast drew on Dr Gupta’s archival findings, research from her book India in the Second World War: An Emotional History (Oxford University Press and Hurst Publishers, 2023), and her current research project based on the 1943 Bengal Famine and the meanings of food.
Emotion is of particular importance to Dr Gupta’s research. She says:
Her research has also contributed towards the National Geographic's new docuseries “Erased: WW2's Heroes of Color”, which aims to reveal the untold stories of soldiers of colour.
The series mixes war sequences and character portraits, and will launch in the UK in May and in the US in June. Dr Gupta’s work was particularly impactful in the episode focusing on Dunkirk.
Emotions, food and history: further research on the 1943 Bengal Famine
Eighty years on, there is still much to research and learn about the Bengal Famine. Dr Gupta’s first book was India in the Second World War: An Emotional History.
“The subtitle was very important to me because it emphasised the subjectivity of those who experienced the Second World War as a British colony,” she says.
Dr Gupta’s current research looks at the cultural meanings of food deprivation in colonised India during the war, and she hopes this research will help us better understand food inequalities in the world today.
Continuing to uncover archival knowledge, she is studying Clive Branson’s letters (British soldier, artist and poet who served in India during the 1940s), letters from loved ones written to Indian soldiers stationed at the Middle Eastern and North African fronts, the Bengali artist Chittaprosad's famine sketches and notes, and a play on the famine written by Indian intellectual Mulk Raj Anand, which was staged in London at the Unity Theatre in 1943.
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