There are three phases to the research:

Phase 1:

Exploring Documents on Pakistani Bengalis: We will gather existing knowledge about the Pakistani Bengali community through exploring Governmental, media, and unofficial sources.

Phase 2:

Oral history and archival elicitation: This phase of the research will be undertaken in collaboration with the Citizens Archive of Pakistan, which will house the digital recordings of oral history interviews, creating a permanent archive of the experiences of Pakistani Bengalis.

We will conduct oral history interviews in Karachi with adult members of the community. Members will be of different ages, different social classes, and different levels of political participation. We will interview young people from the community (aged 13 to 18), where possible from the same households as the adults. We will use the innovative method of archival elicitation with our participants. Some of the interviews will take place in the Mohammadi ‘Macchar’ colony, home to a large number of Pakistani Bengalis. We will also run a series of 3 art workshops in Karachi with young people from the study.

Phase 3:

Arts-based Research & Documentary: Co-led by Artist Irfan Hasan, this phase will involve a series of workshops with the local community and student artists and musicians, who will use as inspiration findings from phase 1 and phase 2 of the project to create new artwork and music about the Pakistani Bengali community.

We will also work with award-winning film-maker Jawad Sharif to make a film telling the story of the Pakistani Bengali community.