Reyad Abedin

Biography:

Reyad Abedin is a Photojournalist and Visual storyteller based in Bangladesh. He completed his post-graduate degree in Photography and then worked for Counter Foto - A Center for Visual Arts as Global Coordinator and now working independently.

In Search of Lost Tune

Status: Ongoing

“In my birthplace, history repeats itself. In October 1946 Bengal experienced the most significant communal violence named the “Noakhali Riot” 5000 were killed, and around 50,000 people became homeless. Which lead to India's partition. A similar Riot was repeated in the same locality, Noakhali, in 2013, and 2021 during the Hindu’s largest festival Durga Puja. Today it is unearthly how similar the present is to the past. It is time to look at the history of the violent past which is in the memories of people and that still haunts them, to relate with the present to examine the past with the present to demonstrate the politics of this land.

After the Indian subcontinent earned its freedom from the British Empire, they were reorganized into two new countries based on religion- India, and Pakistan. Mass communal violence broke out during the transition and resulted in a power grab. The violence had spread to both sides of Bengal. In the Year 1946 a year before India’s independence, my birthplace Noakhali district, experienced the most significant communal violence named the Noakhali Riot. The Hindu population has dwindled from 28 percent in the 1940s to about 4.52 percent.

I had been emotionally involved with a Hindu girl for more than a decade, and we grew up together. However, this relationship has to face different consequences because we were born in different religious families because our society is not tolerant enough to accept love between inter-religion.

In Search of Lost Tune is an ongoing project that began in 2019. This is a project about the great partition of India and its consequences: communal riots, rape, murder, forceful religious conversion, time, place, and love. I photographed the history of the Noakhali riot and its subsequent events: violence, social and political initiatives that happened to make peace, and the present scenario of communal riots between Muslims and minority Hindus. I photographed my personal life as a victim of communalism.

What we are living through now is maybe a history of prepared news. Politicize the history education and information which all of us are going through. So what is liberty mean to them? What does liberty mean for love at this time? I hope to create a safe space for victims to share their stories in pursuit of healing wounds. I believe that healing begins through collective witnessing, understanding, and connection between people in their collective grief. I want to show the people who we are today; to bring light to our stories and create a space for us to be seen and heard as we define ourselves and make it clear how we want to be represented.