The weekend of 13-14 August will see a busy programme of events at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery to mark the 75th anniversary of Indian Partition and South Asian Heritage Month.

The splitting of India and Pakistan in August 1947 led to the largest migration of people in world history. In the decades that followed, Birmingham became a centre for tens of thousands of people arriving from South Asia in hope of a new, better life. The city now has the largest Pakistani diaspora outside of South Asia, as well as a sizeable Indian and Bangladeshi population.

These events will be commemorated with a weekend of events at BMAG, leading with Project Dastaan’s award-winning virtual reality film Child of Empire, a docu-drama experience that immerses viewers into the 1947 Partition. Visitors wear a VR-headset and are transported to South Asia, as they experience the real-life accounts of three Partition witnesses, from both sides of the border. The VR experience is available at 30 minute intervals throughout the weekend, on a first-come first-served basis – and will also be available throughout the previous week from Monday 8 August.

Alongside the VR-experience is a three-part animated series Lost Migrations, also by Project Dastaan, that explore the memory, loss and trauma that accompanied the Partition through the voices of colonised women, the stateless and the diaspora.

Sonia Sabri Company present their new work Mughal Miniatures on Sunday 14 August. Celebrating the deep-rooted cultural, political and human links between Birmingham and South Asia, Mughal Miniatures is inspired by tiny, highly-detailed tradition of Indian miniature paintings that can be traced back to the ninth century, examples of which are stored in the Birmingham Museums Trust collection.

Mughal Miniatures creates a living version of these tiny paintings, which depict Indian royal courts and the glory of the Mughal period with a contemporary, humorous and upbeat manner. These beautiful and ornate scenes transform from still pictures into bursts of dance and music, before returning to well-behaved stills. Surrounded by brilliant reds, blues, greens, pinks and golds, willing audience members can become part of these interactive ‘living pictures’, perhaps fanning the blue-skinned God Krishna or learning a short Kathak dance to please Akbar the Great.

Mughal Miniatures is choreographed by the multi award-winning dance artist and choreographer Sonia Sabri and has been created with the help of help of women from Saheli Hub in Balsall Heath who have shared artwork and stories which play a significant part in the performance.

The weekend also includes a series of hands-on events, including The Art of Sari Draping workshop with Legacy West Midlands, and a pop-up exhibition and zine-making from the South Asian Diaspora Archive (SADAA).

All events are free. For full information, click here.