Revisiting the Lost Heer of Undivided Punjab

In this episode, Priyam is in conversation with Harleen Singh - a storyteller between Delhi, Toronto, and Lahore, researcher, historian, and author of the book The Lost Heer: Women in Colonial Punjab (2025). He speaks about his journey from documenting oral histories of Partition to studying women’s histories in colonial Punjab with the creation of the Lost Heer Project in 2018. He takes the listener through stories of women’s participation in colonial Punjab’s society, culture, politics, and national and reformation movements, Punjabi folk songs as modes of women’s expressions, also talking about the new modern Punjabi woman of the early 20th century. The dialogue also includes discussions on Pre-Partition Lahore as a melting pot of cultures, the refugee identity embedded in the landscape of Delhi, and women as the biggest victims of Partition, which Harleen calls the end of Punjab.