As a catastrophe that uprooted millions, the partition of India has a compelling hold on South Asia and its historians. More specifically, Punjab has, as the partition’s western heartland, shaped modern India’s perception of itself in fundamental ways. Focusing on this region, Venkateswaran argues that collecting “tangible history” – relics, documents, and paintings – for museums was a crucible in which citizenship, national identity, and belonging were articulated, forged, contested, and denied in the aftermath of partition. She draws on hitherto unknown or little used archival material and connects disciplines that have seldom been linked: partition studies, South Asian museum historiography, and art history.