New Delhi, Aug. 14 -- A small square of yellow cloth carries four fish, stitched as though they are travelling somewhere together. Two of them swim across small blue patches of fabric. The patches once belonged to a sari worn by the grandmother of the woman who made the piece. Born in Pakistan, she came to India during Partition and always wanted to return home, but died without being able to.

"When this woman got to know that the piece would travel to Pakistan, she brought these patches with her, saying that since her grandmother couldn't return to her home, a piece of her clothing should," says Rubina Singh, founder of Rafunaama, a South Asian platform and curated archive of woven histories, textile art, and feminist resistance.

The l...