Limits of change: A groundbreaking art experience in Chennai illuminates India’s role in Korean war peacekeeping

CHENNAI: In 1953, after India gained independence, the country took its first step as a peacekeeper on the global stage. At the request of the United Nations, India deployed the Custodian Force of India (CFI) to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Korea to maintain peace and protect the prisoners of war (POWs) who did not want to return to their home countries. Accompanying Major General SPP Thorat, who led the mission was Major T.N.R. Nayar as DSO2. The CFI's mission was to explain the rights and privileges of nearly 23,000 POWs from various nations.

Fast forward to 2025, Parvathi Nayar, the daughter of General Nayar and a celebrated multidisciplinary artist, has teamed up with her niece Nayantara Nayar for an extraordinary project called Limits of Change. Parvathi has co-written the script with Nayantara and curated the art as a wide-ranging community project, which also features some of her work. Parvathi has also created a beautiful art book called ‘Messages in a Turtle Box’ with designer Sindhura and directed three videos – all of which are part of Limits of Change. This immersive art and storytelling experience sheds light on this untold chapter of Indo-Korean history. The project, the first of its kind in Chennai, will unfold at The Story Museum, created at Lalit Kala Academy with a powerful blend of art installation and theatrical performance, running from February 8 to 20.

After Nayar’s passing, his daughter Parvathi inherited a treasure trove of photos, archives, and papers from his work. As she sifted through these materials, she felt compelled to share a story that needed to be told. "While browsing through them, I realised there was a story here that the world needed to hear," says Parvathi. "I began working on this project six years ago and invited my niece Nayantara to join me. The idea was to create a work of fiction from the historical material - the fictional narrative has the power to reveal our deepest truths. I did not want to alter history, but to capture the essence and ethos of the CFI experience - and my father’s life - making it an experiential journey."

A dedicated team has worked to bring this vision to life. Limits of Change unfolds across nine interconnected spaces called The Story Museum – dedicated to stories of ordinary people who lived through extraordinary times – each featuring a blend of objects, installations, videos, artworks, infographic walls, and archival material. Guided by a narrator, groups of 25–28 visitors will journey through these spaces, where visual art, storytelling, and history converge to create a deeply immersive and intimate experience.

“It’s been part of our family’s story – how my father was in Korea for about a year, from 1953 to 1954, and how the prisoner exchange was a sensitive, difficult mission, that the Indian Custodian Force had to approach with compassion, fairness, and neutrality. But what started as a personal journey sparked off by my bond with my father, very quickly grew into something much bigger,” she says.

For Parvathi, this small slice of history still holds deep relevance today. It is her way of honouring the soldiers. "Limits of Change weaves fiction with history, exploring themes like home, violence, and forgiveness using my father's letters, journals, and photographs, It’s a narrative that blends my loss with the struggles of displaced prisoners of war, raising powerful questions about home and identity, violence and forgiveness."

Parvathi peels back layers of history through a personal lens. “My father was a storyteller, and loved the arts. Limits of Change takes its name from something he wrote. The fairytale stop motion animation video that runs through it – about a magical turtle called Miss P and her adventures with a princess of the Ay Kingdom – is drawn from his storytelling. In this immersive experience, the audience will walk through a deeply personal journey, as a daughter searches for understanding of a father lost too soon.” At its core, the experience is about war, peace, love and identity, and how geographies influence history. “Madras is a cartographical point – the CFI journey both began and ended here. My father filmed moments in 1953 and ’54, capturing scenes such as C. Rajagopalachari and K Kamaraj welcoming the soldiers home,” Parvathi points out.

Dr. Rathi Jafer, Director of InKo Centre, shares, “This project feels more relevant than ever. It explores the powerful role of peace during times of war and reflects on the essence of compassion, forgiveness, and humanity. The blend of fact and fiction is striking —while infographics present historical facts, the immersive storytelling within the installation brings those facts to life in a deeply engaging way.”

Every object, painting, and detail is carefully curated to align with the narrative, offering visitors a transformative journey. “The presentation is unlike anything you’ve seen before. The space becomes a living, breathing museum of stories. It’s about recalibrating history — stepping back to reflect, piecing together lost moments of Indo-Korean history, and confronting themes like displacement, the search for identity, hope, and reconciliation. It’s a hard-hitting yet vital story, one that invites deep reflection. After Chennai, we hope to take the show across India and even to Korea, where it all began.”

When Yog Japee, the Director of Limits of Change, was approached with the task of creating a theatrical experience based on a piece of history, he was thrilled by the challenge. “There’s so much history here, but what captivated me was the timeless core message of the story. Themes of loss, challenges, and resilience are universal. These emotions are something we all experience, and the emotional thread running through the story is what makes it so compelling. It’s exciting to bring those emotions to life, and we’ve stayed true to that vision,” says Yog.

He believes the multi-art installation will allow the audience to connect with the story on a personal level. “When you sit in the space, you’re not just hearing a story—you’re immersed in it. We’ve done our best to bring the audience as close as possible to what the characters might have felt during their experiences. Once the script was ready, we spent three to four months working with various art partners. It evolved into a community project, with colleges, schools, and organisations contributing. Each group took ownership of a specific room in the installation, adding their perspective and artistic flair to the narrative," adds the director.

Nayantara Nayar is thrilled to see six years of hard work come to fruition. She acknowledges that balancing historical accuracy with creative storytelling was a challenge. "After researching for so long—since December 2017—you get so absorbed in the details that everything feels fascinating. But with my aunt's background in visual art and my own in theatre, we always knew this project would be a work of fiction grounded in historical facts, not a pure history lesson. We had simple rules: we wouldn’t alter timelines or real-life events, and when you watch the show, you’ll see the historical elements as they were recorded. However, we allowed ourselves creative freedom in the spaces between those facts, asking questions like 'What happened to character X just before this event?' Some stories from our research struck us deeply from the start, and we knew they would shape our narrative."

Reflecting on working with Parvathi Nayar to bring this experience to life, Nayantara says, "Writing can be a lonely process, so I appreciated having a partner to collaborate with on the research and script. I learned so much from her, especially when it came to tackling tricky narrative challenges. For example, in one section where we needed to convey a detailed historical story, I would have typically chosen a monologue, but my aunt suggested using videos with their visual style. I helped develop that approach, and it added a new energy to the script. It was also fun discussing the visual art elements with her and contributing my ideas. My aunt is the hardest working person I know, and working with her is always both inspiring and instructional."