So if we take into consideration the journey, I’d say that South Asian Heritage Month [SAHM, first held in 2020] is actually essential as a place to begin, as a result of there’s at the moment an absence of understanding of the range inside South Asian tradition, communities and historical past. True, there’s a threat that that is the one time of yr when folks will speak about this subject, however we’re ranging from a spot the place so few conversations are happening on a public scale. So marking SAHM is actually essential now – and I hope that we are going to get to some extent the place we gained’t want it anymore, as a result of [South Asian stories] will likely be actually built-in into folks’s understanding.
Sumita Mukherjee: I agree that it’s actually essential to extend the range of historical past that’s being informed. SAHM offers us the chance to have this dialog – it encourages the media and different boards to showcase tales and histories round South Asia. I might say that there’s a problem, although, with the timing because it stands, as a result of most colleges and universities are closed in late July and August, and many persons are on vacation.
Shrabani Basu: I believe the essential factor is to make it inclusive – it shouldn’t simply be South Asians consuming curries and watching dances. The purpose is to make it a nationwide competition that everyone seems to be ahead to. It’s the vacation season, so go for that – make it one thing that excites folks. The hazard with all this stuff is that they lose momentum. To maintain it contemporary and widespread we have to increase the bar, make it thrilling, make folks wish to see what’s on the agenda, and take it ahead that manner.
So it has a worth as a springboard for these sorts of conversations, but additionally as a manner of connecting South Asian historical past to wider society?
SB: Completely. Far too little is understood about South Asian historical past – which is the historical past of undivided India to some extent, and our cultures from all these nations that make up the area. Even many South Asians don’t know a lot about it.
SP: I agree. SAHM can be a very essential alternative to unlock these conversations inside the neighborhood itself. I believe that we as a neighborhood aren’t essentially nice at speaking about our historical past, partly due to issues that occurred inside the reminiscence of our grandparents and great-grandparents. SAHM is about having these inside household conversations in addition to having conversations on a public scale.
SM: This concept of inclusion and celebration is a good factor, however typically – and we see this with Black Historical past Month – there’s a concentrate on celebrating sure figures and palatable histories with out trying on the darkish facet of historical past. There’s a bent to have fun South Asians and never criticise their roles in historical past.
Additionally, loads of the main target is on India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – locations that have been a part of the British empire. However South Asia is a much wider area than simply these locations, and that inclusiveness has not but come via within the occasions and celebratory components I’ve seen up to now.
SB: Completely. Only a few folks in north India know something about Sri Lanka, for instance. The entire area is so huge and so various that we ourselves don’t know the whole lot about it.
As Sumita stated, we’ve got a really darkish historical past, too: partition, riots, wars inside the area – there are loads of darkish, darkish patches for which our personal nations are guilty, not simply outdoors forces.
SP: This month offers a very good alternative to have fun that variety and to push the concept the South Asian neighborhood shouldn’t be some form of monolith. Generally I put myself in a class – as ‘British South Asian’ – however what does that imply? There are such a lot of various kinds of folks and totally different experiences inside that. We have to have interaction with all of these variations, even inside the communities.
SAHM remains to be comparatively new, so I hope we are going to see increasingly more of that form of variety and people various kinds of tales coming via.
How can this course of work higher, to foster analysis throughout communities – notably on migration and motion, a significant theme of this yr’s SAHM?
SP: I’ve been a trainer for 15 years now, and I’ve been very fortunate to work in a secondary faculty in north-west London that could be very various. My faculty is so constructive about ensuring that we share histories which are related to our college students, so there’s a enormous quantity of South Asian historical past explored. However that’s been an actual journey. Ten years in the past, it was simply me and my division researching this stuff on our personal, as a result of there weren’t the assets on the market. Now I’m actually proud to say that I’ve helped write materials about loads of these points.
Simply a few months in the past, a textbook known as Asian Empires within the Silk Roads was printed [by Oxford University Press], for which I wrote the chapter on Mughal India. I’ve additionally helped write a textbook concerning the British empire. So issues are undoubtedly altering, and lots of extra assets can be found. The issue is that it’s as much as particular person colleges whether or not they train the British empire in any respect, and whether or not India is a part of that story.
It’s so essential that we don’t train solely the British Raj as South Asian historical past. College students additionally love studying concerning the Mughals, as a result of they’re fascinating and dramatic – rather more attention-grabbing than the Tudors. However I additionally train my college students about South Asian migration, in addition to tales of extra trendy South Asian folks – [Second World War spy] Noor Inayat Khan, for instance, and [Sikh princess, suffragette and Queen Victoria’s god-daughter] Sophia Duleep Singh. The massive downside is that there’s nonetheless little understanding of how a lot shared historical past there’s between Britain and the subcontinent. If youngsters are studying concerning the First and Second World Wars however not listening to concerning the contributions of Indian troopers, then that’s not telling the total story.
SB: I really feel that there’s nonetheless little data about that subject. In the course of the latest VE Day celebrations, there was solely a bit point out of what number of Indian troopers performed an element. I do perceive that point could be very restricted in a commentary however just a few extra traces, a bit extra emphasis, would’ve been nice.
On the entrance of the procession have been the FANYs [First Aid Nursing Yeomanry] – ladies who additionally served as secret brokers within the Second World War. I might’ve cherished to listen to that these secret brokers got here from all elements of the world: Noor Inayat Khan was half Indian, and Krystyna Skarbek was from Poland. The conflict was fought on the shoulders of the folks of the empire, and I believe that time ought to have been raised.
Greater than 2.5 million Indian troops served within the Second World Warfare – the most important volunteer military within the battle – they usually didn’t benefit a single point out on the VE Day live performance. So this narrative remains to be not there – and it must be informed, to be taught in colleges. That’s the solely manner ahead.
SM: British historical past itself is South Asian historical past. It’s not simply concerning the historical past of the empire, as a result of South Asians have been in Britain for the reason that seventeenth century. Migration isn’t just a up to date phenomenon: within the nineteenth century, South Asians of all ilks have been influencing tradition in Britain and dealing in its port cities. South Asians additionally went to Mauritius, to Malaysia, to Uganda, to South Africa, to Guyana, to Jamaica, and to different locations – the South Asian diaspora has such a vibrant, attention-grabbing historical past.
When discussing migration, I’d return to the issue of centrism round India, Bangladesh and Pakistan – there’s a lot to say about different elements of the area corresponding to Myanmar (Burma), Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Nepal.
SP: Once I train the transatlantic slave commerce, I additionally talk about indentured labour. As a result of the foundation explanation for greater than one million Indians going to locations corresponding to Mauritius was the abolition of slavery. So the histories of the Caribbean, South Asia and Britain all intersect.
SM: And naturally the historical past of Windrush, which is comparatively well-known and taught in colleges, can be about Indo-Caribbean individuals who came visiting with that era.
Do tensions, such those who arose between India and Pakistan in Might, make researching the area’s histories more durable?
SB: Oh, completely. As a result of the very first thing when you have got a scenario of battle is that visas get cancelled. So researchers can’t go, lecturers can’t journey. India cancelled visas for folks of Pakistani origin, and the identical most likely occurred for British Indians eager to journey to Pakistan. So British Asians of Indian or Pakistani origin who wish to research [on the subcontinent] will discover it troublesome to entry archives or do any kind of analysis. That’s the primary sensible block.
Then it spreads to filmmaking and cultural life as nicely. The minute you have got battle, these boundaries go up – filmmakers can’t journey, musicians can’t journey. It doesn’t assist anyone.
SM: It’s been very troublesome over the previous few years anyway, with geopolitical tensions within the area, for folks with Indian passports to analysis in Pakistan and vice versa. So the present battle has solely escalated issues.
It’s essential to notice that, although these latest conflicts are rooted in present-day points, in addition they have longstanding historic causes. So there’s a chance to reiterate and perceive the historical past behind these troubles, particularly in Kashmir.
SB: I don’t assume folks know the actual story of what occurred in Kashmir – how this line of management was drawn, how the Hindu maharaja went over to India, how the invasion occurred, why this battle began.
SM: It’s additionally coupled with geographical literacy – understanding the geography of the area, Kashmir’s location, the environmental causes, the water traces and so forth.
SP: There’s an actual absence of understanding of the partition story, of how these borders have been drawn. Once more, this can be a shared historical past with Britain – the story of partition is a British story in addition to a South Asian story. It was framed as a peaceable takeover, which everyone knows was completely not the case.
This historical past shouldn’t be contentious, however it’s, as a result of Britain portrayed partition as a peaceable handover, which undermined the fact of the violence and bloodshed that engulfed these new nations in 1947. There’s additionally been an absence of non-public tales about this historical past due to the horrific issues that occurred at the moment. The private, the political, the geographical – so many components concerned, which is why that is such a misunderstood historical past.
SB: When the battle broke out in Might, there have been ugly scenes outdoors the Indian Excessive Fee and the Pakistan Excessive Fee. It’s one thing we completely don’t want. The South Asian neighborhood right here ought to be united slightly than divided, when it turns into a legislation and order downside.
What areas of historic analysis would you spotlight as essential in the present day?
SM: I’m engaged on the historical past of South Asian youngsters and their migration to Britain. That is a part of a rising subject taking a look at youngsters in historical past not simply as distant folks within the background however as historic actors themselves. I’m exploring the position that younger folks performed, altering society, altering politics.
Colleagues are additionally engaged on the casual labour of girls in housekeeping and homeworking – stitching, childminding, the issues that ladies typically do at residence that isn’t recorded inside formal financial histories – to know the contribution that South Asian ladies have made to the financial system in Britain, particularly ladies of Pakistani origin in northern England.
SB: I might like to see oral histories from earlier generations being recorded. Not sufficient of this has been accomplished. There was a bit documentary recording individuals who migrated to Britain within the sixties. It was so attention-grabbing seeing their existence, how they have been so formally dressed always; evaluate it with in the present day, when everyone seems to be so informal, even the brand new immigrants. These tales inform us a lot about how these folks got here right here. I really feel increasingly more that, as we lose that era, we have to save their tales. I want they’d be recorded on movie and audio as a lot as potential.
SP: Oral histories, actual private tales, are so essential. I at all times encourage younger folks and others to file their household histories – to speak to their grandparents, in the event that they nonetheless have them, to file these migration tales. I did that with my granddad: there are such a lot of issues I didn’t find out about his migration story.
A good friend of mine, jeweller Anisha Parmar, invitations South Asian ladies to come back collectively and use household jewelry as a approach to discover their heritage and their historical past. It’s been unimaginable to see younger South Asian folks delve into their id and heritage via the medium of gold jewelry particularly.
Once we take into consideration South Asian objects in museums, typically we’re excited about stunning, ornate items of jewelry worn by maharajas and royalty. However she’s made extra private connections. We’ve all received such objects – I’m carrying my grandma’s bangles proper now.
SB: The Commonwealth Warfare Graves Fee ordered a report trying on the names of troopers from India and Africa who, regardless of a pledge that each soldier who died on this planet wars could be commemorated with a gravestone, weren’t recorded in that manner. To handle that, unbelievable work has been accomplished by Greenwich College and the UK Punjab Heritage Affiliation to seek out the names of troopers from the Punjab within the First World Warfare, in addition to particulars of regiments, once they joined, in the event that they died. I discover that fairly thrilling: a manner of creating proper one thing that was fallacious – to commemorate some 50,000 Indians whose names have been misplaced.
Shalina Patel is a historian, trainer and writer. Her first e book is The Historical past Classes (Icon, 2024)
Sumita Mukherjee is professor of contemporary historical past on the College of Bristol. Her books embrace Indian Suffragettes (Oxford College Press India, 2018)
Shrabani Basu is a historian, journalist and writer. Her renowned figure e book is The Thriller of the Parsee Lawyer (Bloomsbury, 2021)
This text was first printed within the August 2025 subject of BBC History Magazine