Welcome to the Asian Voices Project

 

The Asian voices project is collecting audio interviews of South Asian men and women who came to Huddersfield, West Yorkshire in the 1950’s and 1960’s through oral history recordings.

The aim of the project is to show the contributions this community has made to Huddersfield and the way in which the communities have integrated into a now culture rich Huddersfield. We want to celebrate the hard work of this once unheard community and want to relive with them the highs and lows of coming to a foreign land, leaving behind their families and working in what was then a ‘blackened’ Huddersfield.  

 

Greenhead Park, Huddersfield 1975

For the next two years, I will be collecting audio interviews, requesting photos from the 1950’s onwards in relation to Huddersfield and will welcome any comments and suggestions to improve or compliment the project (more of the latter please!!).

 

I have had a lot of media interest from the Examiner, Huddersfield and have a look at the Yorkshire Post web video ‘Eastern Eye’ http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/video/Eastern-eye-The-Asian-experience.4385233.jp

The website is now up and running and have a browse and listen to the interview which is now in dual languages English and Punjabi http://www.asianvoices.org.uk/  so enjoy J

                

European Elections

The British National Party (BNP) have gained their first ever seats in Parliament and despite their clear membership regulations, only allowing “indigenous British ethnic groups deriving from the class of Indigenous Caucasian descendents to join the party” cited Guardian 2009, the BNP now have a say in European policies. Britain is now an ethnically diverse country with ethnic minorities from all over the world and many British English are proud of their dual heritage.

After the Second World War immigration became visible with regards to the colour of a person’s skin, after the migration of hundreds of people from the West Indies and South Asia; this continued migration from all over the world became less and less visible with more recent migration from Europe and Poland and now immigrants are similar in appearance. The BNP policies of ‘indigenous Caucasians are questionable as even English heritage has its dilution of Jutes, Angles Saxons and Romans, from which the Angles and Saxons were from Denmark and Germany.

So how does the majority of Britain feel in relation to giving the BNP two seats in the European Parliament? Is this a sign of things to come for the ethnic minorities or is it just a political cry for help? How do the many South Asians, Irish, Europeans and others born and bred in Britain feel towards the notion of someone telling them to go home? Where is home – I though it was Britain. These residents, descending from migrants, have no other country other than Britain. This is their birthplace, culture and now heritage. Despite many having dual heritages; many have not seen the place where their parents or grandparents originate from so how can they be told to go back home?

Parliamentary seats going to the BNP are said to be a result of people not voting, let’s hope this is the case.

Displacement – Swat

Clashes are continuing in the Swat, Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province with many women and children left homeless and seeking shelter in camps after becoming displaced by the conflict. The severity of the conflict which has destroyed homes and families and left young children parentless is just part of the problem; the rest is the infection and disease in which it is leaving the country. Babies are dehydrated and malnourished while the lack of facilities is causing disease to spread rapidly in a population which has no other choice but to remain where it is and do the best that it can.

War and conflict is often the root of a population’s migration to another country and many from the Swat Valley are fleeing to neighbouring areas to try and find peace. This is why compassion for migrants becomes so important as we need to understand the reason for an individual leaving their home. Often the assumption is that they are intruding on another country but who would leave their home other than for sheer reasons of desperation? This is what is happening now in Swat. It is what has happened before in many countries and will most likely continue to do so all over the World for the foreseeable future.

 

Interview with former Mayor of Huddersfield; Karam Hussain

Former Mayor of Huddersfield

In the final hours of his term as Mayor, Former Mayor Karam Hussain invited me into the Town Hall parlour to take an Oral History recording of his life as Mayor, achievements; his struggles of starting work at the age of 15 in the textile mills and how he still has a strong sense of belonging to Kashmir, his birthplace. He recalled memories of coming to England at the age of fifteen to see his dad who had left for England when he was born and described the way in which his granddad called him back to live in Kashmir after finding out he was working in England in the mills at such a young age.

Karam Hussain spent many years between homes, six months with his parents in England and six months with grandparents in Kashmir. He recalls enjoying the experience and highlights the way in which it has deepened his knowledge and life experiences, but Karam decided to settle in England when he married and started his family; as England provided a better life as was viewed by many South Asians at the time. He describes how life was hard in England and he only managed to go back to Kashmir every now and then, but he achieved his ambitions with will power and determination, describing his previous role as Mayor with a focus of bringing communities together.

Karam Hussain was Mayor of Huddersfield from May 2008-2009. He is the second South Asian Mayor of Huddersfield after former Mayor Mohan Sokhal whose term as mayor completed in 2002.

 Listen to this oral history on the Asian Voices website, along with many other oral histories from the Huddersfield community on www.asianvoices.org.uk.

Eggless – Food and Religion

Food is an important aspect in many faiths and many religions have specific requirements. Religions from Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism all have religious requirements. Depending on the how strictly you follow your own faith influences the extent to which you will follow these regulations. Christianity includes the faiths of Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant and each of these faiths have varying food influences and requirements. Catholic and Orthodox Christians observe several fast and feast days during the year and Protestants celebrate Christmas and Easter. Even the ritual communion celebrated by Christians involves food and drink which represents Jesus through bread and wine.

But imagine coming to live in a country where you are alien to the culture and language and then having to maintain your religious food requirements. In Islam, Judaism and Hinduism, all of these faiths have foods which are forbidden. In Islam the concept of Halal and Haram is applied. Halal means ‘lawful’ or ‘permitted’ and this concept is applied not just in food, but all aspects of a Muslim’s life. Halal foods are allowed and those prohibited are Haram meaning ‘not permitted’ which includes pork and alcohol.

Judaism follows a similar requirement with regards to food and Kashrut refers to laws permitting food in the Jewish religion. Kosher means food ‘fit’ or ‘permitted’ and foods which are not permitted include pork and shellfish. Kosher and Halal foods have specific religious requirements at the time of slaughter and it is this which differentiates Halal and Kosher meat from other meat.

To access Halal food in the 1960’s in Yorkshire was a challenge and many people resorted to undertaking the preparation and animal slaughter at home just to be able to eat meat once a month and maintain their religious beliefs. Now walking about in Huddersfield, Bradford, Dewsbury, Leeds and many other Yorkshire towns, you will be hard pressed not to be able to find any Halal meat shops or grocery stores catering to the needs of the South Asian community, but there are still some gaps in the food market that are not being met and are still not catering for all religions or faiths.

Hinduism believes in the interdependence of life and people who practice the Hindu religion don’t eat meat from any animal or any food that is involved in the taking of life. Many Hindus are vegetarian, which is not compulsory and most Hindus do not eat beef or beef products, as the cow is sacred. This belief in life means that many Hindus do not eat eggs. So if you were celebrating an event, where would you go to get an eggless cake? London, Birmingham, but what about locally? Why do you have to undergo challenges to maintain your faith? Understanding the role of food in cultural and religious practice is an important way of showing respect and responding to the needs of the people from religious communities, from which we will be able to avoid assumptions about a person’s religious beliefs and culture.

Dementia in the South Asian Community

There is an increasing number of elderly South Asians suffering from Mental Illness, Alzhiemer’s disease and Demntia and many go unnoticed or are hidden away by family members as they are afraid of what the community might say, but in this day an age with more education and knowledge this community is coming to terms with these illnesses and the support around them is fantastic.

Yesterday, my grandmother who is about 80 years of age forgot where she lived. The sun was shining and the weather was hot so she went for a walk aound the garden and then thought she would go to her son’s house who lives across the road. As she  got to her son’s house she forgot where she lived and went took the wrong turn. Now at the age of 80, she does well to get across the road but she also suffers from dementia and in that split second she lost her way and from Birkby ended up five miles out into Thornton Lodge where she lived when she first came in 1964… this was the only place she could recall.

South Asian families still live within the extended family structure, not necessarily in the same house anymore but within easy reach of each other and only a phone call away. As my grandad returned home from town an hour later and found the door open and his wife gone he became worried as she was nowhere in sight and the neighbours had not seen her. So an extended family search party consisting of grandad, son, daughter, graddaughter, gandson-in-law and brother and neighbours began and within an hour of the search party she was found (three hours after she had left). The police were just about to get the helicopters out when a shop keeper who knew my gran also from the south asian community phoned my dad to tell him his mum had made her way all the way across town, on her ownto her shop!

My gran was happy to be home, but Dementia is unreliable and only when she got home did she remember her address and everything else she had forgotten whilst she was out.

Her life has been a journey itself leaving her family in Pakistan and coming to England in 1964, bring up her six children in Huddersfield and still not know the English language and now as she ages she is losing her present memory and recalling the past more and more… now this is when you can see the benefits of Oral History because if we don’t record it as memory fades so will the traditions.

How to cook a Traditional Chicken Curry

                                

  

  

Traditional chicken curry recipe   

 

 

 

 Place roughly 3 tblsp of oil in a pot and add the         

1lb chicken boneless1tsp chopped ginger1tsp chopped garlic (4-5 cloves)½ tsp Chilli powder 1tsp Salt 1 tsp Garam masala ¼ tsp Turmeric ½ tin chopped tomatoes 2 fresh green bell chillies Fresh coriander ½ green pepper Squeeze of lemon 3 tbsp Oil 2-3 medium sized onions

ginger and garlic and heat. Dice the onions and pepper into cubes and add to the heated oil, lightly brown and add the spices and salt. Mix through then add the chopped tomatoes, a squeeze of lemon and green chillies (pierce chillies to stop them bursting) heat the mixture until the onions have become soft and the tomato sauce slightly thickens now add the chicken. Mix through and place the lid on the curry. Keep the curry on a low heat stirring every so often to make sure the curry doesn’t burn. Once the chicken has sealed add 2 cups of water and replace the lid.

Let the curry cook for 20 minutes, stirring every now and then. Once the curry has a texture to your taste, dry or with a thick sauce, take of the heat and add roughly 3-4 stems of chopped fresh coriander.

Enjoy with naan or freshly boiled rice.

 

                                                                                                                                      

     

                          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Islamia Girls High School

Islamia Girls High School

Oral history training has now started at Islamia Girls High School, Thornton Lodge, Huddersfield. We have trained Year 9 and 10, the techniques behind good interviewing skills and looked at individual heritage. The girls had fun using the digital recorders to record each other on their family background and heritage.

I will be going back to train Years 7 and 8, and hope to look at what they might pack in their suitcase if they were moving from England to Pakistan, India or Bangladesh.

The Corner Shop

Sweets, chocolates

I have fabulous memories of the corner shop as a child, this was the place where we, my siblings and I would sneak into before we got home, load up on chocolates and then go home for tea. It was a ritual; school, catch the bus home and then down to the local corner shop before home. To be fair it was more of a newsagent than a corner shop, well a newsagent on a corner and still is to this date, the Asian owners are still the same, but it is now manned by the next generation. As a child and young teen I’d be there almost everyday, I hardly go in any more…

 

The best thing about going into the local shop was seeing the array of sweets and spending ages choosing one. These were the days when Mars bars were 10p and a can of fizzy was 25p…. in reality it was probably the closest i’d get to Charlie’s’ chocolate factory in Huddersfield.

Moorend Technology College

Moorent Technology College Presentation

This week I have been presenting at Moorend Technology College to introduce The Asian Voices project and the Oral History research projects, Huddersfield University are undertaking.

 

 

 

 Any comment or questions students have I will be happy to answer on this blog.

Home

I find the most interesting question I ask people in my Oral History research is where do you see your home? Now for you and I this may be a straight forward answer; but if you were born in another country and came to England as a child or even later on in life, where would you see your home? 

Questions?

 

It still fascinates me the length people went to, to build a better life for themselves which I am grateful to as I being British Asian would not be here if they hadn’t done so, but this sacrifice didn’t just affect the Asian community, but Irish, Afro-Caribbean and many others communities that still have to migrate from their homeland after conflict, due to poverty and to seek a better life. The roots they hold are firm passing on their proud cultural heritage and traditions from their birthplace, but once rooted in England they are nourished by the new culture and grow with it enriching everyone around them. 

home is where the heart is

In my lifetime and through my research, I have encountered many people in this situation; my parents themselves have dual heritage, my dad maybe less so as he came to Huddersfield at the age of five so sees himself as British, but my mother who came when she was eighteen, still a young age, but as she left her family in Pakistan she strongly felt that Pakistan was still her home. It was only after her parents died that her connections weakened and despite her siblings still living there and her mother’s home still standing, her heart now belongs in Huddersfield with her children, her home and her life. 

Now for the first time this year my granddad who came to England in 1960 has gone to Pakistan. He is in his late 70’s and my grandma is not far behind, now they will go to Pakistan a few times in the year probably eight weeks here and eight weeks there…their birthplace is Pakistan, their home is England they have the best of both worlds.