Thread by @BinitaKane

To any new followers, you may see me tweeting about #southasianheritagemonth over the coming weeks. This is a passion project I co-founded with @jasvirsingh in 2020 🧵

TDLR: No one told me when I was growing up that my history was important. I want to change that 1/

In 2017 I took part in a BBC1 Docu called ‘My Family Partition & Me’. I was the first member of my family in 70yrs to go back to Bangladesh (then West Bengal) to the place where my father fled in terror from genocide & retrace my family’s footsteps 2/

Violence surrounded 'Partition' in 1947, the division of the Indian subcontinent by the British, changing millions of lives forever. A 5 minute clip to my Dad’s story here. As you can see if you watch this, it was a pretty emotional journey for me! 3/
bbc.co.uk/news/av/magazi…

After feeling to India, like hundreds of thousands of others, my family became penniless refugees & lived in abject poverty. My Grandfather, a once proud and successful man, starved & wasted away, broken and ill, he died on a cold stone floor, nursed by my then young Father. 4/

On his deathbed, he took my father’s hand; ‘Be a good doctor’ he said. Driven by those words, my father overcame many struggles but through begging, borrowing and the kindness of strangers he was able to study. Through sheer determination he made the path to becoming a doctor. 5/

He came to the UK and worked tirelessly for the NHS for nearly 50yrs, earning an OBE along the way (the irony is not lost on me!). Like thousands and thousands of South Asian immigrants, he has contributed so much to this Country. 6/

A huge impact for me was the amount of unspoken history I learned. As someone who was born, bred and educated in the UK, it felt like this momentous, defining period of British history had been hidden by a wall of silence for > 70 years. 7/ newyorker.com/magazine/2015/…

I also learnt about the British Nationality Act of 1948 which gave any commonwealth citizens the right to live & work in the UK and the significant waves of migration that followed, a critical step in the workforce that re-built post-war Britain 8/

The reaction to the programme was huge. The British public overwhelmingly responded by asking ‘Why is this history not taught in schools?’ It is a very British story, decisions made by Britain 1947 have shaped my Dad’s life, my grandfathers untimely death & my very exisitence. 9/

I was left with an overwhelming sense that there was more to do, this led to creating a campaign around commemoration and education. We now have a fantastic group of people working on this Nationally, led by @RajUnsworth. 10/

Over a cuppa with co-founder @_JasvirSingh in 2018, the concept of #southasianheritagemonth was born. Our motto; ‘Celebrate,Commemorate,Educate. Our goal;to help people better understand the diversity of present-day Britain for a more cohesive society 11/ southasianheritage.org.uk

Launched in 2020 with the help of founding patron @anitarani (rather last minute and online due to the pandemic 😅), we were blown away by the support for the campaign. Building on this in 2021, our hastag made > a 1/4 of a billion impressions across the world in 4 weeks. 12/

Until very recently this has been a 100% volunteer-led effort. We owe huge debt of gratitude to our volunteers, the public who have supported us and all those who came before us to enable this movement. 13/

We of course wouldn't be where we are without the support of our incredible patrons; @itsanitarani @DrRanj @DrAmirKhanGP @BalvinderSopal @bobbyfriction @Bobby_Seagull @BabitaTV 14/

This year we have a brilliant programme planned and are excited to be having in-person events for the first time, alongside an online calendar to support our 2022 theme ‘Journeys of Empire’. Please let us know about your events by registering here; southasianheritage.org.uk/events 15/

I am also delighted that we will be launching our Schools Toolkit this week, focussed on the 75th anniversary of Partition. Keep an eye on our website for this. A project extremely close to my heart. Thanks in particular to @rkmoyna and @willgupshup for their contributions. 16/

Finally, we live in divided times, there has never been a stronger argument for engaging the public and young people in particular, in the history of Britain and South Asia, to critically challenge and inform peoples' thinking about our beautifully diverse communities. 17/

For more information, visit southasianheritage.org.uk and follow @SAHM_UK. Thanks to anyone who got to the end of this epic thread and to all the beautiful humans who continue to support #southasianheritagemonth, we couldn't do it without you END/

Of all the silly mistakes to make, not tagging the right @_JasvirSingh has to take the biscuit! Sorry Jas 🤦🏽‍♀️
Also the wrong @rrunsworth 🫣
I’m blaming the desktop version of Twitter….
REAL END OF THREAD