No More Common

No More Common

One afternoon I was coming out of my apartment, I found two elderly men distributing pamphlets outside. They gave one to me also. I took it and started reading once boarded the bus for Leeds. It was related to the recent fire tragedy of Grenfell in London. A new socialist party wanted to garner public support against the May’s government for such ghastly fire accidents. It was a good write up. I was reading it with keen interest till my eyes stuck to a sentence which reads ‘Ex British Common wealth countries follow UK building regulation for fire’.

I could not continue reading anymore and got lost in thoughts. India is one of the fifty two ex-British Common wealth countries. Have we ever thought what does ‘common wealth’ mean? Does not it sound like British still assert natural right on these countries? Big Countries like Australia, Canada, and India are part of Common wealth countries umbrella. Though we gained independence seventy years back, why are we still being called common wealth country? We can see and feel British influence in all walks of life in India. From Horlicks to ring roads to red colored Post boxes, living in Britain gives some taste of India and vice versa also holds true. Before Ex PM P.V. Narshima Rao liberalized our economy in early nineties, it was solely dominated by British products. Cherry blossom boot polish, Colgate tooth paste, Nice biscuits to ranking system in army and management policies, all were ‘inspired’ by British. Thanks to our rigidness of using water in toilet, British could not ‘inspire’ tissue paper in Indian toilets. Post liberalization brought variety to customer choice and introduced competition to British companies which used to sell their products in India as their legitimate right to do so.

Though Britain is a small country, it ruled almost whole world at some time. USA was also one of them. Post-independence the most priority work they took was to overhaul the system introduced by British and they introduced their indigenous system and policies. It was a big pain initially. But it showed their tenacity and attitude to clear the dust of slavery from their present and paved way for a new future. Different metric system, different driver seating position in cars, having American English itself was a big leap from the past. They maintained their cultural affinity towards British as being white and Christian but they discarded the British colonial legacy. Great attitude not great wealth makes great nation. USA proved it.

USA was not part of common wealth countries though British ruled it well over a good period. What makes us so great to be called common wealth countries?  A British company ruled a great and vast nation for more than hundred years before Queen Victoria took control in 1857. What can be more ridiculous and shameful than this? The whole country was ruled by a foreign company. Who will believe it? But it had happened. There is a railway station near London called ‘East India’ station. British take pride in their legacy of ruling and exploiting which they called civilizing the other world countries. They were generous in their ways of colonizing and enriching their own wealth which they rightly called ‘common wealth’. There is a big statue of Sir Havelock at Trafalgar square in London central. Sir Havelock was honored for crushing India’s first Independence struggle. British never showed any remorse even for their cruelest acts at the Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar. Millions in Bengal died of famine in 1940’s due to mobilization of Bengal’s resources to British soldiers fighting in Second World War. Getting back ‘Kohinoor’ will remain a distant dream for us. It is part of ‘common wealth’, isn’t it?

 It may be ok for Canada to accept queen of England as their head of nation but we are a country where Chanakya, Maharana Pratap, Chandrashekhar Azad, S C Bose to be named few born whose vision of being sovereign and independent was exceptional. People die but their greatness and thoughts never die. India is resurrecting again on international diaspora. Our economy and growth projection cannot be ignored even by world’s most powerful countries. It is good and high time to give the country having more than sixty percent population below the age of thirty five, a new attitude and a new horizon to target for. We are no more common. We are a great civilization, an early guru of spiritualism and knowledge and a humble nation but not a ‘common’ country to be called anymore.

Boom Boom Bradford

Boom Boom Bradford

I don’t know how many readers of this article have ever heard of the city ’Bradford’ before. Frankly I had not heard of it seven months back when I came to this city of UK for my professional assignment. But I think most of Indians should have known this city very well. There is a close connection of the city with India. I don’t know the origin of the fashionable name of this city but I am sure it cannot be Brad of Brad Pitt plus Ford of Harrison Ford.

In last fifty years this city received a major influx of migrants from south Asia and majority from Mirpur, Azad Kashmir or Pakistan Kashmir. There is connection of the ‘K’ for Kashmiris from Bradford to Kashmir of India. Even the landscape and the weather of Bradford has close resemblance to Kashmir valley. One more reason for Mirpuri to love this place.The building of ‘Mangla’ dam on the Jhelum River in Mirpur district in second half of 1960s resulted in the displacement of large number of families. England was in dire need of hard working and cheap labourers for its textile mills and infrastructure projects during the same period. The displaced families of Mirpur appeared as golden goose to British government and businessmen. Contractors and architects of the ‘Mangla’ dam who were mainly British, helped them land in England.

The displaced Mirpuris had no choice but to catch that boat of opportunity to England. They worked hard, very hard and over time. Roads, factories and various infrastructure projects of UK were fuelled by the sweat and blood of Mirpuri. The trove of confused unskilled workers who came in 1960s in England now has their third generation thriving confidently and comfortably here. The new generation of British Mirpuri speaks English in typical British accent but has no hesitation to flaunt their long beards too. I have seen lots of Indian Muslims keeping long beard and skull caps but not much of younger generation of the community doing the same. You will be surprised to see the rigorous following of Muslim tradition in Bradford if you had imagined UK as an ultra-modern, a fashionable cosmopolitan country. Muslim women old or young, clad in full hijab and handling four to five kids is a common sight in Bradford. Children dressed in black or green dresses going to mosques on Friday is another common sight. If you don’t speak even Basic English and has somehow landed in Bradford, you need not to worry. You have landed in just a perfect place. You can easily survive in Bradford with your knowledge of Urdu or Hindi as every fourth person on the street knows that language. If you miss your ‘desi’ commodities outside Indian subcontinent, relax and visit any ‘desi’ general store mostly owned by British Mirpuri same like Gujrati Patel of US. You can easily get mustard oil, pressure cooker, haldiram bhujiya, ‘desi’ mango pickle and even Parle G biscuits.

Bollywood and British cinema owners are also aware of the sizeable presence of this community who like any south Asian loves Hindi movies. 

Cineworld, one of the multiplexes giant of UK keeps at least half of its screens for Bollywood movies in Bradford. Bollywood stars are also forced to do promotion of their movies in Bradford to have healthy earnings from overseas. Recently stars like Ranveer Singh, Vani Kapoor came to Bradford very near to my residential place for the promotion of their movie, ‘Befikre’. Restaurants with the name of Akbar, Mughal, Jinnah, Lahore etc. and general stores with the name Burhwani, Khana Peena, Apna Store etc. can be easily seen in Bradford. The community which came to Bradford due to flooding of their houses in Mirpur has left no stone unturned to flood it with their booming population. You visit any maternity ward of Bradford and can easily understand the meaning of ‘population explosion’. Educated or uneducated, rich or poor British Mirpuri is having all the fun having kids and lots of kids here. Most of them already have at least four to five kids and if not they are in pipeline to touch the target where target can be double digits too. Completely aware of this craze for having kids, lots of kids, the NHS (national healthcare services) of Britain has hired Urdu or Punjabi translators in their maternity wards to deal with British Mirpuri mothers and their relatives.

Due to soaring inflation, hectic lifestyles and many more other reasons in Indian subcontinent, people are scared to have more than two kids but things look completely different in Bradford. Somewhere Mirpuri feel it as their birth right to claim each and every British resource. There can be genetic reasons for this claim. British too had left nothing to exploit the rich and valuable material and human resources of Indian subcontinent during their colonial rule seventy years back. Mirpuris are just reminding them the seventy year old chapter. Having large brood of children is the new status symbol in UK especially in Bradford. The demography is changing rapidly in Bradford and so is the colour from more milk to more coffee. Oblivious of any stats, much discussed Brexit or future repercussions; Bradford is booming and bubbling with its new generation of British Mirpuri having British accent and long black beard.