Inspired by the Guardian’s interactive article What Does Being British Mean to You? I pondered my own position.
Both my parents’ families are from the same little cluster of villages in Gujarat, India. My parents were among those who emigrated to England in the sixties and seventies. They met through the Gujarati community in England and married. I was born in England and my upbringing and education here has shaped the person I am today far more than my family’s background, in spite of them holding on very strongly on to their culture. I don’t feel Indian; I feel British. My husband is English, we don’t incorporate any Indian traditions into our lives and we work in his parents’ very traditional pub, that most British of institutions. To me, being British means promoting freedom and tolerance.
I’ve never been a victim of overt racism but I feel there is room for improvement. People need to be educated. For example, a few months ago I was talking to an English woman in her fifties. She used, harmlessly she believed, the word ‘Paki’ as a synonym for ‘Indian’. Leaving out the geographical error entirely, I tried to explain to her that she shouldn’t use the word ‘Paki’ because it was derogatory but she clearly didn’t know what derogatory meant. At that point I cut my losses and gave up.
