Indian Independence and a 21st Century Britain

Almost all of my friends have asked me why have I got involved in politics, why do I go through all the hassle and take on the commitments involved with being a PPC? I think that a day like today provides perhaps the most genuine answer. Invariably your own politics are forged through your own personal history. The experiences you have throughout your life sculpt you and your families political outlook. Today is the 60th Anniversary of Indian Independence and marks a period of history which has been particularly traumatic to the people of the Subcontinent. With independence came partition and a loss of life estimated at over one million people – involving retribution, barbarity and division which still scars people to this day.

The earliest memory that my Father has is of walking through a village in Punjab at the time of Partition and watching a Sikh skin a Muslim whom he had just murdered.  As his knife cut though his victims skin he howled in misery and tears fell from his eyes. It was only after a couple of decades had passed that my father came to fully understand the incident that he had stumbled across as a young boy.  The Muslim had in fact been a lifelong friend of the Sikh and the two could almost have been described as brothers. However, the Sikh’s entire family had been murdered by a Muslim mob and the only way he could seek retribution or console the desire for revenge was to carry out this terrible act upon his own neighbour.  My father still remembers the incident to this day and many of my eldest relatives have said to me that a moment of madness and anarchy fell upon people who only days before had been leading normal peaceful lives.

Within my Mother’s village similar incidents were occurring. However, my maternal great grandfather took a particularly courageous stance. Only one Muslim family remained in the village and they were very close to my mother’s family. My great grandfather protected them and made it clear to a mob at the time that any attack on this family would in effect be an attack on his family. Tensions were high and my mother’s family risked being murdered. To this day that same family still lives in my mother’s village. The only Muslim family, totally integrated as if the events of six decades ago had never happened.

There are many more stories and each of them have had a profound effect on my own view of the world. Put simply, I passionately believe that Politicians should focus on what unites us rather than those things that divide us. Britains needs to have a sense of Britishness which encompasses and overrides the rich tapestry of modern Britain.

Whenever I visit the United States the first thing that often strikes me is that almost any car I get into has a little American flag in the corner. The driver may hardly speak English, he may even play middle eastern music on his stereo but after a few minutes conversation you can’t help but be struck by the patriotism and sincerity with which the driver declares that he is an American, and an American first & foremost.  There is a great deal of intellectual snobbery with regards to our Atlantic cousins but I have to say that as a child of immigrants I am struck by the healthy attitude that many 1st and 2nd generation US immigrants hold in their respective home country, especially when we compare that situation to the U.K. There is much we can learn from this and importantly it appears to unite and bind an incredibly diverse America.

Commentators will always try and pigeonhole politicians as being ideologically inclined one way or the other. I feel issues that unite our country are too important to be airbrushed out of the political discussion through simplistic labelling. As a family in India and then in Kenya we have seen how easy it is for differences that seemed fairly superficial at first to become all encompassing and deeply destructive. I firmly believe that all Parliamentarians should always be encouraged to pursue policies that unite our country and continue its proud heritage of tolerance, and it is for these reasons that I have chosen to get involved in Politics.

Paul

New Pavilion at Wolverhampton Cricket Club

 

Last night I was privileged enough to be invited to the opening of the new Pavilion at Wolverhampton Cricket Club. The Pavilion was opened by Tom Graveney O.B.E. (Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and England ) and local lad Vikram Solanki (Worcestershire and England) who was kind enough to take a Photograph with me. 

Costing over half a million pounds the new Pavilion is a testament to the resilience and determination of all those who’ve contributed and fund raised on behalf of the cricket club. I spoke to Geoff Hopkinson (Chairman of W.C.C.) and was very disappointed to hear that they had not been able to get Lottery funding because the Club had a Tettenhall postcode. The automatic assumption seemed to be that because Tettenhall is a relative prosperous area, funding the Pavilion wasn’t a priority for the Lottery board.  In my own personal case, I found that I could bowl at a reasonable pace during my teenage years and that Cricket gave me no end of confidence.  In a state comprehensive school with only a handful of other Asian children I was pretty shy and kept myself to myself.  The fact that I could bowl quickly and accurately undoubtedly helped me develop academically and socially, a story which I have seen replicated amongst many of my friends and cousins. Lottery funding was established to achieve just this sort of aim through sport and it is a dreadful shame that in the last decade so many deserving sporting causes have been overlooked in this way. I, like so many, owe Cricket and sport in general a huge debt of gratitude.

Paul