A protection we cannot afford to lose

In her podcast-turned-to-book, Kavita Puri showcases the heart-warming stories of those Indians,displaced by Partition, who moved to Britain

Until recently, the thousands of Indians who had migrated to Britain in the wake of the Partition of the sub-continent, had lived in silence, perhaps wanting to bury the ghosts of the past as they sought to make a new life. Two years ago, award-winning journalist and broadcaster Kavita Puri produced a three-part series, Partition Voices for BBC Radio 4 that won the Royal Historical Society’s Radio and Podcast Award and its overall Public History Prize. She has now converted this into a similarly-titled book “to remember the time before separation so future generations understand that there were Hindus in Lahore, and Muslims in Amritsar”.

Australians value freedom of expression but laws against hate

part of history... and it is no crime to be a refugee.”

A similar strain runs through the 23 chapters of Puri’s book, divided into three parts - End of Empire, Partition and Legacy.

Take the story of Gurbaksh Garcha, “smartly dressed in a Nehru waistcoat”, exuding gentleness and calm, “a calm that must have been tested many times during his time as Mayor of Lewisham, navigating the local politics”.