MY PARENTS were brought up in India, a country and culture where the majority of women are not respected or valued by men. It’s predominantly a man’s world.
The man is seen as a superhero with power, and that has been clearly evident during the farmers’ protest in the way that the Indian government has reacted to the prominent women who have spoken up to support the protest.
Even though my parents migrated to Britain from India in the late 1960s, and have adapted somewhat, they came over with customs and cultures, and passed most of those generational beliefs and traditions on to me.
Since the Middle Ages, Scots have been entertaining themselves during the long winter nights with a dialectical tradition called “flyting”. This is a form of conversation in which you knowingly subject your friend or colleague to verbal violence and insult. Weepy millennials should not try this at home. Flyting began in the 16th century as a contest between poets, or “makars”, to see who was capable of the most imaginative invective – a bit like rap. It became a widespread mode of social intercourse among working people in homes and hostelries. The abuse is, of course, an ironic form of affection, of bonding – a demonstration that your relationship is so strong that you can playfully abuse each other. But it’s something that is almost impossible to explain in the age of social media and the tyranny of the literal. And with the SNP’s Hate Crime Bill now passed into law, flyting is finally grounded.
Every year on 8 March women who belong to different social classes and various age groups from the city of Lahore hold noisy protests to celebrate the International Women’s Day and traditionally they always gather outside the Lahore press club at the Shimla Pahari roundabout, writes Pakistani human rights activist Anila Gulzar. Women representing their […]
Labour under pressure over delaying Sikh leader’s elevation to House of Lords
National
December 27, 2020
LONDON: Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s office is under intense pressure from the influential British Sikh community after a key Sikh leader and human rights activist’s announcement to the UK House of Lords was delayed minutes before the official announcement.
A row has broken out over Dabinderjit Singh Sidhu, principal adviser to Sikh Federation UK, as he was to be one of the new political peers announced last Tuesday but his name was missing when the list was released by Downing Street, although leading journalists were given his name in the morning.
UK drops nomination of pro-Khalistan leader to House of Lords ahead of Boris Johnson s India visit
UK drops nomination of pro-Khalistan leader to House of Lords ahead of Boris Johnson s India visit
While the pro-Khalistan Labour party leader s name was cleared by the appointments commission, India Today TV has learnt that he would have been in the House of Lords if not for the last-minute pressure from the Indian community in the UK.
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UPDATED: December 24, 2020 18:02 IST
Dabinderjit Singh Sidhu, Principle Advisor to the Sikh Federation, addressing the meeting, describing how Sikhs are portrayed in the media.
In a major turn of events, UK Labour leader Keir Starmer who nominated Dabinderjit Singh Sidhu to the House of Lords (HOL) later withdrew the nomination despite the fact that Sidhu’s name was vetted and approved by the appointments commission.