South Asian Heritage Month: Navigating Celebration and Unrest

When the CORE team reached out to me at the start of South Asian Heritage Month about writing an article, I was excited and already had a narrative in mind. My vision was for it to be a reflective piece published at the end of South Asian Heritage Month, focused on the positive strides that had been made across the month. Perhaps that was a little presumptuous of me, but based on the past four SAHMs, most would have predicted similar outcomes for its fifth anniversary year. I certainly don’t think any of us would have anticipated race-related riots in the UK, in which South Asian communities were very much under threat.

I must be honest… as I sit down to write this piece, I am a little lost for words. It’s not going to be what I had in mind, and thinking about some of the things that have happened this month is hard.

I would, however, still like to offer my reflections on the month because there have been some positives. As for the challenges, it is arguably even more important to discuss these. The aim of initiatives like South Asian Heritage Month is to make society more equitable, and often that requires understanding where challenges stem from.

Many highlighted that this year’s South Asian Heritage Month theme, "Free to be me," even though it was voted for by the public, was a difficult one, and perhaps not something they felt able to do. I also felt a sense of this. Even when others give you permission to be yourself, it's not always easy. Fear of how people may react or internalized biases may prevent people from truly being themselves. Sadly, this is something many of us have had to grapple with this month.

Like many, I started the month on an uplifting and bold note, highlighting its significance and what I hoped to see happen across it. On LinkedIn, I posted a compilation video that highlighted lots of different parts of my South Asian identity, encompassing music, dance, and fashion. A few years ago, I definitely would have felt unsure about revealing this much of my South Asian-ness to my professional network, worrying about how they would interpret it. But things are changing, and I also feel a sense of responsibility—I hope that by sharing more, I can create more awareness and appreciation for South Asian culture, and also make others feel comfortable sharing more of themselves.

As the month progressed, there were many other highlights. At BollyCo , a South Asian dance and entertainment platform I help manage, we held a dinner to support South Asian women and also created a viral Bollywood flashmob dance in Piccadilly Circus. The whole experience of seeing a massive, diverse crowd gather in the heart of London and be part of what felt like an epic Bollywood scene was something I will never forget. Music has a special way of bringing communities together—it transcends language and cultural boundaries. On that note, I also had a special “mainstream” music industry feature , in which I spotlighted South Asian music.

At this point, my South Asian Heritage Month was off to a great start. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, it suddenly went in a very different direction as racial unrest began bubbling away.

I had been conducting some research with diverse communities and was getting a real-time sense of the changes that were happening in society. I then headed to Vienna for a few days for work, and by the time I arrived back, tensions had escalated beyond belief. Media bias and certain political narratives were also serving to make things worse, I felt.

Instead of celebrating South Asian culture, the time now was to defend it and provide some sort of solace to communities that were scared. Having worked in diversity my whole career, I know that it requires active management and understanding. You will see waves of support, and then this may be followed by backlash. Often, that backlash is nothing to do with diverse communities; it’s more about challenges other groups face in their own day-to-day lives. It is, of course, complicated, and you are welcome to read my master’s dissertation for more detail, but essentially, it is easier to mobilize people around identity, which is why we see the rise of us vs. them narratives.

As much as I was trying to rationalize things and provide guidance, the truth is that what was happening went far beyond what I thought was even possible in the UK. On the day that unrest was meant to occur in London, like many, I stayed home out of concern for being targeted and watched developments on the news and online.

As a researcher, I am always finding ways to track public sentiment and was able to do so through social media, along with conversations with friends, family, and the wider public. The unexpected counter-protests, in which the public came out to support us, thankfully provided some hope, reinforcing that it is the vocal minority that holds these views and not the majority of the UK population. I guess this provides some hope for the future.

As South Asian Heritage Month draws to a close, I am left with some overarching questions. How did we get here? Are we safe, and if/when might racial tensions flare up again? And, critically, how do we prevent this level of racial unrest from happening in the future?

Recent events are especially concerning given the efforts made in the UK over the last few years in relation to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. We need to ask what more we need to do and what we are getting wrong.

Coming full circle, I guess this is the whole point of initiatives like South Asian Heritage Month. It’s a time to create and strengthen understanding between different cultural communities. While I strongly believe that cultural exchanges (e.g., through music, dance, and food) are important for ongoing harmony, this month has shown us that these tools can be ineffective without deeper efforts. We must have the hard conversations and understand the systemic mechanisms that need changing, such as bias within the media and political discourse.

While this South Asian Heritage Month has not been the most enjoyable experience, its legacy may be longer-lasting change.

Written by Sania Haq, Founder, Bye 2 Stereotypes?

Sania Haq specialises in researching diverse audiences and has worked in this space for 12+ years.?She helps her commercial clients in sectors such as music and entertainment navigate and reach diverse audiences, and works closely with governments and non-profits to help them better understand and meet their socioeconomic needs.

More broadly, Sania is an award-winning Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) practitioner and Cultural Consultant. She writes, speaks and provides training on such matters, in relation to research methods and more widely.

Sania is a go-to specialist within inclusive data. This includes being the Technical Author for the British Standards Institute, being part of the Market Research Society's Representation in Research Steering Group, and running MRS training courses on?Inclusive Research ?and?Embedding Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ?within organisations.

After working in research agencies for over a decade, in 2023, Sania embarked on a new journey, setting up?Bye 2 Stereotypes , a brand that brings together her research, training and advisory work.

Sania is also a founding member of Qulture Qanvas , through which she offers full-service research support to clients looking to engage diverse audiences.