GREAT BRITAIN SIMPLY cannot have enough of India. The countries just signed a cultural pact, while a larger and comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) is in its final stages. More consulates, more flights, more tourists, more students and more cultural, fine arts and sports exchanges are on the anvil. But the big question is, is the UK safe for Indians any longer?
“The UK is a divided nation,” admitted Lisa Nandy, secretary of state for culture, media and sport in the Keir Starmer government, who recently was in India. “We went through a period in the last decade of losing our self-confidence as a nation. But we’ve got a new government and we are at the start of a decade of national renewal. We are recovering our self-confidence.”
If the increasing number of Indians looking to Britain to study, work or migrate would still need stronger assurances from the Labour government, they cannot be blamed. Hate crimes have regularly been reported from across the UK in recent years, peaking in the race riots of last summer. Though not specifically targeted at the Indian or South Asian diaspora, the incidents did shake up not just Indian-origin residents, but students and those who aspire to move there.
Add to that the increasing Hindu-Muslim diaspora tensions, hitting a crescendo with the Leicester unrest of 2022 following an India-Pakistan cricket match, the very image of the UK as an attractive destination for studies and work seemed to have taken a knock.
Then there are the frequently reported tales of bias and harassment against Indian students. The UN even warned the UK government last year of its approach to hate speech and migrant protection. It is no surprise that the number of Indian students joining educational institutions in the UK showed a drop last year―down to 1.11 lakh from 1.39 lakh in 2023.
The riots against ‘outsiders’ could equally be a reason as much as the previous Conservative government’s (run, ironically, by an Indian-origin PM and an Indian-origin home secretary) crack down on economic immigration, limiting job prospects after finishing studies and a clampdown on foreign students being allowed to bring along their dependent partners and spouses.
“We have always been a warm, open, diverse nation. And that certainly hasn’t changed,” said Nandy, who was born to an Indian father and an English mother. In fact, she quotes her father, Dipak Nandy, an academic who moved from Calcutta to Britain in the 1950s and was instrumental in the UK’s landmark Race Relations Act of 1976. “His message to me has always been that when you have racism and discrimination, every generation has to pick up the battle and fight those battles anew. That’s as true in India as it is in the UK. It’s true all over the world.”
The Starmer regime, for one, has its priorities straight in mending the decade-plus era of Conservative rule, which saw many prime ministers coming and leaving 10, Downing Street and leaving more or less one contentious legacy to show―Brexit. And, perhaps at a deeper level, the larger seeds of divisiveness it sowed in what was once a proud-to-be-multicultural nation.
The Starmer regime, Nandy said, was not just repairing that damage, but was staunch in its path of global cooperation, even as the post-Trump world seemed to be headed in the opposite direction―imposing tariffs, limiting migration and the building of a social media-fuelled narrative of ‘us versus them’.
“We’ve had a difficult decade where we left the European Union and tore ourselves apart over that decision,” Nandy said. “One of our missions is to reconnect Britain with the world.”
While leaving the EU is a foolhardiness that is hard to reverse now, the Starmer government’s efforts have been to build a new rapprochement with Europe. “Those trends (nations going insular, building up trade barriers) are happening globally, but we’ve taken a decision as a government to travel in precisely the opposite direction. The message, loud and clear, is that Britain is open for business. We are determined to work much more closely with partners all over the world,” she said.
Nearly on an equal footing would be London’s recognition of New Delhi as a crucial partner strategically, culturally and economically. “Not just because of our history, but because of the future that we believe we can forge together,” said Nandy.
While the FTA will be the visible manifestation of this new courtship between Britain and its erstwhile Raj, a more potent manifestation will be on the cultural and social level―there are plans for more tie-ups in cinema, sports and, of course, education. While India remains a lucrative source of income for many British universities, collaborations in areas like films, fashion and gaming are also on the uptick.
“The world has lost its ability to understand one another. It feels more divided than it has for some time, and at moments like this, the power of culture and creativity is second to none,” said Nandy, quoting similar pronouncements made by both Starmer and Prime Minister Narendra Modi “We believe that India and the UK can be the exemplar of how you bring people together, breaking down national boundaries, in order to forge a common future.” The upcoming collaborations include touring of science museum collections and exhibitions of artefacts like the Kohinoor across England and India.
“It’s incredibly important that our nations work together,” said Nandy. “We often talk about the contribution that Britain made to shaping India. We talk less about the contribution that India has made to shaping what it means to be British.”