Thursday,
October 9, 2003 12:40 BST
Asian Voices - A Woman's View |
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| Asian
Voices |
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Southampton
has an established, thriving Asian community. BBC Radio Solent, in
association with Southampton City Council’s Oral History Archive,
talked to Asian women in the city about their lives and experiences. |
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The resulting
five programmes tell the story of women who came to the UK from the
Indian subcontinent and East Africa, as well as those born here. They
talk about their education and working lives, reflect on marriage
and family and how best to preserve their culture.
In
Southampton, many new arrivals tended to go to the Newtown Nicholstown
area to live in 'joint
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| Arrivals
in the early '70s |
families'
- they describe how they coped with the weather, racial prejudice
as well as different customs and values.
From
1972 onwards, East African Asians began to arrive, fleeing political
turbulence in Uganda and Kenya.
Many of the women worked in factories - which was quite a culture
shock particularly for those who had never had to work before.
| "We
had to get used to the accents and get more fluency, but we
managed to get part-time jobs and enrolled ourselves in college
to get used to subjects we hadn’t needed in India. I studied
computer science in the evening." |
| Manju
Chopra |
Misconceptions
and misunderstandings were commonplace - one woman, following her
own custom, offered her food to her work colleagues but was offended
when they didn't share anything from their own packed lunches!
Kamlesh Khanduja was an Indian hockey champion and a
director of physical education at a college in Delhi, but found her
qualifications were not readily accepted.
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| Kamlesh
Khanduja |
Other
women fared better. Charanjit Garcha, who was a qualified teacher
when she arrived, swiftly rose to become Hampshire's first female
Asian headteacher at Mount Pleasant School. She's recently been awarded
the MBE for her work in education.
Some families encouraged women to get an education, for others it
meant battling against conservative attitudes.
One interviewee wanted to be a nurse and travel the world against
her family's wishes, another secretly enrolled in college. Later her
parents were proud of her status as a college lecturer.
| "I
did manage to get a couple of interviews and the funny thing
is that, they were highly qualified professional people, but
they asked if I did it [played hockey] wearing my sari!" |
| PE
Teacher, Kamlesh Khanduja |
Older women describe the restrictions they faced as girls, compared
to their brothers, who had more freedom to come and go and mix with
friends.
The women's experiences of marriage differed drastically.
One had two failed arranged marriages and describes herself now as
'allergic to men'.
Others reflect how lucky they were to choose the right man and have
no regrets. Women draw the distinction between 'forced' marriage,
where the girl has no choice who she marries, and 'arranged' marriage,
where she can meet the boy chosen by her family and make her own decision.
One woman describes the experience of 'marrying out' of her community
into a different religion.
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| Younger
generations learning about their music and culture |
Ranjan
Patel explains that living in a 'joint' or extended family has
its advantages - plenty of support, intimacy and help with bringing
up the children.
Younger people talk about the the importance of preserving their culture
- through dance, music and language classes.
Some of the second and third generation see their community here in
England as being more traditional than in contemporary India.
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The
Asian Voices series was produced by Liz McCallum and originally
broadcast on BBC Radio Solent in July 2000.
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