Krishan Anand Trust Public Lecture

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Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship Krishan Anand Memorial Lecture: Krishan Kumar Anand’s Bristol life Rohit Barot

I am delighted to give an outline of Krishan Kumar Anand’s life in Bristol. I knew him as a leading figure in the local Indian community. In 1985 I had an ESRC research award to look at Bristol South Asian groups. During my fieldwork, I remember interviewing Krishan at length for three hours on 18th February 1986. His elder brother Sushil who lives in Canada has inspired and funded this Krishan Anand Memorial Lecture. I am grateful to him for sending me some additional information that includes a copy of my letter of thanks to Krishan in February 86. In this brief introduction, before I focus on Krishan, it is useful to give the historical background to Indian presence in Bristol. It is worth noting that separate Indian and Pakistani national identities were consolidated more after 1947. Then East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1972 and made the Bangladeshi identity a new reality. Let me start with my brief historical sketch to establish continuity of the Indian presence in Bristol from the earlier part of the 19th century to post colonial arrival of South Asians like Krishan Kumar to Bristol.

The 19th century social reformer Raja Rammohan Roy was one of the more well-known visitors to Britain in 1830. He visited Bristol in September 1833 to meet his Christian Unitarian friends known as the Carpenter family. Soon after his arrival in Bristol, he caught meningitis and died here. He was buried in Stapleton Grove from where Dwarkanath Tagore had his remains transferred


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