Three Pounds In My Pocket

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Three Pounds in My Pocket

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Kavita Puri hears the stories of Asians who came to Britain from the 1950s onwards.

Kavita Puri hears the stories of pioneering Asians who came to Britain from the 1950s onwards.

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Three Pounds in My Pocket: Series 4: Episode 2

Series 4

Episode 2

BBC Radio 4 - Three Pounds in My Pocket, Series 4, Episode 2

2001: the year everything changed for British South Asians

Kavita Puri hears stories from the second generation about the year when everything changed for British South Asians.

2001: the year everything changed for British South Asians. Since 2014, Kavita Puri has been charting the social history of this community in post-war Britain. Many came with as little as three pounds due to strict currency controls. 

After the optimism and progress of the 1990s, there was an abrupt change in 2001. The year began positively enough - in Spring, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook declared chicken tikka masala a national dish. It may not have been something that many - if any - British South Asians cooked at home, but Cook's speech was an imagining of Britain as diverse, open and multicultural. 

Later that year, there was civil unrest in areas with large numbers of British South Asians, including Oldham, Burnley and Bradford. Racial tensions in Oldham were stoked by the British National Party. Their leader Nick Griffin made some electoral gains in the General Election in June. And then a few months later, on September 11th, al-Qaeda attacked the Twin Towers in New York City. 

Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Hugh Levinson

Historical consultants:
Dr Florian Stadtler, University of Exeter
Dr Edward Anderson, Northumbria University

Three Pounds in My Pocket: Series 4

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Kavita Puri follows the stories of the 'three pound generation' into the 1990s

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Three Pounds in My Pocket

Series 4

Episode 2

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