Old and new faces define a changing Bradford

IT was reportedly Cicero who said: “He who knows only his own generation remains always a child.”

Bradford no longer knows only its own generation. The city has grown up – and the former children of Bradford are learning about the generations that came before them.

The changing face of Britain, influenced by hundreds of years of immigration, is reflected nowhere more starkly than in a West Yorkshire mill town. Once the centre of the wool empire, Bradford is now a city with one of the youngest and most diverse populations of any landscape in the country and it is the South Asian population that has had the biggest impact on the way the city looks today.

Brought to work in the factories during the 1950s and 60s, the descendants of these workers from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, the workers who helped the city in its struggle to remain a global manufacturer, have made the city their home.

The story of the city from the perspective of those from the Asian sub-continent is told afresh in a new book and accompanying exhibition, which was launched at the weekend.

Changing Bradford: Exploring South Asian Heritage in Bradford, presents a fresh look at the impact made by South Asian people on the city. It is impossible to escape the fact that the city is known for racial tension and economic blight – the riots of 2001 played no small part in Channel 4 choosing to make documentaries in the city with provocative titles such as The Last White Kids and Make Bradford British. Both programmes focused on racial divisions as the principle point of Bradford.

Now, Bradfordians are presenting their own thoughts on that judgment through the new book and exhibition.

“South Asian communities are the backbone of Bradford, aren’t they? If you talk to anybody outside of Bradford, especially in London, the first thing they will say is ‘Great curry!’ Without the South Asians, Bradford would not be half as colourful or as interesting as it is,” says broadcaster Anita Rani, born in St Luke’s Hospital and who calls herself a “proper Bradfordian”.

“I am really proud of my Bradford roots and I tell everybody that I possibly can that I am from Bradford.

“ I am really passionate about Bradford. People think of it as this really depressed northern town but Bradford gave me everything, you know.

“I found that it was the most creative and inspiring city.”

Changing Bradford has been made possible thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and is based on 21 interviews carried out by young people of Bradford with older members of the city’s South Asian community.

The project is led by the Consortia of Ethnic Minority Organisations, which worked in partnership with Bradford city centre-based Impressions Gallery.

Led by chief executive Dr Mohammed Salam, the organisation carried out research into Bradford’s South Asian community and discovered there was a ‘disconnect’ between the city’s South Asian elders and the young people of the city who were second and third generation. Dr Salam felt something needed to be done to redress the balance.

“Bradford is a place that stirs the emotions. Though the city has much to offer, it is sometimes perceived in a negative light,” he says.

“For those of us who live and work in Bradford, a different place emerges when we talk about the city; a place which is far from the media stereotype, and which reflects the creative passions, community spirit, business acumen and family values of its multicultural population.”

Dr Salam was determined to find a way to celebrate the positive aspects of the city, as he saw it. The idea to create a book and exhibition, by training young people to record the stories of the older generation for Changing Bradford, was his brainchild.

The project manager Yvonne Deane helped to realise the ambition to find a way to reconnect the younger and older generation of Bradfordians with a South Asian background.

“We worked with the Manningham Youth Project and it was something of a surprise to discover that so few young people had any real understanding of why the elders of the community had first come to Britain,” she says.

“We worked with a number of young people and gave them the tools, through a number of workshops, to interview and take portrait photographs of subjects.”

The young people involved rediscovered their roots through older members of Bradford’s South Asian community for the project.

“We hope that, in a modest ;way, the publication of Changing Bradford will contribute to the ongoing story of community cohesion and social inclusion in Bradford, opening up a fresh perspective on the city which has a rich and diverse heritage and culture that is deserving of greater recognition,” says Dr Salam.

Fiona Spiers, head of HLF Yorkshire and the Humber said: “The South Asian community has played a vital role in Bradford’s lively and varied character. By preserving the stories and memories of local community, the Changing Bradford project has helped to shed light on the wonderful tapestry of Bradford’s heritage.”

The book will be distributed to libraries, schools and community groups and the accompanying exhibition is on show at Bradford’s Impressions Gallery until November 2.

A variation on the theme of the Cicero quote, is a phrase whose origin is difficult to determine. It is about the fact that to truly understand where we are going, we must first understand where we have been.

“This is the thing that members of the second and third generation descended from immigrants are in danger of losing if they do not reconnect with the stories of their forebears.

But the visitors’ book at Impressions Gallery suggests that the exhibition is already fulfilling one of its important purposes and if funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund was granted on the basis that it preserves an important legacy, then a quote from a visitor identified as “S. Fatime” should leave those in charge of grants, assured.

The message left in the book reads: “I adore this exhibition!

“I think it’s absolutely awesome, coming from a Pakistani background myself, it’s both inspiring/ powerful/influential to see the images and information on paths of the people who are of a South Asian background living in Bradford.

“I saw the images from outside the door and instantly I was drawn into the exhibition. This is by far my favourite exhibition.”