In South Asian Heritage Month, Jayprit Serai (EMBA student 2023) reflects on her own sense of identity.
For Asian heritage month, as I stand on the cusp of being a Cambridge EMBA graduate, I reflect that I have had the best of both worlds: two worlds that have shaped me and made me the person I am today. I have often questioned my identity and heritage. I was born in India, but my parents moved to the UK before I had even turned one. I grew up in East London and there has always been an element of “Am I British?” or “Am I Indian?” My family would call me a “coconut” or “British” but, in a secondary school where you were in the minority, you would be labelled as “Indian” or “Asian”.
So, we land on British Indian, but what does that even mean? Especially when you spend most of your formative years trying to fit in, ultimately trying to shut doors on anything to do with your culture or heritage because you feel it is uncool. And I, like most British Indians of my era, ended up living a double life; one with my family who tried to keep the culture alive, and another outside of home where I ultimately tried to stray so far away from my culture and heritage that I ended up rejecting it.
It was only after university that I acknowledged that I had become so out of touch with my heritage that I wasn’t even sure the “Indian” portion of “British Indian” even reflected who I was. When I was very young, I recall loving all things Indian like: Bollywood, Diwali, our trips to the gurdwara and heading to India during the summer holidays. The person I had become wasn’t someone I recognised; I had lost my Identity entirely and did not appreciate or value my culture or my rich heritage.
At school we weren’t exposed to the rich history of South Asia, and most people around me only ever focused on the negative stereotypes and racism, and that doesn’t help to empower you to be your authentic self. It wasn’t until my late 20s that I truly started to embrace my South Asian heritage. I started to immerse myself in the culture and history of my country.
My identity is a beautiful confusion. I have gained a new respect for my identity, and this in part comes from seeing people like me represented in art, books, TV and in a professional setting. It allows me to contextualise my experiences, to resonate with people who seem familiar. It gives us the permission to mix our western and Asian cultures – and feel good about it. Looking to present day, I am proud of being a British Asian woman, I am proud to be part of the diverse Cambridge EMBA cohort. As I learn, explore and discover within my intellectual and culturally diverse group, I feel empowered by the phenomenal experiential learning that is on offer. I am ready to embrace the new future full of aspirations and ambitions. I have finally arrived at a place where I feel ‘free to be me’ and live my beautiful confusion on my own terms.
Note: Asian heritage month begins 18th July (the date that the Indian Independence Act 1947 gained royal assent from King George VI) to 17th August (the date that the Radcliffe Line was published in 1947, which finally set out where the border between India, West Pakistan and East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, would be).
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