The Lives of Freda Bedi

Andrew Whitehead joins the Bookclub to talk about the little-known story of Freda Bedi.

Andrew Whitehead

Andrew is a historian, lecturer and freelance journalist with 35 years with the BBC as a correspondent, presenter and editor of BBC World Service News. He is honorary professor at the University of Nottingham & also a visiting professor at the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai, South India. Andrew's first book 'The Lives of Freda Bedi’ includes new material based on extensive access to the Bedi family archives. He is currently working on his second book 'Curious London' which will be published later this year.

Andrew Whitehead joins the Bookclub to talk about the little-known story of Freda Bedi. Bedi was an English woman who made her life in India after marrying a Punjabi-Sikh student in Oxford in 1993. After marriage, Bedi regarded herself as Indian and lived in Lahore where she championed India’s national cause during the Second World War. She later became an active Kashmiri nationalist, a Tibetan Buddhist and towards the end of her life a Buddhist nun, but India would remain her home to the end.

Buy ‘The Lives of Freda: The Political, Spiritual and Personal Journeys of Freda Bedi’ here >>

Prof Priya Satia

Prof Priya Satia, from Stanford University, joins the UKPHA Bookclub to describe the alternative futures anticolonial thinkers continued to imagine as the new border was drawn, especially through the poetic idioms of Urdu and Punjabi.

Kavita Puri

Kavita Puri joins the UKPHA Bookclub in conversation with Jassa Ahluwalia, to talk about her critically acclaimed BBC Radio 4 series ‘Three Pounds in my Pocket’, which has charted the social history of British South Asians over four seasons, decade by decade covering the 1960’s to 2000’s.

Gurmeet Rai

Gurmeet is one of India’s most renowned conservation architect's, who has been internationally recognised, most notably by UNESCO, for her work. Gurmeet talks about her 20 year engagement with the city of Amritsar to conserve some of it's historic buildings.

Prof. Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh

Prof. Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh talks about her work on the Janamsakhis to explore Guru Nanak's portrayal in art and his message on environmentalism.

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