A Southasian story: Where you are from…

Some context for the SAARC Chamber visit to London, 07-12 September 2026 — the first since 2006, when Maleeha Lodhi was Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK and Kamalesh Sharma was India’s High Commissioner before becoming Commonwealth Secretary General.

A question often asked of people of colour in the United Kingdom even now in 2026 is, “Where you are really from?” meaning, what is your ethnicity and country of origin.

I changed my stock answer in the wake of ‘9/11’ from saying I was from London and originally Pakistan, to a simple statement of the facts: that my father was born in Bangalore, my mother was from Lahore and I was born in London.

Identity is often multifaceted yet the UK Government’s Ethnic group classifications for its national Census always provide a personal challenge – I can declare I am ‘Asian British: Pakistani,’ ‘Asian British: Indian’ or ‘Asian British: Other Asian.’

I would appreciate the choice to check ‘Southasian’.

The context matters. My grandmother Iqbalunnisa Hussain came to the UK in 1933 for postgraduate studies in education at the University of Leeds. This was the year Hitler came to power; Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was still living in London. She brought her eldest son with her — my father, who prepared for the Indian Civil Service, then worked for the ICS in India House from 1933, before joining the Pakistan High Commission from Day 1 in 1947 until he retired in 1980. Two of his brothers opted for India, joining the Indian Foreign Service. They were seldom able to meet.

Cricket diplomacy

The years 2004-06 marked a very different period in the India-Pakistan relationship. This was the era of when thousands of spectators regularly crossed the India-Pakistan border as part of landmark cricket diplomacy. Being in the stands of the Jinnah Stadium, Islamabad on 5 April 2004, I remember seeing Pakistan defeat India 1–0 in an electric football final of the South Asian Games, and the huge cheers and applause that greeted the Indian team when they ascended the podium with the home team victors. 

I was then working with Chatham House on secondment from British Airways, and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit had taken place in Islamabad. It was at this time that the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC), chaired by Cyril Ramaphosa — South Africa’s current President – invited me to lead negotiations on collaboration with the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry. I recall a fine meal on the Margalla Hills with the SCCI Executive Director Sheikh Waqar Ahmad where the deal was done.

Within a year both the CBC and SCCI had established the South Asia Trade and Investment Network or SATIN as a public private partnership, with UK Government and private sector funding. Its high point was perhaps convening the first major business event on Southasia outside the region in 2006 in the South Asia Trade and Investment Forum in London. Close to 500 people attended the event over several days, including many from the diaspora, with an agenda agreed for future partnership.  

The ‘Aman ki Asha‘ (Hope for Peace) platform launched in 2010 remains another memorable initiative in the realm of improving relations between India and Pakistan.

Fast forward to the present, and in a very different world of trade turbulence, Southasia, for all its faults and constraints, is the fastest-growing economic region in the world this year. It is also home to the Commonwealth’s largest three countries in terms of population, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, representing just under two billion citizens, the majority under 30-years old.

Indeed the only people of colour who signed the 1949 London Declaration which founded the modern Commonwealth (when the term ‘British Commonwealth’ was dropped) were from Southasia — former freedom fighters Pakistan’s Liaquat Ali Khan, India’s Jawaharlal Nehru and Sri Lanka’s D. S. Senanayake.

A landmark visit

This background provides context about why I am so excited about the visit of the SAARC Chamber to London, 07-12 September 2026, with its most senior delegation of men and women from across five countries in Southasia. The last time such a visit took place was 20 years ago, in 2006, when Maleeha Lodhi was Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK and Kamalesh Sharma was India’s High Commissioner before becoming Commonwealth Secretary General.

The Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network (CBWN), on the board of which I sit, is an accredited (meaning official) organisation directly recognised by 56 governments including five from Southasia. The CBWN, with origins in the Commonwealth Business Council, is focused on encouraging, enabling and embedding women in leadership and women’s economic empowerment through work in trade, talent and training. From the very start, it has sustained a strong relationship with the SCCI.

The CBWN’s own India-Pakistan initiative saw its genesis in a major exhibition at the SOAS Gallery in London last year co-curated by Salima Hashmi from Pakistan and Manmeet Walia from India. Titled ‘(Un)Layering the Future Past of South Asia: Young Artists’ Voices,’ the exhibit showcased works by 26 young artists from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Afghanistan.

As conflict raged between India and Pakistan in May 2025, the SOAS Exhibition served as a reflection of shared histories, artistic expression, and the aspiration for a more interconnected Southasia. In June 2025 CBWN with Bloomsbury Institute London hosted an event on ‘South Asia: people, promise and potential – art, film and discussion’ highlighting the unfulfilled creative promise and potential of South Asia through art and film and the importance of Art, Identity, and Bridging Divides.

The CBWN has been managing SCCI’s London Programme including meetings with the business community in the UK (including Scotland), Commonwealth organisations. The SCCI delegation is also attending the Launch of the Commonwealth Creative Industries Alliance (CCIA) and a Commonwealth event on Digital Trade Governance in a Changing World Order both at the Commonwealth headquartersd at Marlborough House.

But in engaging stakeholders in the UK for this visit – whether from Government or industry – there still seems to be a view of Southasia around a historic obsession of the 3 Cs of culture, cricket and conflict rather than a more contemporary focus on commerce, connectivity and creativity.

Power and potential

One exception may be Andy Burnham, the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade. As Mayor of Manchester, he inaugurated Manchester’s landmark South Asia Gallery at the Manchester Museum in 2023. This was the first permanent gallery in the UK dedicated entirely to the lived experiences, histories, and contributions of the Southasian diaspora as opposed to Stuff the British Stole still viewed in London.

When we met briefly at the event, I made a point in commending him on this significant achievement. He talked of this representing ‘key partners for our city-region’ where shared cultural foundations create ‘huge opportunities for mutually beneficial investment, innovation and job creation’.

In a challenging global context, this reflects the power and potential of the South Asian diaspora especially in the UK and North America.

Maybe that is also key to understanding Southasia now.  

Arif Zaman sits on the Board of the Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network in London, where he is the Executive Director and as well as OPEN London, and is Adviser, SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He has also taught business and led enterprise outreach, and run a podcast, at Bloomsbury Institute London.

This is a Global Southasia (formerly Sapan News) syndicated feature available for republication with due credit to sapannews.com. 

Why ‘Southasia’ as one word? Because our histories entangle, our struggles intersect, and our futures are bound together.

This article was written and edited by humans. Click here for the Global Southasia AI policy.

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