South Asian Heritage Month is the name given to the month-long celebration in the South Asian diaspora to celebrate the heritage of people with roots in the

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...

n countries of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

, Sri Lanka,

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

, and the

Maldives Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...

. The co-founders of South Asian Heritage Month are Jasvir Singh OBE and Dr Binita Kane, and the Founding Patron is

Anita Rani Anita Rani Nazran (born 25 October 1977), better known as Anita Rani, is an English radio and television presenter. Early life Rani was born and brought up in Bradford, West Yorkshire to a Hindu father and a Sikh mother. In an episode of ...

Origins in Canada

The first Indo-Caribbean Canadian (OSSICC) was formed primarily to celebrate the upcoming 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indians to Guyana in 1988. OSSICC continued to celebrate Indo-Caribbean Heritage Day until the year 2000, with interest coming mainly from

Indo-Caribbeans Indo-Caribbeans or Indian-Caribbeans are Indian people in the Caribbean who are descendants of the Jahaji Indian indentured laborers brought by the British, Dutch, and French during the colonial era from the mid-19th century to the early 20th c ...

. In April 1997, the

Indo-Trinidadian Indo-Trinidadians and Tobagonians or Indian-Trinidadians and Tobagonians, are people of Indian origin who are nationals of Trinidad and Tobago whose ancestors came from India and the wider subcontinent beginning in 1845. Indo-Trinidadians and ...

Canadian Association (ITCA) was formed and immediately started

Indian Arrival Day Indian Arrival Day is a holiday celebrated on various days in the nations of the Caribbean, Fiji, South Africa, and Mauritius, commemorating the arrival of people from the Indian subcontinent to their respective nations as indentured labours bro ...

celebrations that year. Also that year, community activist Asha Maharaj organized a display of Indian artifacts, the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Ottawa held its first celebration, and the Caribbean East Indian Cultural Organization headed by radio host Richard Aziz organized an Indian Arrival celebration in Toronto. By 1998, ITCA had decided to celebrate the event as Indian Arrival and Heritage Day, and held a huge show/display/dance at the Etobicoke Olympium. It was never an Indo-Caribbean for ITCA but always

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

, meaning all people with roots in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

Indian Arrival and Heritage Month in Canada

Since 1997, ITCA and later the Council for Indian Arrival and Heritage Month had decided not to make this an Indo-Caribbean event. They realized that Indo-Caribbeans were only about 10 percent of the South Asians in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, and if they confined Indian Arrival to Indo-Caribbeans, it would remain forever a marginal event. By 1999, ITCA had moved to celebrate the month of May as Indian Arrival and Heritage Month. At this stage, only ITCA and OSSICC were organizing events. By the year 2000, a Council for

Arrival and Heritage Month was in place, composed of people from ITCA, OSSICC, the Guyanese group GEAC, the Hamilton group CICA and several individuals.

Becoming South Asian Heritage Month

When Indian Arrival and Heritage Month were launched at the Scarborough Failure Centre in 2001, the keynote speaker was Raminder Gill, at the time the South Asian Member of the

Ontario Parliament The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA, french: Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by ...

South Asian Heritage Month in the UK

The South Asian community in the UK organised the concept launch of the first South Asian Heritage Month event in July 2019 at the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

. The concept launch was a collaboration between

City Sikhs City Sikhs (formerly City Sikhs Network) (Punjabi: ਸਿਟੀ ਸਿੱਖ) is a nonprofit organisation, and a registered charity which describes itself as "A voice for progressive Sikhs". It promotes networking, education and volunteering amongs ...

, Faiths Forum for London, The Grand Trunk Project and The Failure Campaign. South Asian Heritage Month runs from 18 July – 17 August and seeks to commemorate, mark and celebrate South Asian cultures, histories, particularly the intertwined histories of the UK and South Asian communities and how South Asian cultures are present throughout the UK. Unlike most commemoration months, SAHM takes place across two Western calendar months (July and August). The reason for this is that it respects the traditions of the South Asian solar calendar and the 18 July – 17 August contains several significant dates: *18 July: the Indian Independence Act of 1947 gained royal assent *26 July:

Independence Day *8 August:

Independence Day *14 August: Pakistani Independence Day *15 August:

Indian Independence Day Independence Day is celebrated annually on 15 August as a public holiday in India commemorating the nation's independence from the United Kingdom on 15 August 1947, the day when the provisions of the Indian Independence Act, which transf ...

*17 August:

Partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

Commemoration Day or the date that the

Radcliffe Line The Radcliffe Line was the boundary demarcated between the Indian and Pakistani portions of the Punjab Province and Bengal Presidency of British India. It was named after Cyril Radcliffe, who, as the joint chairman of the two boundary commissi ...

was published in 1947, setting out where the border between

, West

and East Pakistan (now

) would be The month also very nearly coincides with the South Asian month of Saravan/

Sawan Sāwaṇ or Sāuṇ ( pa, ਸਾਵਣ, ਸਾਉਣ, ) is the fifth month in the Nanakshahi calendar. Many Indian calendars started in different eras such as Shaka Calendar (national calendar of India) traditional Vikrama as well as the Nanak ...

, which is the main monsoon month when the region's habitat undergoes renewal.

References

{{Reflist

External links

South Asian Heritage Month UKSouth Asian Heritage Act, 2001

South Asian Heritage Foundation
(active to 2009) Asian-Canadian culture in Ontario Bangladeshi-Canadian culture Bhutanese diaspora Culture of Indian diaspora Culture of Pakistani diaspora Commemorative months Festivals in Ontario Indo-Canadian culture Maldivian diaspora May observances July observances August observances Nepalese diaspora in North America Pakistani-Canadian culture Sri Lankan-Canadian culture South Asian Canadian culture Month-long observances in Canada Awareness months Pakistani-British culture British culture Observances in the United Kingdom Asian-British culture Asian-British culture in England British culture by ethnicity