The UK's vibrant Punjabi community celebrated the Lohri festival this year, with Lohri trending on Twitter on 13 January. Although not many bonfires took place in the UK due to the sudden drop in temperatures, many British Punjabi families gathered with friends and family to celebrate in a true community spirit.
For those who wanted to celebrate Lohri in its pure Indian form, one group of dedicated Brit-Indians organised an event in north London. A huge Lohri celebration, complete with a bonfire, was organised in Harrow, north London on 16 January 2016 at the Pink Turban restaurant. Traditional Indian musicians performed following the bonfire lighting, while an elaborate array of Indian food on offer. The event was hosted by the Voice of Dogras (a group set up to raise awareness about the Dogras ethnic community from India's northern region of Jammu) in close partnership with Kashmiri Pandits Cultural Society. The chief guest was Bob Blackman MP from the Conservative party. Present also will be Councillor Manji Kara.
Manu Khajuria, Founder of Voice of Dogmas told Asian Voice exclusively, "Dogras are a minority ethno lingustic community from Jammu& Kashmir. Celebrating festivals like Lohri, is an important festival of the State, with the wider community is an attempt to protect and promote the local culture of J&K.
"Lohri in London by Voice of Dogras UK, brings the Dogras in UK together and also gives them an opportunity to showcase their culture and heritage to other communities here.
"Preserving our 'Indianness' as British Indians or NRIs is very important. Indian festivals help bring communities together and foster a spirit of goodwill, unity and bortherhood which only positively adds to what and how the Indian diaspora contributes to UK.”
Lakshmi Kaul, Founder of Kashmiri Pandits Cultural Society UK told AV, "The festival of Lohri marks the harvest of the rabi crop and is celebrated in various regions in India. In the UK, this celebration is not very widespread as people usually organise smaller get togethers at home. I am glad that Voice of Dogras are organising this festival for the wider community thereby showcasing the traditional celebration in yet another North Indian state - Jammu & Kashmir. Not many people know that the Dogras celebrate this festival with much enthusiasm just like those in Punjab. It is a great way to bring communities together and we offer our whole hearted support to this great first step. May the traditions of love continue year on year.”
Inspiring story of Raj Kharia and Pink Ladoo
Each year, on January 13, Punjabi families all across the world, who have been blessed with a boy child, celebrate Lohri with grandeur. Yellow-coloured ladoos are exchanged and is the hallmark of congratulation. But it is a rare practice when a girl child is born.
30 year old Rajvinder Khaira, a UK-based lawyer, wants to change this mentality. Her campaign, ‘Pink Ladoo’, was born out of the need to generate awareness about gender discrimination and the need to end it. She narrated a story from childhood, when she was about 10 year old. It was while her parents were elated when her baby sister was born, the extended family was allegedly quite unhappy because it was not a boy. But when her brother arrived two years later, it was a celebration. All this happened in England and the incident enraged her- making her think.
With a simple moto saying 'equality is sweet', she launched the ‘Pink Ladoo’ campaign. As the name suggests – people distribute pink ladoos when a girl child is born. “It is just not about a ladoo that is pink. It is about ending gender discrimination in South Asian countries, especially India. We want to change the way people react when a girl is born. It is about creating a new custom of distributing ladoos even when girls are born, not only boys,” said Khaira.
Punjabi artist turned Aam Aadmi Party leader Jassi Jasraj, whose wife gave birth to their second daughter in Canada in October last year, supports the campaign.
At the ‘Her Lohri’ celebrations held in Nottingham by the Punjabi community on a Sunday, two weeks back, Pink Ladoos were distributed along with books spreading awareness against female foeticide.
The campaign is across the UK, where South Asian sweet shops have agreed to supply pink ladoos to their customers. The campaign will also be going live across Australia in March and across Canada in May. In India, Chandigarh and Gujarat are places where they are currently looking for ambassadors outside the UK.
