Kanti Nagda is a distinguished social activist who has made a difference to his community.
His father was a grocer’s assistant in Kampala, Uganda. His mother was a house-wife.
Early influences and memories
Kanti told us;
“In my childhood I used to read a lot of historical books and biographies of Indian freedom fighters which influenced my thinking and growing up. This was coupled with encouragement by Kavi Dhayabhai Patel, a well-known writer and politician in Kampala, to write stories and poems. In my secondary school and college days I used to write Gujarati stories and poems which were published in almost all Gujarati publications in East Africa.
Turning point
Kanti Nagda became a teacher but was a victim of Idi Amin’s expulsion of Asians from Uganda.
So at the age of 26, he arrived in Harrow in 1972 with £50.00 in his pocket.
“I got involved in social activities, cultural organisations, and race relations. “I was one of the pioneers of Harrow Community Relations at the time. Discrimination was very rife. To the extent that the politicians in Harrow were saying ‘don’t come to our borough, we are oversubscribed. There are no jobs, no schools, no houses for you.’
We fought a number of discrimination cases in Harrow.”
In 1973, with a few friends, Kanti started a charity; Anglo-Indian Art Circle. He did this after witnessing a few elderly Asians sitting on public benches in the main shopping centre, who could not go back to their homes until their children returned back from work in the evening. Immediately he started a drop-in centre, the first of a kind in the country. Here at this centre. Elderly Asians from all over London would come, meet and socialise in a hall.
The socio/cultural organisation then turned into a pressure group for the plight of Asians and other minorities. This happened with the introduction of Asian language books in all the Harrow libraries, vegetarian meals-on-wheels services for house bound frail elderly, a hostel for elderly with housing problems.
He said that an early challenge was to overcome prejudicial barriers in the community work he was doing. He had high barriers to climb over; the then the Leader of Harrow Council said that ‘They (Asians) would get vegetarian meals-on-wheels over my dead body.’
Kanti challenged Harrow Council when they were checking the passports of children. “When the children wanted to get admission in the schools, the council was checking their passports. Now the rule of the nation is that if you are under 16, you should be educated free. It doesn’t matter where you come from. For these people to check passports was not on. We challenged them and in the end they backed down. It was a struggle.”
Kanti notes that now, 40 years later, the behaviour of local councils is not as it was then. “Today, they accept refugees from all over the world. Now things are different, but we had to fight for a level playing field,” he says, nodding and remembering.
Biggest challenge
Kanti founded a community centre (known as Sangat Centre), at present providing legal advice and representation at immigration and welfare benefits tribunals to over 1200 people of all nationalities and backgrounds per year.
Kanti explained that challenge was all about “building Sangat Community Centre, without a penny from the local council, and having the Royal seal; the Centre’s opening ceremony was performed by Their Royal Highnesses The Earl and Countess of Wessex.”
In 1982, Kanti was one of the few Asians who got a place in Debrett’s Handbook of distinguished people in British life and Marquis Who’s Who in the World in 1984.
He reveals, that the ability to overcome the difficulties posed by the social work through “the will to over-come all the hurdles; and there were many.”
He has been the Secretary of Confederation of Indian Organisations (UK) and President of National Congress of Gujarati Organisations.
He is an active member of Greenford Lions Club and has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds of various charities.
Finally, we couldn’t resist asking Kanti how he planned to build on what he has done to ensure his legacy. He’s done so much, how will he stop it from tumbling down like a pack of cards 50 years from now? He said,
“The work that has been done will continue.”
