Mukul and Ghetto Tigers undertakes an oral history project supported by National Lottery
Heritage Fund which explores the question ‘Who am I?’ raised by second generation
immigrant children whose parents left pre partition India during colonial times and settled in
other parts of the British empire including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania. The project investigates
what it means for young British Asians growing up in a system with a colonial legacy and
explores how the past horrible historic events experienced by their parents and grandparents
still affect the lives of young people. This project combines research, creative
use of oral history interviews in theatre, film screening, panel discussions, storytelling at
Stanley Arts, Croydon and Crawley Library. The oral histories will be deposited with
University of East London and Brighton University. Training programmes to learn
heritage related skills including research, conservation and cataloguing will leave a legacy for
future generations.
The project explored further the question of how young people define their identity/ies and
navigate their lives through multiple identities. Film profiles of young people explored
how descendants of migrants of Indian/Asian origin manage to handle the situation of their
dual identity as British citizens with an Asian heritage – whether they speak a different
language at home and outside; whether they eat different food at home and outside; whether
they find themselves dressing differently at home in Asian clothes and outside in western
clothes; whether attitudes of their families have changed over the years; difficulties faced by
them with their dual identities and how they manage them.