This Instagram Account Is Schooling The World On South Asian History
South Asia — comprising Afghanistan, India,Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives — has been a part of the many social, political and cultural changes that history has witnessed: trade, migration, war, slavery, colonisation and more. However much of the pages from this history are missing and so many stories of South Asian people have been forgotten or were never told.
But 31-year-old Montreal-based electrical engineer, Ahsun Zafar is digging deep to revive and share these stories through his Instagram page, Brown History. And he does so, not simply though the lens of nostalgia, but in an effort to document the dynamics of oppression, equality, power and tradition — amongst many other themes. The page carries tales ranging from Teja Singh, who prevented the Canadian government from getting rid of all the South Asians in Canada by leading his people to defend their residency rights in 1908 to Indrani Rahman, the first Indian to compete in the Miss Universe beauty pageant in 1952.
Since 2017, when he started the page, it’s come to garner more than 100,000 followers. We speak to Zafar about what inspired him to start the page, why it’s important to turn the spotlight on the South Asian community, and how its sub-sects are all essentially connected:
What inspired you to start Brown History?
I’ve always had a thirst for knowledge and I’ve been a voracious reader but it came to a point where I was learning all these things but wasn’t doing anything with it. What’s the point of knowledge if you don’t use it? At the same time, I wanted to learn more about my roots, so Brown History was the sum of all this.
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Many women followed Sarla Thakral’s inspirational lead and served in the airforce in WW2.
Where do you find such stories from history? How’re you able to curate your content?
I just ask questions and follow my curiosity. For example, I was watching a documentary on the Black Panther Party movement and the narrator said that the party inspired groups all around the world so I wondered if South Asia was influenced in any way and lo and behold, I learned about the Dalit Panther Movement and the British Black Panther Party who’s core members were South Asians. Everything you need to know is out there waiting for you in books, museums, documentaries etc.
Why the concentration on stories from the pre-independence era?
That’s slowly changing as now I’m looking at different time periods. When I was researching about my roots, I realised that it goes further back than Independence – to an era when we were all one. Everyone influenced each other, through music, traditions, languages, cuisines, arts, etc. We’re all connected and that is my state of mind when I’m working on Brown History.
You’re able to highlight different aspects of brown history such as politics, culture and tradition. How does it help in decolonising thought-processes ?
Maya Angelou once said, “the more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.” Think of it as doctors trying to find the cure for a sickness and the first step they take is to find the source of pain.
Were there any stories that were really difficult to find?
The world has done a pretty good job of hiding our stories. Colonial amnesia is real. It’s the erasure of countries’ colonial past from their education systems and their media. For example in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (2017), not a single South Asian character is present. It’s as if they never existed. If they were going to get a One Direction member in their movie, they could have at least gone with Zayn Malik.
Which stories affected you the most?
They’re all moving in their own way. History is like a medicine cabinet. Whatever you’re going through, you can always go back to history and find a story that you can relate to and in turn it can surprise you, inspire you, give you strength, like medicine. So far, South Asians have been going through life without a medicine cabinet, just imagine how much stronger and powerful we’ll be when our stories will finally be represented in books and the media.
The story of Vaishno Das Bagai trying to make it in America is a pretty heart-breaking. He migrated from Peshawar in 1915 and received citizenship in 1920. However he lost it 4 years later due to an Act of Congress that barred all “Asiatics” from citizenship, which eventually led to his suicide.
What’ve been some of the reactions you’ve gotten after the page picked up popularity? What’s the #BrownHistoryPhotoAlbum all about?
It’s been overwhelming. My inbox is overflowing with messages of love and support. It just shows how hungry South Asians are to have their stories told.
#BrownHistoryPhotoAlbum is stories of everyday South Asians sent in by followers. Life didn’t get any better after the British left. Our people had another mountain to climb right after and that was overcoming the racism and hate from the Western world and the difficulty of leaving home and entering a strange new world. They were just everyday people but their stories transcend politics and borders. Doesn’t matter where we are from, we can all relate to their struggles.
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