Latest news with #HenryHiggins
Time of India
20-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Mornington Street, Leicester: The street where over 43% adults speak no English
UK PM Keir Starmer (File photo) Were Professor Henry Higgins of Pygmalion fame to stroll down Mornington Street in Leicester, he might well be tempted to throw in the phonetic towel. Here, in the heart of St Matthew's, language is a tapestry of tongues — few of which, for a significant portion of residents, are English. According to the 2021 Census, this modest stretch of red-brick Victorian terraces has the lowest proportion of English speakers in the entire United Kingdom. In the dozen or so streets surrounding Mornington, nearly 43% of residents aged 16 and above speak little or no English. City-wide, only 57% of Leicester's population was born in England — a drop from 65% in 2011 — reflecting decades of migration from Gujarat, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia, and Eastern Europe. Mornington Street is less a postcode and more a portrait of globalisation — one where children often interpret for grandparents, sari shops outnumber pubs, and Arabic signs sit alongside corner takeaways offering spicy curry pizzas. Mind Your Language Hello Sailor Alphabets Located in a densely populated pocket of North Evington, the area comprises around 2,000 residents across a dozen roads. Mornington Street and the surrounding neighbourhood are home to a significant number of migrants, primarily Muslims of Indian origin from Gujarat, along with sizeable communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia, and Eastern Europe. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Bangladesh: Jewelry On Sale For Half Price (See Price List) Luxury Jewelry | search ads Undo The area includes two mosques, a Hindu temple, and numerous multilingual households with three generations living under one roof. Local school staff report that children frequently serve as translators for parents and grandparents. Ruki, 62, a lunchtime supervisor at St Barnabas Primary School and a long-time resident, stated that many older residents speak no English and rely on younger family members to communicate with schools and health services. Shohel Issufo, a takeaway owner who arrived from Gujarat in 2003, said he had enrolled in an ESOL course to improve his English. He noted that many people in the area did not feel the need to learn the language because they were surrounded by others who spoke the same dialect. Ribwar Hussein, a garage owner originally from Iraq, explained that he learned English after marrying a British woman. While his children are bilingual, he said the use of Kurdish at home is gradually declining. Carer Payl Vaghela, whose family lives on Mornington Street, said they speak both Gujarati and English at home. Her mother, who has lived in the area for 40 years, is fluent in both languages, while her young son speaks only English with limited understanding of Gujarati. Other residents cited long working hours and family responsibilities as barriers to learning English. Factory worker Imran Ussene noted that although his wife had enrolled in English classes, she had to stop due to childcare duties. A local man said his aunt, who speaks only Memon, had never learned English, finding it too difficult and unnecessary since most of her social circle also communicates in the same language. Community leader Mansoor Moghal, former chairman of Leicestershire's Race Relations Committee, acknowledged that there are pockets of non-English speakers in Leicester but maintained that the majority of the city's non-white population does speak English. He added that migrants from Eastern Europe may have also contributed to the high proportion of non-English speakers reflected in the census data. Leicester experienced communal tensions in 2022, including clashes between Hindu and Muslim groups in areas like St Matthew's. While tensions have since calmed, concerns about integration and communication in linguistically diverse neighbourhoods persist. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer addressed these issues in his recent 'Island of Strangers' speech, asserting that migrants must commit to learning English. Though he declined to impose a cap on immigration numbers, he argued that the government should differentiate between those who integrate and those who do not. The speech drew mixed reactions. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage praised Starmer's comments as long overdue, while Labour MP Diane Abbott denounced them as divisive and harmful. Mornington Street today reflects a microcosm of Britain's evolving urban identity — shaped by successive waves of migration, multilingualism, and a complex negotiation of culture, belonging, and communication.
Hindustan Times
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
The double life of an academic and murder mystery writer
I'm writing about what used to be a well-kept secret. Today, it's my intention to blow it to smithereens. It's all about someone who's not what he at first seems. In fact, he's been leading a double life in broad daylight. He's even gone so far as to create another name for himself. And it follows he also has a second career. Now you know of him as one of our finest sociologists. In this capacity he's authored 21 reputable books with titles such has Nativism in a Metropolis on the Shiv Sena, The Context of Ethnicity on Sikh identity, Rivalry and Brotherhood on the life of farmers, Mistaken Modernity on India caught between two worlds, and From People to Citizens on India's changing profile. In Jawaharlal Nehru University, they're praised and admired. More recently, he's established a keen reputation as a thought-provoking columnist in one of our popular dailies. Though they are profound and occasionally disturbing, his columns are particularly liked for his teasing use of the English language. He plays with words as if he's a second Henry Higgins. He also writes about aspects of topical developments that otherwise you would not have noticed or remarked upon. This is, of course, the recognised, public and well-known side of him. It's the foundation on which his richly deserved academic reputation has been built. It's been his established persona as an adult for most of the 75 years of his life. And by now I'm pretty sure some of you have begun to guess who he is. Am I right? However, there's another side to him that he's kept firmly under wraps. For a decade or longer, he's also been writing murder mysteries and crime fiction. His three books are called Lead Tin Yellow, Let's Pray for Timmy, and What the Witness Did Not See. Set in America or peopled with Americans, they bear no possible or, even, remote connection to sociology, Sikh identity, the Shiv Sena or the many crises that afflict India. Instead, they're about people, their whims and ambitions, their foibles and lapses and, of course, a compelling predicament that confronts their lives. I won't go into the stories — that will spoil your fun if you decide to read the books — but I'll reveal that he has a knack for capturing the way people speak. Not just the words they use but their accent and intonation. As a result, their voices stand out and linger in your mind as you furiously turn the pages of his books, anxious to get to the narrative's denouement. His other great skill lies in descriptions. He's not florid. Certainly not verbose. In fact, he's precise, pointed and very particular in the way he paints a scene. And he seems to have a flair for landscape settings. I found myself quite entranced by his descriptive ability to bring the view from an ordinary window vibrantly to life. Actually, there's a hint of who I'm writing about in the nom de plume he's adopted. It's DG Rae. On the face of it, you might assume this is like PD James. In fact, it is and it isn't. Like James, he's refused to reveal the rest of his name. But that's because the initials actually stand for his real names, the ones he was born with. However, unlike James, the initials do not hide the author's gender. He's not pretending to be a woman! The other part of his nom de plume is the surname. Rae sounds foreign, perhaps American. But it's deliberately designed to mislead. In fact, it's nothing but a different phonetic spelling of his mother's maiden name, the very Bengali surname Ray. And so, to reveal who you've been reading about. It's Dipankar Gupta or, as he now prefers to be known, DG Rae. I recommend his thrillers. They'll be delightful company on hot summer afternoons when it's impossible to do anything other than relax and read. I'm anxiously waiting for his fourth book.
