The youngest recipient in the Queen’s Honours List 2021 is 21-year-old Amika George, founder of the “Free Periods Campaign”, who becomes an MBE for her work championing the distribution of sanitary wear in UK schools.
Amika’s parents are from Kerala. Her father Kishore hails from Pathanamthitta, while her mother Nisha is from Kozhencherry. She was born in the UK. She had to think twice before accepting it — given its association with Britain’s colonial past.
In accepting, she said, she wanted to “draw attention to our lack of education around the Empire and Britain’s history, but also to show other young people, particularly from the Asian community, who maybe don’t feel very empowered politically or don’t feel seen”.
“It wasn’t an easy one for me with the Honours system’s association to the (British) Empire and our colonial past,” said the 21-year-old history student at the University of Cambridge in an interview with Indian Express.
Meanwhile, Indian-origin author Nikesh Shukla turned down an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List because he does not wish to be associated with what it stands for — “Member of the Order of the British Empire”. Shukla, who is 40, was born and brought up in Britain but like many East African Indians, his father grew up in Kenya, his ancestors having gone there from Gujarat.
He tweeted: “Last month I was offered an MBE for services to literature. I said no thanks. I do not wish to be a member of the order of the British Empire.” He added: “The main reason for not accepting the MBE was because I hate how it valorises the British Empire, a brutal, bloody thing that resulted in so much death and destruction. To accept the MBE would be to co-sign it.”
