Shalina Patel is a highly accomplished historian, teacher, and writer who has made significant contributions to the field of education, particularly in decolonizing the history curriculum in the UK. For the past 12 years, she has been teaching History at Claremont High School, a prominent mixed comprehensive school in West London.
Recognized for her exceptional teaching skills and dedication, Shalina received the prestigious Silver Pearson Teaching Award for Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School in 2018. In 2020, she was also honoured with a GG2 Leadership & Diversity Award, an esteemed recognition that she shares with notable individuals such as Bernadine Evaristo.
With her extensive experience, dedication, and innovative approach to education, she has emerged as one of the leading figures in the movement to decolonize the history curriculum in the UK. Her expertise and passion for decolonizing education have led her to spearhead a new program focused on decolonizing primary and secondary school curricula. This initiative has received widespread recognition and has been adopted by numerous schools across the nation. Her efforts have been instrumental in bringing about positive change, fostering inclusivity, and encouraging a more diverse and representative understanding of history in schools nationwide.
Shalina, in a conversation with the Asian voice, discusses about the importance of women in history and why the colonial past of the Empire needs to be a part of the school curriculum.
Why is it important to educate students across the UK, on the empire’s history?
The history of the empire is so important because it explains so much about why Britain is the way it is today, from the different people that live here to the content of our museums.
Secondly, we need to think about this as our shared history. For example, something like the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919 is as much a part of Britain’s history as it is part of India’s.
Finally. there is also so much classic ‘school history’ that intersects with the empire such as the world wars, with for example pre-partition India sending over 2.5 million soldiers, which is the largest volunteer army in history! The story of the empire can be taught alongside so many historical contexts that students already come across in the history classroom.
What are some issues related to diaspora and women’s rights that you make sure you discuss with your students?
We try to shine a light on issues like the importance of voting and the fight and struggle that went into this so that students understand the importance of exercising their democratic right to vote when they are older. I love to teach about women that fought for rights and freedoms here in the UK. There are so many examples of this. We teach our students for example about Sophia Duleep Singh who was a suffragette. She did so many brilliant things to protest for women’s suffrage, including boycotting the 1911 census and refusing to pay her taxes until women got the vote. Students are often surprised to learn there was a suffragette of South Asian heritage.
It’s also really important that students are aware of the struggles migrant communities faced when they moved to Britain. For example, we also mention the struggle faced by Anwar Ditta who had to campaign against the Home Office on the late 1970s for the right for her children to move here.
Tanika Gupta’s play ‘The Empress’, based on the stories of ayahs and lascars in Queen Victoria’s reign, was included in the GCSE curriculum in 2019. What other works related to the empire and diaspora history, according to you, should be included in the study curriculum across the UK?
There’s so much scope for teaching empire and diaspora history within the curriculum. The contribution of the empire to the world wars is incredibly important and a context all schools will already teach. The story of WW2 spy Noor Inayat Khan is one of my favourites to bring in before we teach about D-Day.
Doing case studies of different places across the empire is really important as the experiences of colonised people wasn’t homogenous – so for example showing students the similarities and crucially the differences in how indigenous groups were treated in Australia vs how Indians were treated under the East India Company and British Raj.
Another facet of imperial history I’d love to see covered more is indentured servitude as this explains why there are Indian diaspora communities in places like Guyana.
The upcoming Trailblazers event, which you will be joining as a speaker, pays tribute to Rani Laxmi Bai, Sophia Duleep Singh, and Homai Vyarawala. Do you think that the women in history are easily side-tracked and forgotten? Can you share the importance of paying homage to the stories of these women?
I think that the classic idea of history being written by the victors rings true and plays a role here. Women throughout history have traditionally been side-lined due to a lack of archival evidence about them, for example. Lack of access to education for women has meant they were also less likely to write letters and diaries for example. Race and class of course also come into this. There must be countless stories of extraordinary women which have therefore fallen through the cracks. It’s therefore so important to celebrate the stories of women we do know about – and to share them as widely as possible.
What other trailblazing women do you wish were discussed and celebrated more often?
There are so many! One of my favourites is Jayben Desai whom we teach in the context of a post-1945 unit we cover on protests. She was heavily involved in the Grunwick Strike which started in Willesden in 1976 and was a dispute over pay and working conditions, particularly related to how migrant women were being treated in the workplace. This protest involved walkouts and even hunger strikes. The images of Jayaben and her colleagues in their saris and cardigans holding up placards are quite striking.
