Part of the South Asian Britain oral history collection

About

Lata Sharma is a television and radio broadcaster, actress, singer, writer and journalist. She talks about her parents migrating to Belfast (Northern Ireland) from India in the 1950s and her experiences growing up during the Troubles, as well as her broadcasting career with BBC Northern Ireland. Singing at Irish folk-music festivals as a child and being the only Indian person in the Christian youth organization Girls' Brigade, Lata identifies as both Northern Irish and Indian, though she distinguishes between the political and colonial histories of the two places as strands of her heritage. She also talks about her father’s profession as a pedlar in Northern Ireland.

Discussing bridges between the South Asian and Northern Irish communities, Lata reads an extract of her recent one-woman show Sausage Sodas and Onion Bhajees. She describes it as both a tribute to her parents and a ‘love letter’ to Northern Ireland, exploring both migrant experiences and the importance of cultural integration.

The full interviews recorded for 'Remaking Britain', for the South Asian Britain: Connecting Histories digital resource, are available at the British Library under collection reference C2047.

Listen to Lata talking about her father’s work as a pedlar in Northern Ireland.

Interview conducted by Maya Parmar, 27 October 2023.

MP: Do you know anything about the way in which your dad was received when he was going, doing his door-to-door selling? You said that your mum began to occupy a very warm place in people's hearts. Initially, what was your dad’s experience?

LS: To be honest, I used to go with my dad to work, and sometimes he’d take me at the weekends, and he’d say, 'Come on', we'd go together and then, you know, he was very playful and I’d follow him into the house. And I suppose by that stage he had established good relationships with everybody. But I'm sure at the start there was a little bit of wariness; however, when I was doing my show, there was a gentleman sitting in the front row. And he was about 75. And I relay the story about my dad and his customers based on my experiences, not from the early days. He sat there in the front row, and I did a Q&A after. And he started to cry, and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, why are you crying?’, that was not the point of my story, although aspects of, you do cry. He said, 'You took me back when I was a little boy,’ he said, ‘and my mum,’ he said, ‘I remember this man coming to our house with a suitcase.’ Now, it wasn't my dad, but it was the experience. He said, ‘I was a little boy and my mum used to have this man who would come to the house, and he’d come and he was so well-dressed.’ And my dad was always so well-dressed, in a blazer, you know, smart-looking, coming to the door. And this gentleman, I took him back to when he was a child and he said, ‘I remember this man coming to our house with a little leather suitcase, carrying, selling brushes or something', and he said, ‘My mum loved that man.’ She said, he would come to the house so smartly dressed and he would have his medals on his, the breast pocket of his blazer.

MP: His war medals?

LS: He wore his medals because he had fought in the war. And she held him in high regard because he...so I am sure many people receive them well, but of course you're going to get people who are going to be negative. But I would say the vast majority of my dad's experiences here were positive, with people that he went into these areas. Because these were rough areas, some of these areas were very staunchly Republican, or very staunchly Loyalist.

MP: And did he go beyond Belfast?

LS: Oh, yeah, he went all over. It was all over like Carrowdore, it was Ardglass, it was fishing villages, right the way to the Ards Peninsula. It was all over.

MP: And what was he selling?

LS: He was selling clothes. So he would sell clothes door-to-door, and then he'd get his regular customers. And then he would have his little book, his little book, where he would mark off what they had paid. And one of the things he told me is he would, and I would go with him at times, but there were some times, if he was collecting from somebody from a fishing village, maybe that customer, she didn't have any money that week. She would say, ‘Would you take a wee salmon, Mr Sharma?’ And he’d say, ‘No problem.’ So that would be two weeks she would've paid off. He was feeding his children, maybe three or four dinners out of that, right. So, he was very...those were the days where you were able to just work with each other, work with a customer and I love that, because that was again what people really appreciated. He sold school uniforms. I remember him selling Bay City Rollers trousers. Bay City Rollers were a huge band from the '70s. And, you know, the tartan down the side and the little tartan jackets and everything.

MP: Where did he get it all from?

LS: Warehouses here. So other warehouses and some members of the Asian community who had opened warehouses themselves, so they were already running these businesses. That's the great thing about that generation as well. They were very very, you know, they were industrious. And, yes, so he would go and buy the stock, and then he'd have stock, he’d have all the stock in his van. And then he'd mark off who was buying what, and he’d take their order and then go and deliver it and then what would generally happen is he would end up having a cup of tea. Every customer, you know, almost, would want to invite him in, and say, 'Come on, Mr Sharma, have a wee cup of tea.'

MP: Obviously at time where there was no Amazon, there may have been catalogue shopping, but...

LS: I don't even think catalogue shopping had even started by then, but certainly by the time I was born, yes, there was probably catalogue shopping.

MP: But it was an essential service, wasn't it?

LS: It was, yes, it was an essential service, but also it was an opportunity to get to know the community you’d come to settle amongst, for them to get to know you. And that was really important and that's where I look back and I go, ‘I'm so lucky, I’m so lucky.’ And I love the fact that he had such a great sense of humour. He never, you know, if he did get chatting to either side of the community about what was going on, he always tried to give perspective of compassion and peace. And they were willing to listen to that voice, because that voice wasn't the opposite voice, it was a different voice, and they were willing to sort of ‘um’, sort of ‘ok’, understand that was an interesting point of view, or that's a good point of view. They felt safe communicating with someone like him, because he wasn't being judgemental.

Listen to Lata talking about performing as a child.

LS: First time I did my singing festival, I was 11 or 12 years old and I won two silver cups that day in Ballymena.

MP: Singing Irish...?

LS: Singing an Irish folk-song and a classical song, right. And I remember going up onto this stage and people will, like, double takes. And my dad was actually watching the audience more than he was watching me. Because he found it so amusing, to see these people reacting the way they did. And then when I opened my mouth to sing and I sang:

‘I once loved a boy, a bold Irish boy
who would come and would go at my request;
and this bold Irish boy was my pride and my joy
and I built him a bow'r in my breast.’

My dad was laughing, because he was watching these people looking at this wee brown face, coming out with the sound. And then it was in the newspaper and it was like... So he just loved the fact that his child was making an impression on an industry where people like us, daughters in particular, were not encouraged to do in our community, right across the UK. They were still being, you know, it just wasn't a thing to do. Some of my girlfriends, you know, over in London were going, ‘God, you’re allowed to do that?’ You know, and I’m going, ‘Yeah, you know, God, I’m so lucky. I am so lucky.’ My dad was so ahead of his time. But also he did not like it if someone tried to look down their nose at his choices for his children. Because he always said you should never criticize someone else's children because you don't know, they don't know what their own children are doing. So he never judged other people's kids, but he was ready to take them on if they dared judge his. And so I always felt very safe.

MP: Thank you for singing that. That was beautiful...

LS: Oh, it wasn't very good, I am a bit hoarse this morning, but...

MP: Can you tell me what it was, that you sang?

LS: It was called, this one was called ‘I Will Walk with My Love’, this was the Irish folk-song. I can't remember which one I sang for the classical, but I do know I came home with two silver cups that day and being in the Belfast Telegraph, you know, which is our main newspaper here. And I remember what I wore, because my dad went and bought me a brand-new outfit.

MP: What was it?

LS: It was a skirt with this little, sort of, waistcoat and a blouse, a white blouse. Because he just thought, 'My girl’s going to look smart when she gets up on stage to sing'.

MP: Was it Irish, Northern Irish in anyway?

LS: The outfit? Oh, no, just a smart outfit, just a nice...because he sold clothes. My dad always bought me my clothes, actually right up until I was about 18. You know, I was obviously buying some of them myself, but he would've always like...He liked his kids to look nice and smart because he was big into clothes. So he liked his girls to look smart, and he, he was incredibly chuffed. Yes, I think that’s what it was for him, my girls, my daughter can do this as good as locals.

Listen to Lata talking about her relationship with her Catholic husband.

LS: But it was interesting because that experience of my mum, even though she was fearful of me going into a mixed marriage, based on not discrimination, more how is he going to accept us. That was her kind of concern. And obviously they had their romantic notions about, you know, they want their daughters or sons to marry within the culture and keep the culture strong. And I get that. But I take the best of my culture and I bring it to my relationship and my marriage, and my children, and the values, and I think that's the important part. I think it was more shock, that I had known my husband's mum, and I think she was probably even shocked that she, it aroused a sense of a discriminatory thing in her that she probably didn’t even know she had.

MP: In your mother-in-law?

LS: In my mother-in-law.

MP: And what happened there?

LS: Oh no, well, you know, we were together, Paul and I are together for thirty-seven years, you know what I mean, but it was a struggle for her at the start.

MP: So what was it about you getting married, rather than you just being together?

LS: Because I wasn't Catholic.

MP: So it was a religious...

LS: Yes. I wasn’t Irish. I wasn't white Catholic, you know, and that was a challenge for her.

MP: And do you have a religious affiliation?

LS: Do you know what, it's interesting but I don't know whether I have, I'm not a religious person. I try and take the best of what Hinduism has to offer, and because Hinduism isn't really a religion, it's more of a way of life, so because it's a way of life, I’m kind of cool with that. But I don't necessarily follow this religious aspect of it, you know, where you go to the mandir, and you do all of that, you know, sit and reading the Gita, you know. I don’t do it the way my mum did it. I’m kind of more like my dad, in that I believe in the philosophy, and I sort of try and do the right thing, you know, think compassionately about a situation, not, you know...particularly being raised here. So I try to take those kinds of values from what Hinduism philosophy teaches and focus on that.

MP: How does that impact upon the way that you’ve brought up your children, particularly because you have those values and presumably your husband has some other values that come from his Catholic background. What does that mean for your family?

LS: Well, he is probably like me in that he doesn't follow the faith at all, either, in that sense, he doesn't go to mass, he doesn't do any of that. And that I think, whenever I sat down to discuss it with my dad before we got married, it was like, you know, ‘He is going to accept us, is he going to be okay with us speaking our own language?’ All of this sort of thing. And I kind of went, ‘I didn't even think of whether he would accept you.’

MP: And what language is that?

LS: Punjabi.

MP: Is that, or was that spoken at home?

LS: Do you know what, it was spoken at home, but wasn’t really. When mum was telling us off, it was spoken. When mum was giving us a rollicking about something, Punjabi came out, right. Dad not so much, he would have just generally spoken English. The odd time obviously when he is speaking with his peers in the community and stuff. But, I don’t know, I just kind of feel that Paul and I have just figured it out. We're both very comfortable with, I knew that I wasn't going to convert, because my dad was like, ‘We don't convert’. He said, ‘If you convert, are you saying that his faith and practice is superior to yours?’ And I’m like, ‘Nope’, and so he says, ‘Don’t convert, you're equals, so if you convert then that means you're being submissive too.’ And I was like, well, I was like, 'I ain't no submissive girl, so I am not going to be converting. I'm not going to agree to something just to keep you happy, because my upbringing is as good as yours. And my path that my parents have brought me down is as good as yours so', and my husband never expected anyway. We discussed children, I think, I think the important thing for me is my kids had, because I am in a society where there were so few of us here, I really wanted them to have some connection. So, it was like, okay, well Indian names, so I said to him, ‘What would you prefer? Would you prefer for our children to have local, Christian-type names, or would you like them to have Indian names, or would you prefer them to have my surname Sharma and a Christian name.’ And he said, ‘No, I'd prefer them to have my surname, McCarthy, and I would love them to have Indian names,’ he says, ‘because I don't want my kids...I don’t people to be able to tell who they and where they are from.’ Because here you've got Seamus and Billy, and so you know that, ‘Oh, you're a Catholic, you’re a Protestant’, because people can identify by names. He said, ‘My kids are going to be called Indira Priya, nobody is going to know what their background is. They just know it's different.’ So we agreed on that, that they all had Indian names. That was good. He also liked the values of how I was brought up in certain ways and our culture. You know, we do Rakhi [annual Hindu festival between brothers and sisters], you know I do Karva Chauth [Hindu festival where women honour their husbands] for him, which is actually this weekend...and I fast for him and do all that sort of stuff, and he kind of, he used to say to me, ‘You don't have to do Karva Chauth, you know.’ And this was the early days, ‘You don't have to do it, darling.’ Because I'm fasting all day.

MP: Yep

LS: And he says to me, ‘Now, I quite like it when you do it for me now.’ Because even though he is a white Irish bloke, he actually goes, ‘I quite like it.’

Listen to Lata talking about her identity in relation to the Troubles.

LS: And I know there were elements of certain paramilitary groups who were either associated with racist organizations or racist, in the fact that they didn't, they wanted you to pick a side. You know there’s that joke about, ‘Are you a Catholic Hindu or are you a Protestant Hindu?’ Well, that was a joke, but you know some people actually wanted you, wanted you to decide which side you are, you're on, based on which school you went to.

MP: And was that your experience?

LS: Oh yes, no, I had that, a situation that happened in a club. I was singing in a club. And I got stopped. And I was already warned by the guys in the band – because it was like my first or second gig – to say, look, if anybody asks you where you're from, say you're from this particular area, and not from that area.

MP: And would that change, according to which club you were at?

LS: No, well, the area that they told me I need to say I was from was quite neutral and difficult to establish which side of the divide you were from.

MP: So it wasn't where you were from, it was just a fictitious place, just somewhere, this is where I am going to say it is.

LS: No, no. This is an actual place, it's called the Ormeau Road, right. So this place is like a mixture of both Catholic and Protestant, right, but it depends on where you are walking. Because there was a terrible, brutal murder taken place at a bookmakers, where innocent Catholics had been shot dead, just coming out of a bookmakers, by a Loyalist side. And, but whenever I was in the band, this happened after I was in the band, and whilst I was from the Cregagh, east Belfast area, and there's a road called the Castlereagh Road and the guys in the band said to me, ‘Anybody asks you where are you from, just you say you are from the Ormeau Road’. And I was like, ‘Okay.’ I was 17, and I was too excited about gigging, and I was not even thinking about. So I did, I did get asked. I got stopped in the club as I was coming out of the toilets. And this person was like, ‘Where are you from?’ And I was like, I remembered, and I was like ‘I’m from the Ormeau Road.’ I was like, ‘Is that right?’ So, ‘What are you?’ and I was like ‘Ahhhh...', I didn’t know. And he was like, ‘What religion are you?’ And I went, ‘Ah right, sorry I am a Hindu.’ And I thought that would be grand, he'd be happy with that and he’ll not bother me any further but then it wasn't enough because his suspicion, anger and resentment of the violence, and he was obviously a supporter of the violence. Came out with that classic, ‘Are you a Catholic Hindu or a Protestant Hindu?’ And I was like, I remember reading this when I was doing my show and people laughed, and I said I laughed too, but I said, ‘He wasn’t laughing, he was serious.’ And it was at that point as I realized at that point that there were going to be people from both sides of the extreme ends of the community who were not going to allow you to be someone else. You didn't, they didn’t care whether you were Hindu or Jew or Protestant or Hindu, Jew or Buddhist or, you know, whatever, Muslim. You had to be one of them or you were the enemy. And I was like, ‘Mate, hold on a minute, you know, we didn’t end up with Catholics and Protestants in India for nothing, you know. Colonialism isn't just exclusive to Protestants. Ireland and Britain, you’s were all over there.' I just wanted to make that clear. And I think he was even so confused because he naturally associated that British colonialism meant English. And I go, ‘No, English, Scots, Welsh and the Irish were over there.’ And then I just walked away, and I said in my play, you know, that I'm so glad that I didn't tell him I was from the Castlereagh Road.

Lata Sharma Video

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Entry credit

Karishma Kaur

Citation: ‘Lata Sharma’, South Asian Britain, https://southasianbritain-demo.rit.bris.ac.uk/oral-histories/lata-sharma/. Accessed: 5 July 2025.

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