History – Sanjit Chudha

Nostalgia

The present is hard to love. That’s why we’re encouraged to imagine that things were better in the past. These are common tropes across cultures and across the world. It’s why so many politicians lean into nostalgia, it’s easier than dealing with today’s messy realities. A sentimental longing for a better past has social traction,Continue reading “Nostalgia”

Palimpsest

Explore the long history of food through a focus on the orange. Oranges today grow world wide. Yet their origins are less well known. The journey the fruit has made carries an imprint of culture, language and more. What does that history tell us?

The Lost Paintings

Under the Oak Tree, by Iman Jabrah, is a sculpture made of an oiled black tow chain into which honey locust thorns have been embedded to create a hanging installation that looks a like a wind chime. It is embedded in soil. The inspiration for the sculpture came from burial mounds and wind chimes which the artist saw in China, where death renders people anonymous.

We live in an age of artificially forced choices. I have always held the view that cosmopolitanism is not antithetical to patriotism. Is this controversial? I don’t think so.

Ai Weiwei’s ‘Ton of Tea’: A Cultural Reflection

A cultural exploration of the meaning and function of art in museums today.

The History and Recipe of Kedgeree

Kedgeree is a variant of an Indian dish, Khichdi, which has been developed to suit British tastes and is influenced by geography, social change, and the tides of history.

Fair Play

The crux of the Post Office scandal lies in the concept of fair play. Our sense of fair play has been affronted. We expect steps to right these wrongs.

The Historical Presence

Until we claim the future with positivity and hope, the past will always be our stumbling block. The story of Robert Aske, The Royal Africa Company, profits from slavery, and how they funded the Haberdashers’ Aske’s schools.

Telling history like it is

A conversation with Professor Corinne Fowler of the University of Leicester, and Director of ‘Colonial Countryside: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted’

Imagining the future

The New Union Flag Project (2014-Present) by Gil Mualem-Doron.

In summer 2019, I was on panels discussing Decolonising Culture (Royal Academy) and Reimagining Britain (Queen Mary, University of London). Many themes ran across both these experiences, foremost among them: Each of us has a story, often more than one. Our life experiences, origins, cultural imprints and conflicts, stories of migration (whether from Grimsby, orContinue reading “Imagining the future”