"This guy has better Punjabi than both of us and he’s only half Punjabi." Only. Half. When Jassa heard those words he felt diminished. The intent was not malicious, but he felt robbed of something essential to him.
For over twenty-five years, actor Jassa Ahluwalia described himself as ‘half Indian, half English’. His fluent Punjabi always prompted bewilderment, medical staff questioned the legitimacy of his name, and the world of casting taught him he wasn’t ‘the right kind of mixed-race’. Feeling caught between two worlds, it wasn’t long before Jassa embarked on a call to action: we need to change how we think and talk about mixed identity.
By delving into the media we grew up consuming and the legacies of empire we have been taught, Ahluwalia asks: is there anything to be learnt from Rudyard Kipling? Why were movie stars urged to hide their mixed identities? To what extent did colonialism encourage or hinder mixed marriages? Is nationalism outdated? How can the politics of class and queer liberation inform our understanding of mixed identity?
His new book Both Not Half is a rallying cry for a new and inclusive future. It’s a journey of self-discovery that unearths the historical roots of modern mixed identity as we know it, braving to deconstruct the binaries we have inherited and the narratives we passively accept. Part-memoir, part-manifesto: this is a campaign for belonging in a divided world.
AUTHOR Biography
Jassa Ahluwalia is an actor and writer. Born to a white English mum and a brown Punjabi dad, he spoke English in the playground, Punjabi with his grandparents, and spent various summer holidays in India. He came to prominence as Rocky in the hit BBC Three series Some Girls, followed by starring roles in Unforgotten, Ripper Street, and Peaky Blinders.
His TEDx talk on ‘How Language Shapes Identity’ has clocked up over 180k views and his BBC One documentary Am I English? won an Asian Media Award in 2022.
CHAIR BIOGRAPHY
Rajini Vaidyanathan is an award winning broadcaster with 20 years experience, across TV, Radio and Online. As a foreign correspondent she reported from across the world and has also been a Westminster correspondent for the BBC.