Speakers 2024

Advait Kottary is a writer and actor residing in London. Passionate about cars and engineering, he worked as an engine designer before quitting his job to pursue his love of writing and the performing arts. He went on to lead the world's biggest Bollywood musical Jaan-E-Jigar, and act in international productions such as Beecham House. Advait has also co-conceptualized the award-winning television show Molkki and voiced several audiobooks with Swedish platform Storytel. Siddhartha is his first novel, which stemmed from his own quest to understand the Self and his encounter with the Buddha's teachings.

Akshat Rathi is a London-based senior reporter for Bloomberg News. His first book Climate Capitalism has been named one of the best books of the year by The Times and The Economic Times. He has also edited a book of essays from young climate leaders.
Akshat has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Oxford, and a BTech in chemical engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai. You can sign up to his weekly Zero newsletter, subscribe to his weekly Zero podcast, and follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Previously, Akshat was a senior reporter at Quartz and a science editor at The Conversation. His work has been cited widely, including in New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and The Guardian. He has won numerous awards for his journalism:

• 2024: Kalinga Literary Festival award for the best business book. Honorable mention in SABEW award for energy and environment stories.
• 2023: Whitman Bassow Award from the Overseas Press Club for the best reporting on international environmental issues, and honorable mention in SABEW Award for explanatory stories.
• 2022: Two-time Loeb Award finalist for the ESG Mirage and the Methane Menace, Wincott Award for Journalism of the Year and British Journalism Award commendation for investigating ESG ratings, and SABEW Award for international reporting on methane.
• 2021: British Journalism Award commendation for an investigation of ExxonMobil’s emissions.
• 2020: Distinguished Alumni Award by the Institute of Chemical Technology.
• 2018: The Drum’s Online Media Award for Journalist of the Year and John B. Oakes Award finalist for distinguished environmental journalism.
  Akshat has won fellowships from Columbia University and City University of New York to enhance his reporting work. He has also served on the advisory panel of the 2019 Cairncross Review on the sustainability of high-quality journalism in the UK.

AMIT ROY is one of the most experienced journalists to have covered the Asian community. He is the editor-at-large at Eastern Eye and has also worked as a foreign correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph. Amit has covered wars all over the world and has written economic reports on India.

Aneysha is the Founder and CEO of Quantenergy, driving Climate investment in commercial property portfolios. She is on the Board of the UK Proptech Association and is on the Friends Committee for Milton's Cottage Museum, where John Milton wrote Paradise Lost.
She was born and grew up in India, where she studied Architecture and has spent the last 25 years in England. She now divides her time between India and England.

Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi has written plays, essays, book reviews and short stories. Her work has appeared in anthologies publications, and her plays have been staged widely. Ayesha also works as an editor and occasional translator. She was a contributing editor for The Trojan Horse Affair, a podcast by The New York Times. Ayesha is from Karachi and lives in London. The Centre is her debut novel.

I am a public humanities scholar and Professor of Colonialism and Heritage. Between 2018 and 2022 I directed a child-led project called ‘Colonial Countryside: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted’ and, in 2020, I co-authored the National Trust report on its country houses’ connections to empire, which won the Museums and Heritage Special Recognition Award and the Eastern Eye Award. The report, which received sustained international news coverage, had a major influence on the heritage and museum sectors. My research has been extensively covered by LBC radio, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 3, BBC 5 Live and all major newspapers as well as by BBC TV, ITV and Channel 4.

In 2021, there was a 12 publisher auction for my book, Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain (Penguin Allen Lane, May 2024) and my last book, Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural England’s Colonial Connections (2020) is an independent publishing bestseller. My new Penguin publication has a major publicity campaign behind it. Newspapers bid for an exclusive interview and serialisation in April 2024. I regularly appear at major history and literature festivals, including the Hay Festival, Festival of Debate and Chalke History Festival.

Eleanor Nesbitt has published extensively on the interface between religions and on the religious socialisation of young people. Christian, Sikh and Hindu communities are the focus for several of her ethnographic studies. Her books include Sikhism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2016 2nd edn), Open to New Light: Quakers and Other Faiths (Collective Ink, 2023) and Sikh: Two Centuries of Western Women's Art and Writing (Kashi House, forthcoming 2024). Eleanor is Professor Emeritus (Religions and Education) at the University of Warwick.

FAKIR AIJAZUDDIN is a leading art-historian who has specialised in 19th century Punjab. He is a lineal descendant of Fakir Nuruddin, one of the three Muslim brothers who achieved prominence in the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. In 1977, Aijazuddin published a catalogue of over five hundred Pahari Paintings & Sikh Portraits in the Lahore Museum, followed in 1979 by a monograph - Sikh Portraits by European Artists - on the Princess Bamba collection in the Lahore Fort. In all, he has written 22 books on numerous subjects – on politics, diplomacy, cartography, imperial travels in the subcontinent, and his memoirs. His recent works have been a scholarly biography of his ancestors, titled The Resourceful Fakirs: Three Muslim brothers at the Court of Lahore (2014; 2020), and Studies in Majesty: Paintings by August Schoefft and related portraits (2021).

His friendship with Khushwant Singh began from their first meeting in 1978. It continued until 2014, when after Khushwant’s death, in accordance with his final wishes, he brought Khushwant’s ashes for internment in Hadali (Pakistan), Khushwant’s birthplace. He has been an active participant in many earlier KSLFs.

Born in London, Gopinder Kaur Sagoo is a writer who combines her background in the humanities and social sciences with her lifelong learning as a Sikh. She takes particular interest in how we use language - dynamically and multilingually - to shape and reshape our educational, cultural, civic and religious lives as they intersect. Following a BA in Modern and Medieval Languages (Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge), Gopinder took a Masters in South Asian Area Studies (SOAS, University of London) and worked for the award-winning picture book publisher, Barefoot Books. Her PhD (School of Education, University of Birmingham) examined the making and shaping of a new British nursery, infused with a Sikh multifaith, value-centered ethos.

Over the years, Gopinder has written for the UK exam-boards, Edexcel and Eduqas, co- authored, with Eleanor Nesbitt, Guru Nanak (Indic Values Series, Bayeux Arts) and contributed reflections for BBC Radio 4’s Prayer for the Day. In Birmingham, she serves with the Nishkam Group that draws on the legacy of the Sikh Gurus to spur wider partnerships and social innovation for the common good. Guided by Bhai Sahib Professor Mohinder Singh Ji, her work on Jewels from Sikh Wisdom reflects this grounded yet expansive vision.

Harinder Singh is a member of the UK Sikh diaspora based in Leicester, known for his creative pursuits in children's books, plays, animations, and curating the Sikhlens Arts & Film Festival. He has also conceptualized and compiled the celebrated coffee table book 'Jewels from Sikh Wisdom', featuring artwork by the renowned Singh Twins.

Imtiaz Dharker's poetry collection, "Shadow Reader," weaves together encounters, messages, and Punjabi proverbs, exploring themes of occupation, prophecy, erasure, and sanctuary. Dharker's work celebrates life with irreverence and playfulness, drawing from her diverse background as a 'Muslim Calvinist' raised in Glasgow, adopted by India, and married into Wales. She received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2014 for her contributions to the art form.

Jonathan is an experienced international Director in culture and the creative industries, with a demonstrating history of working in government, non-profit and commercial creative sectors. Jonathan was Director Arts India, British Council from February 2019 to October 2023. In India Jonathan led influential creative economy and culture industries policy research with FICCI, West Bengal Ministry of Tourism and partners Art X Company, Smart Cube, Queen Mary’s University; and UKRI/AHRC; and for India’s G20 Presidency working with the Ministry of Culture and in the UK the FCDO, Cabinet Office, DCMS, and DBT. He has expertise in organisational and operational management, culture policy and arts strategy development, public diplomacy. Skilled in Live and Digital strategy, not for profit charities governance, international programme leadership and management, public speaking, mentoring, business development and international relations. A strong professional with a track record in driving business and team performance working at pace in challenging political, social, and cultural contexts.
As Director Arts India, Jonathan was responsible for leading the culture diplomacy programme internationalising arts and creative industries, influencing public policy at government level, leading major stakeholder relationships across government and the creative industries with leading museums and galleries, festivals, theatres and dance companies, publishers, crafts organisations and HEIs. He conceptualised major programmes to promote and strengthen UK and India cultural relations through collaboration, connections, and creative partnerships including the India/UK Together season of culture in 2022-23 marking India’s 75 th anniversary of independence which employed 1945 artists in 21 cities with 51 partners and reaching 14.3 million audiences.

Keshava Guha is a writer of fiction and literary and political journalism. He was born in Delhi in 1990, and raised in Bangalore. He has an AB in history and politics from Harvard University, and an MA in Creative and Life Writing from Goldsmiths, University of London.

He writes regularly on politics for Scroll.in and on books for The Hindu in India and Literary Review in the UK. He has also contributed to the Wall Street Journal, Hindustan Times, Die Welt, Time Out, Caravan, Business Standard and the Nightwatchman, among other publications.

His first novel Accidental Magic was published by HarperCollins India in November 2019. It is set in Boston in the early 2000s, in a community of adult Harry Potter obsessives.

Louise Tillin is Professor of Politics at King’s India Institute, King’s College London. She is interested in democracy, federalism, welfare and political economy and has closely watched Indian elections over the last twenty years. Her forthcoming book is Making India Work: The Development of Welfare in a Multi-Level Democracy (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). Earlier works include Remapping India: New States and their Political Origins (Hurst & Co/Oxford University Press, 2013), Politics of Welfare: Comparisons across Indian States, edited with Rajeshwari Deshpande and KK Kailash (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2015) and Indian Federalism (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2019).

Lynne Jones OBE is a child psychiatrist, aid worker, and writer. Over the past 30 years, she has dedicated herself to establishing mental health programs in conflict and disaster areas around the world, many of which are climate-related. An Honorary Associate Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, she consults for WHO and UNICEF. She is also the acclaimed author of works such as Outside the Asylum, The Migrant Diaries, Then They Started Shooting and Sorry for the Inconvenience But This Is an Emergency. Her field diaries have been featured in BBC Radio, The New Statesman, the London Review of Books, and O, The Oprah Magazine.

Marina Wheeler is a barrister, mediator and author. She was appointed Queen’s (now King’s) Counsel in 2016 and practices from Chambers at One Crown Office Row in London. specialising in public, employment and cross-border family cases. She co-authored The Civil Practitioner’s Guide to the Human Rights Act and writes regularly for the UK Human Rights Blog and national publications, usually on legal subjects. The Lost Homestead, published by Hodder &; Stoughton in 2020, is her first non-legal book.

Moin Mir is a writer of non-fiction and fiction. His first non-fiction book ‘Surat: Fall of a port. Rise of a Prince’ received much critical acclaim and was published in the UK as ‘The Prince Who Beat The Empire’. His novel ‘The Lost Fragrance of Infinity’ which was inspired by the all inclusive philosophy of Sufism featured in Times of India’s top 10 reads of 2021 and William Dalrymple called Moin Mir ‘…the new Amin Maalouf’.

In his latest non-fiction book Mir travels in the footsteps of Plotinus the third century philosopher marrying his personal experiences, poetry and philosophy to present a more compassionate world view.

Nadia Kabir Barb is a British Bangladeshi writer and journalist. Her work has been published in international literary journals and anthologies including Wasafiri, The Missing Slate, Open Road Review, Eclectic Mix, Golden Bangladesh at 50, Bengal Lights and Six Seasons Review. She was longlisted for the 2021 Bridport Prize Peggy Chapman-Andrews First Novel Award for Walk in My Shadow. She has an MSc from the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and has worked in the health and development sector in both the UK and Bangladesh. Truth or Dare is her debut collection of short stories.

Nigel Dudley has been a writer and broadcaster for over 45 years, covering Middle East finance and British and European politics. He has served as a leader writer for national and international newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, the European, Euromoney, Institutional Investor, IHT, Financial Weekly, and MEED.

Noreen Masud is a Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Bristol, and an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker. Her academic monograph, Stevie Smith and the Aphorism: Hard Language (Oxford University Press, 2022) won the MSA First Book Award and the University English Prize; her memoir-travelogue, A Flat Place (Hamish Hamilton [Penguin] and Melville House Press, 2023), was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Trust Young Writer of the Year Award, the Jhalak Prize, and the RSL Ondaatje Prize.

Melding the formal traditions of Indian miniature painting with repetitive meditative motifs, Delhi-based painter Olivia Fraser has created a distinct visual language that brings to life intangible spiritual concepts.

Fraser, whose work is in the Museum of Sacred Art, Brussels, and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, has exhibited widely in the U.K., the USA and across South Asia, where she has lived since 1989.

Her book A JOURNEY WITHIN which charts her work was published by Harper Collins in 2019.

Pinky Lilani, is an author, motivational speaker, food expert and women's advocate.[1] She is the founder and chair of several awards recognising influential women and leaders, including the annual Women of the Future Awards and the Asian Women of Achievement Awards.
Lilani was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2007 for services to charity and as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2015 for services to women in business.

Paul Waters is interviewing Subhadra Das at KSLF London on Saturday 1 st June. Paul Waters is an award-winning BBC broadcaster, producer, podcaster and author. He’s the co-host of the We’d Like A Word books and authors podcast. Paul is also the author of the historical crime thriller, Blackwatertown, set in 1950s Ireland, and the forthcoming Delhi Hotel Mysteries set in contemporary India. His short story, Snuffr, was recently published in the Taking Liberties anthology. He divides his time between Ireland and the UK, and India where his wife’s family live.

Paul’s websites: paulwatersauthor.com and wedlikeaword.com 

Professor Qasim Aziz is Professor of Neurogastroenterology and director of the Wingate Institute of Neurogastroenterology. Professor Aziz’s research contributed to the understanding of the human gut-brain axis. His PhD research contributed to the identification of the brain representation of human swallowing muscles. His observation on the brain’s self-healing properties through the process of cortical plasticity, after injury such as after a stroke, has contributed to the development of novel treatment strategies. He has studied the influence of psychological factors such as attention, anticipation and emotions on the brain processing of abdominal pain using functional brain imaging techniques. He identified an predictive association between the response of the vagus nerve to pain and and individuals personality. He also used the healing properties of the vagus to modify the perception of abdominal pain, nausea and to reduce gut permeability (leakiness) after stress. His research has explored neurophysiological aspects and treatment of disorders of gut-brain interaction such as non-cardiac chest pain, acid reflux disease and irritable bowel syndrome. He has also performed pioneering research exploring the link between connective tissue disorders that lead to bendy joints and gastrointestinal symptoms.
Professor Aziz was awarded the Sir Francis Avery Jones Research Gold Medal by the British Society of Gastroenterology in 1998 and the Janssen Award for
Basic and Clinical Research by the American Gastroenterology Association in 2000. He is past chair of the neurogastroenterology section of the British Society of Gastroenterology and has been a member of the Education and Scientific Committees of United European Gastroenterology and European Society of
Neurogastroenterology and Motility. He has been a member on the Rome Foundation Committee’s III and IV for the development of criteria for disorders of gut-brain interaction and is now chairing the section on centrally mediated abdominal pain for the Rome V committee. He was the specialty lead for gastroenterology for the North Thames Clinical Research Network and is current President of the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility.

Curator, historian, consultant and activist. With a long career of having worked in the cultural sector in various capacities, I contributed to projects at the National Trust, English Heritage and other cultural institutions with a focus on “contested” heritage and curatorial interventions to bring about culture so that institutions can begin to reflect diversity through their outputs.

In 2022 I co-curated the hugely successful “Blacklash: No Justice, No Peace” exhibition as part of at Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery’s re-opening. I am currently involved in curatorial projects at Fulham Palace Trust, The Harris, Preston and the Independent Museums Association and I am also a regular writer, speaker and broadcaster on cultural issues.

Rachel Dwyer is Professor Emerita of Indian Cultures and Cinema at SOAS University of London. Her most recent books are Bombay before Mumbai: Essays in Honour of Jim Masselos (co-edited with Prashant Kidambi and Manjiri Kamat, 2019) and Cinema and Soft Power: Configuring the National and Transnational in Geo-politics (co-edited with Stephanie Dennison, 2021). She writes a monthly column on Indian culture in ‘Open’.

Robert Seatter is an experienced performer and poet, as well as a broadcaster and history author. He has published seven poetry collections, and won numerous awards and prizes for his writing including Forward Poetry Prize, National Poetry Competition, London Poetry Competition and Housman Poetry Prize.
He is based in London where he works as Head of BBC History. In 2022 he published Broadcasting Britain: 100 years of the BBC for the Corporation’s centenary, as well as presenting a major linked series on Radio 4. 

Somnath Batabyal's first novel, the Price You Pay, appeared in 2011. It has taken him thirteen, very long years to write his next, Red River. Somnath lives in London where he teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

Appearing at KSLF London on Saturday 1 st June, being interviewed by Paul Waters. Subhadra Das is a writer, historian, curator and comedian. She is the author of Uncivilised: Ten Lies That Made The West, published 2024 by Coronet. Subhadra looks at the relationship between science and society. She specialises in the history and philosophy of science, particularly the history of scientific racism and eugenics, and for nine years was Curator of the Science Collections at University College London. She has written and presented podcasts, curated museum exhibitions, and has appeared on radio and TV. Subhadra’s book, Uncivilised: Ten Lies That Made The West, is about the idea of ‘Western civilisation’ — ten ideas, in fact — and how they shape our view of the world and each other in extremely unhelpful ways. It covers the racist thinking behind our notions of ‘science’, ‘education’, and ‘nation’, the biases behind ‘justice’ and ‘individuality’, questions the reality of ‘democracy’, along with critiquing the capitalism that shapes our ideas about ‘time’, ‘death’, and ‘art’. It also looks to non-western worldviews and philosophies that, she thinks, do the job much better.

S.Y. Quraishi is an Indian civil servant who rose to be the 17th Chief Election Commissioner of India. He served on the Board of International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Stockholm for 9 years. He figured in The Indian Express list of 100 Most Powerful Indians of 2011 and 2012. He has been a member of election observation missions in several countries, including South Africa, Kenya, Russia, SriLanka, Myanmar and Pakistan. He was appointed as the Global Ambassador of Democracy, along with the late Kofi Annan in October, 2018 by International IDEA. He has published numerous books, including “India’s Experiment with Democracy-the Life of a Nation through its Elections” his most recent work. He is currently the Chancellor of IILM University, Gurgaon, India. “No one decodes the election process better than former Chief Election Commissioner Dr S Y Quraishi” - Ambassador Vikas Swarup

With more than 20 years in the BBC as an on air presenter/reporter covering health and European issues, I am still passionate about facilitating the vital dialogue on the challenges that face us between politicians, political institutions, the business world, NGOs, press and the public. This what drives my work at the European Investment Bank, the EU Climate Bank, especially in the climate, gender and development sphere - currently as principal advisor on international communications and partnerships. Before that I was the spokesperson for Regional Policy at the European Commission, also for Commissioner Johannes Hahn. I presented and created the Record Europe- the BBC's only dedicated TV show on European political affairs, produced every week from the European Parliament for seven years for which the team and I were the co-winners of the first European Parliament Journalism award in 2008. I am a board member of UK branch of Global Girl Media , a charity dedicated to developing the voice and media literacy of teenage girls and young women, ages 14-25, in under-served communities around the world. I am excited to be bringing out a book about my father Charles Wheeler - "Witness to the Twentieth Century"  published in November 2023 by Bonnier Books.

Susan Stronge is a Senior Curator in the Asian Department and the V&A’s specialist in Mughal court art. She has written, lectured and broadcast extensively on many aspects of the arts created for and collected by the Mughal emperors and their circle in the 16th and 17th centuries. Her books include Painting for the Mughal Emperor, Made for Mughal Emperors and Tipu’s Tigers. The many exhibitions that she has curated or co-curated include the award winning The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms in 1999 and Bejewelled Treasures: The Al Thani Collection in 2015.

Simon McDonald, Lord McDonald of Salford GCMG KCVO, is a British former diplomat who was the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and former Head of the Diplomatic Service.He has been the Master of Christ's College, Cambridge since September 2022. He is the author of Beyond Britannia: Reshaping the UK Foreign Policy

The Singh Twins are award-winning internationally recognised contemporary British artists, widely known for their highly detailed, narrative, symbolic and eclectic style rooted in Indian aesthetics. Describing their work as Past-Modern, The Twins engage with social, political and cultural issues that challenge institutional prejudice and explore narratives of Empire, colonialism and their legacies. Their artistic achievements have been recognised at the highest level. In 2010 they were made Honorary Citizens of Liverpool, and in 2011 were each awarded MBE by Queen Elizabeth II. They’ve subsequently received three Honorary Doctorates (acknowledging their outstanding contribution to British art and their promotion of diversity in the arts). Their work features in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History and is cited by Sir Simon Schama as representing the artistic face of modern Britain.’ Exhibitions include solo shows at London’s National Portrait Gallery, National Museums Scotland, National Museums Liverpool and National Galleries of Modern Art, Mumbai and Delhi. Their hit exhibition Slaves of Fashion (described as; a triumph of how to make boldly political art which doesn’t shout at its audience, but
makes them want to discover the truth for themselves”) continues to receive rave reviews and will be published this year.

Tahmima Anam’s latest novel is The Startup Wife. Her first novel, A Golden Age, won the Commonwealth Writers Prize and went on to be translated into 27 languages. It was followed by The Good Muslim and The Bones of Grace. She is the recipient of an O. Henry Award and has been named one of Granta’s best young British novelists. She was a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she attended Mount Holyoke College and Harvard University and now lives in London, where she is on the board of ROLI, a music tech company founded by her husband.