Posted 10th March 2023

Nai Zindagi Naya Jeevan - New Life (Urdu) New Life (Hindi).

In the late 1960s, the British Government or shall we say some quarters of the government thought it would be a good idea to help 'immigrants of colour' to integrate better in society.

The majority of this segment of the government believed that immigrants did not integrate into society as effectively as they should due to their lack of English language abilities. These politicians were mostly targeting Asians, particularly Indians and Pakistanis, while the majority of Black immigrants spoke English fluently.This show was created after many talks between government officials and the BBC. 

This legendary Sunday morning staple was produced and delivered by an Indian and a Pakistani anchor in order to maintain objectivity. Mahendra Kaul and Saleem Shaheed presented the details to the audience. Viewers who spoke Hindi and Urdu. The program was a success for a variety of reasons, one of which was the communal solidarity it offered to the Asian community during a time when its members were reeling. In addition, conflicts and threats between India and Pakistan produced a great deal of stress in the British Asian community. Before to this point in time, the BBC had exclusively catered to English and Welsh speakers. 

The research for this will examine the BBC archival records, the National Archives, and Hansard for an in-depth investigation of how this programme came to be - if there were any issues in coming to air? and who were its primary proponents? and of course how this program helped members of the Asian community.