After the Second World War, at a time of decolonisation, a fading empire pursued an ‘open door’ immigration policy for its former colonies, as it sought to recruit low-paid workers for its industries and other sectors, such as the postal services and public transport.

In the early 1960s, when Pakistan was building the Mangla Dam on River Jhelum, men from displaced families around Mirpur arrived in Bradford, England, to work in its textile mills. Later, their wives and families joined them.

As the British textile industry went into decline from the late 1970s to the early ’80s, there was disproportionate unemployment among the Pakistani community, which also faced virulent racism and Islamophobia. A race relations expert described the polarisation between the indigenous ethnic white population and the Pakistanis as “the lives of the two communities do not touch at any point, let alone overlap and promote any meaningful interaction.” Today, people of Pakistani origin constitute more than 25 percent of Bradford’s population.

In this city, dismissively referred to as ‘Little Pakistan’, two women of Pakistani origin — Syima Aslam and Irna Qureishi — broke many racial, religious and gender stereotypes when they co-founded the Bradford Literature Festival (BLF) in 2014, with an ethnically and religiously diverse team. Authors and artists from around the globe now travel annually to Bradford, which comes alive with ideas in the spoken and written word alongside visual and performing arts.

Nasreen Rehman spoke to Syima Aslam, the director of the BLF.

Are you a Bradford or a Yorkshire girl?

I see myself as a Halifax girl, whose adopted home is Bradford, which is 11 kilometres from Halifax. For me, Bradford and Halifax merge into each other, so perhaps I am a Yorkshire girl!

I am of Pakistani heritage and I was born in Pakistan. My mum was visiting her family when she discovered she was pregnant. Since she had no family in England, she had me in Dhama, her natal village near Lalamusa, District Gujrat, and brought me to Halifax when I was four months old.

Until I was eight, we shuttled back and forth between the United Kingdom and Pakistan. My father was from a village near Dina, but my time in Pakistan was spent mostly at my nani’s [maternal grandmother] in Dhama, or my khala’s [maternal aunt] in Lahore. I have to say, I have little to no clarity on how I ended up in this country. By the time I returned to England, my English had regressed and I had to go to language school.

What inspired you to start the Bradford Literature Festival?

I’ve always been a curious bookworm and my first bookshop visits were in Dina, where I would buy Urdu fairytales — I think at the time they were a rupee each. Back in Halifax, my mother took me to the library religiously every Saturday.

The Bradford Literature Festival (BLF) was set up to support the economic regeneration of Bradford, and to create a cultural renaissance with literature as the cornerstone of an international destination festival that would boost the visitor economy, as well as raise aspirations and literacy levels in a city with the youngest population in Europe, many of them of Pakistani heritage.

When I attended other cultural events or literature festivals, I felt they existed in a mono-cultural audience, in a ‘bubble’, with conversations siloed as like-minded people talked to each other. It struck me that people who needed to be in the room weren’t there. Likewise, at children’s literature events, there were children who already had access to books because they had parents who would encourage them to read at home.

I wanted to create an event which would be open to people from diverse economic, cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds. BLF runs an ethical ticketing policy — the first of its kind in the UK — with free entry for a wide range of people who wouldn’t otherwise have access. Literacy and education have the power to transform lives and, therefore, the festival has a free education programme, which runs as part of BLF.

For many, Bradford has become a negative touchstone as a Pakistani and a Muslim city in the UK. How has this shaped BLF?

Bradford has also always been the city where the nation’s press has come to take the pulse of the Muslim community. I felt it was important for the city to take ownership of some of those debates and questions. Besides, Bradford has a history of centuries of migration from Irish to Jewish, German, Eastern European to South Asian. It is also a city where more than 150 languages are spoken. A literary festival that was designed to speak to those audiences would automatically be nationally and internationally relevant.

How did your being a British/Pakistani and Bradford resident shape BLF?

Being a British-Pakistani with access to the languages and cultures of Pakistan and South Asia has had a profound impact on how the literature festival has shaped up. My cultural references are the Bronte sisters and the poet Byron, as well as Allama Muhammad Iqbal and Ismat Chughtai. This, I believe, has created a festival programme unique in the Western landscape.

Being a second-generation Pakistani immigrant in the UK is inextricably linked to my cultural experience and, therefore, is inextricably linked to the festival. I understand how easy it can be to miss nuances, or exclude when creating programmes for different communities.

What did you hope to achieve in the early life of BLF?

My inspiration came from festivals such as the Hay Festival of Literature and Arts and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Initially, I talked about creating a ‘Hay of the North’. What I wanted to achieve was an international festival where everyone felt welcome and both big-name authors and debut writers were platformed alongside each other. A festival where all languages had parity and an event that would make the people of Bradford proud of their city and make it an exciting place to visit.

The ambition was always that it would become one of the largest literature festivals in the country and an international destination festival, drawing speakers and audiences from around the world.

What were the challenges?

The challenges were both local and external. A lot of people thought an international destination literature festival was too highbrow for Bradford, very pie-in-the-sky. I countered this with the rich literary history of the region, including the Bronte siblings and J.B. Priestley. I knew that once people had engaged with the literature festival, they would be more likely to engage in literature for the rest of their lives.

Because I am of Pakistani heritage, people expected me to set up a South Asian festival, one that focused on Urdu and Punjabi language literature. But I knew this would not attract and draw the overall population of the city or raise the literacy levels and aspirations of the young people of Bradford.

Besides, for publishers, Bradford was not on the map and we had to work very hard to break down barriers, so that publishing houses would send their authors to the festival.

BLF will complete its first decade in 2024.

Did you expect it to develop into one of the largest literary festivals in the UK?

I didn’t know how it would develop into the largest literature festival in the country, but it was always the goal! Not being from the culture sector, I had no preconceived notions, but the aim was always to get to where we proudly are today.

Some things were common sense, such as our ethical ticketing policy, now perceived as both innovative and disruptive in the UK’s cultural landscape. At just nine years old, we are still the ‘new kids on the block’, in comparison to the established UK lit-fests. What I didn’t foresee was that diverse artists and organisations would be so inspired by what we do. I am pleased to say that we have succeeded in this ambition and, this year, nearly 115,000 people engaged with the festival.

How do you see the next decade?

In the first 10 years of BLF, we have built the foundations and now it is time to start building for the future. I also see the diversity of the festival which engages with all communities as the way forward, rather than keeping a focus on one non-white community — which is the norm when we talk about diversity. This truly is a festival for everyone. BLF is recognised now as the largest cultural organisation led by a member of a non-white community in Britain. In the next decade, we shall consolidate with our national partners and build on the work we have done locally and look forward to expanding our international reach.

The reviewer is an historian, a screenwriter, translator and rights activist. She tweets @NasreenRehman1

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, July 29th, 2023