Saroj Lal

Local herstory time! 

Saroj Lal (1937 – 2020) was an Indian-Scottish teacher and activist, best known as a champion of race relations in Scotland for thirty years. She moved from Pakistan in the late 1960s and trained as a primary school teacher. She then volunteered with the YWCA, became a community worker and then became a director of Lothian Racial Equality Council (LREC) and first Asian woman to become a Justice of the Peace.

Lal was born in Gujranwala (then in British India), daughter of Behari Lal Chanana, a businessman and Congress party politician, and his wife, Wazir Devi Khurana, who died when Saroj was a young girl. Her father was an advocate of the Quit India movement seeking to end British Rule in India – he himself met with the first Indian Prime Minister Nehru. Her early years were marked by the events of partition, when her homeland was reassigned as “Pakistan” rather than India – meaning her Hindu family now found themselves in a Muslim majority country. Her son, Vineet, said that “the influence of her father in the period leading up to Partition was important, that sense of equality, justice, and freedom.”

She attended Kanya Maha Vidyalaya school, Jalandhar, and in 1962 graduated with an MA in economics from Panjab University in Chandigarh. She taught briefly before her marriage to engineer Amrit Lal. The couple migrated to Edinburgh in the late 1960s, where Saroj combined raising a young family with furthering her education including studying at Moray House School of Education. 

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“When you are the last person the bus that anyone will set next to you realise you are different.”

In 1970, Lal became the first Black Asian and Minority Ethnic teacher appointed in Edinburgh, beginning a job at South Morningside Primary. On 20 August 2020, the school and Saroj's family celebrated her 50th anniversary of starting her employment there. She was greeted with learning materials that had clear colonial and racist undertones – with the white “civilised” world being cleared distinguished from the “rudimentary” developing world.” As one of the few South Asian teachers in Scotland, she resolved to change this.  

During a break from teaching to raise her family, Lal volunteered at the YWCA Roundabout Centre. She wanted to address the racism which was prevalent in the 1970s. Her friend described how people of colour, especially women, were isolated in their homes, unable to communicate, and abused when they tried. In response, Saroj established Edinburgh’s first interpreting and translation service and a dedicated ethnic library service at McDonald Road Library.

She also taught anti-racism workshops, during which Lal always wore a sari which she saw as representative of her identity. Her friend recalls that during one session, a teenager – a goth – asked her why she wore “silly clothes”. She responded “rather like you”, and insisted that people take pride in their difference rather than hide it. 

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Beyond her teaching, Lal was a great advocate for improving race relations in Scotland. She worked with Lothian and Borders police to draw up a working definition of racist attacks. This allowed regular monitoring of racist incidents, developed police training and increased the profile of black and minority ethnic communities within the police force and encouraged recruitment from minority communities. As a result of this trailblazing work, she became the first Asian woman in Scotland to be appointed as a Justice of the Peace.

Her legacy did not stop there, however. She revised and updated Religions and Cultures, a guide widely used by the NHS. She was a board member of the Scottish Arts Council. She continued to focus on education too, and founded the Asian Cultural Girl's Club at Drummond Community High School and created the Continuation Course at Telford College. 

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Professor Rowena Arshad, co-director of the Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland met Saroj in 1985, when “racism was not fully discussed in Scotland.” She noted how “Saroj had a way of bringing issues to the attention of decision makers, particularly those funding projects, in a way that enabled funds to flow without threatening the ecosystem”. She also noted that Lal refused to don Western clothes for her professional life – ‘a quiet statement of saying no I will be who I am, you will accept me for who I am’. Amen.

Since then, the University of Edinburgh has created a scholarship in Saroj Lal’s name, to support BAME students through teacher training. The General Teaching Council Scotland has also created the Saroj Lal Award for a pioneering spirit in equality and diversity, to celebrate teachers who promote these values.

In 1984, Saroj was a guest on BBC Scotland’s religious affairs show, I Believe, You Believe. When asked how she would communicate the “salient points” of Hinduism to those of other faiths, she responded “The teachings are the same. It’s we people who make it sometimes look different. When you come to Britain this gives you the opportunity to live in a society where you come into contact with many different religions. After coming here, you realise we are all the same.” As a religious studies PhD, I couldn’t have put it better myself. 

Prof Arshad says: “When pioneers break glass ceilings, it should be remembered and acknowledged in Scottish teaching history”. 

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Shamefully, despite living in Edinburgh all my life, studying at the University of Edinburgh for the past seven years, and living in Morningside for a couple of those,  I had never heard of Saroj Lal until I read a news article this morning (link). Her son has (rightfully) petitioned for a school to be named in her honour. This has resulted in a racist backlash from those who believe that Lal is not “Scottish enough” to have a Scottish school named after her. Being Edinburgh born and bred, I’m ashamed (but sadly not surprised) that such a view persists. Aside from the fact that she lived and worked here for many years, Lal did more to improve the lives and safety of Edinburgh residents than most Scottish-born people will achieve in a lifetime. Furthermore, the irony of objecting to South Asian people “interfering” in Scotland after what Britain did to South Asia (and to Lal’s family itself) is clearly lost on these racists. As a local, I am ashamed that I had never heard of Saroj Lal until now. I have a lot to say on racism in Edinburgh, although here is not the place. But it is the place to champion trailblazing Asian women such as Saroj Lal and thank her for the contributions she made to this country. If Edinburgh, Scotland, and the world were filled with more people like her it would be a drastically better place. 

PS: credit to the BBC news obituary by David MacNicol here where I got the quotes and many of the facts for this post from!