By Gaggan Sabherwal
BBC South Asia Diaspora Reporter
4 August 2020
UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has backed a campaign for influential ethnic minority figures to be featured on a set of UK coins to celebrate the country’s diversity.
India’s father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi’s image on a coin is being considered as part of efforts to celebrate the achievements of non-white individuals. The other people who are being considered include Indian-origin British spy Noor Inayat Khan who was the first Indian-origin World War II spy for Britain and Jamaican British nurse Mary Seacole.
In a tweet yesterday the Indian-origin finance minister said – ‘’Yesterday [Saturday] I wrote to the Royal Mint urging them to consider how to celebrate the achievements of BAME [black, Asian and minority ethnic] individuals on UK coinage”.
The move follows a letter to Mr. Sunak from the ‘We Too Built Britain’ campaign led by Indian-origin Conservative Party candidate Zehra Zaidi. Ms. Zaidi has been fighting for the last three years for representation and has been pushing for non-white influential and historic people such as Noor Inanyat and Mary Seacole to appear on British coins.
In response to the campaign, Mr. Sunak who also happens to be the son-in-law of Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy issued a letter to the chair of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee (RMAC) that recommends themes and designs of coins to consider recognising BAME contributions on the nation's coinage.
“Black, Asian and other ethnic minority communities have made a profound contribution to the shared history of the United Kingdom,” reads Sunak's letter to Lord Waldegrave, the chair of the RMAC.
“For generations, ethnic minority groups have fought and died for this country we have built together; taught our children, nursed the sick, cared for the elderly; and through their enterprising spirit have started some of our most exciting and dynamic businesses, creating jobs and driving growth,” it reads.
The letter further adds, ‘’ I know you are already seeking to fully consider diversity in future coin design and I very much welcome these efforts. I hope this campaign reminds us of the importance and urgency of doing so,”.
In an emailed statement to the BBC, the UK treasury says that ‘’the RMAC is currently considering a coin to commemorate Gandhi’’. They further added that, ‘’ the UK’s Chancellor is keen that our coinage commemorates the work of the many previous generations who have served this nation and those nations that form the Commonwealth’’.
Now this isn’t the first that that Mahatma Gandhi has been in the running for a commemorative coin in Britain. The former UK Chancellor Sajid Javid, had asked the Royal Mint to consider such a commemorative coin last year to coincide with Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary year celebrations.
Zehra Zaidi was previously behind a campaign to get the Bank of England to select an ethnic minority heroine for a newly-printed GBP 50 note, proposing Noor Inayat Khan among the options. However, Britain's computer pioneer Alan Turing was the choice for the new banknote which goes into circulation from next year.
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