The Living Room setting tells the story of writer and activist Harbhajan Singh Virk by recreating the Virk family living room from the 1970s.
It is in this living room, he would invite his comrades to plan the next anti-racism march, recite poetry, drink whiskey and listen to music.
Below are images and text related to the objects exhibited in the Living Room setting. These objects can be found in the 'Stories That Made Us' collection or the 'Virk Collection'
12-inch vinyl records
This is a selection of records imported from India and Pakistan and bought from local South Asian shops like Oriental Star Agencies Ltd in Birmingham and areas like Foleshill in Coventry.
Our father loved all kinds of music, from Punjabi folk and Hindi movie classics to the beautiful poetry of Qawwali. This is evident in his record and cassette collections. For many migrant communities, the music was a soundtrack to wedding celebrations as well as a way of remembering the country they left behind.
Cassettes
Our father had over a hundred Pioneer cassettes with recordings of music by artists including Lata Mangeshkar, Noor Jehan, Mohammed Rafi as well as Punjabi folk and Qawwali music. He probably recorded them from records loaned to him. There are now only 40 cassettes left from his collection, which are displayed here.
Bookshelf
Most of the books on display in this bookshelf are in Punjabi. They have been selected to highlight our father’s political views and interests.
Clock
This clock from the 1970s sat in our living room in the presence of South Asian men debating, planning, reciting poetry and laughing over whisky and samosas.
Reel-to-Reels
Live concerts featuring artists from India took place in cities like Coventry, and my father recorded these onto reel-to-reel tapes like these. The music was then transferred onto cassettes and sold at conferences, festivals or direct mail to customers across the UK and beyond.
Camera
Our father was a keen photographer who photographed British South Asian life from the day he arrived in the UK in the late 1960s.
He continued photographing cultural, political and social events throughout his life with some of his most stark work captured in black and white film in the 1970s and 1980s.
Decanter set
This is the original decanter set which the Johnnie Walker whisky was poured into and enjoyed by our father and his comrades.
War and Peace
L N Tolstoy
1961
Our father read books from around the world, irrespective of subject, as long as they held intelligence, learning and spoke about the world we live in. War and Peace written by Leo Tolstoy was one of these books.
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
1982
World Radio TV Handbook
1980
Our father was an audiophile who bought the latest technology to record and listen to music. This included a reel-to-reel machine, a separate hi-fi system and a Grundig Satellit Radio. The radio was his prized possession, allowing him access to radio stations across the world. This World Radio TV Handbook accompanied the Grundig Satellit Radio.
Migrant Stories
2025
Audio recordings
Migration has been part of the human experience since our beginning. It can be a moment of both great anxiety and excitement. Women like Jasvir Kang, who crossed land and sea from a village in north India to settle in Coventry, symbolise a generation of migrants whose lives are the story of roots and resilience. Their children carry this legacy forward, continuing to advocate for representation across every part of British life and society.
The voices in their own words and language in this audio share their story of migration.
Sohni Mahiwal painting
There were several artworks in our house, including one of the most famous Indian paintings, Sohni Mahiwal by Sobha Singh. It captures one of the greatest love stories and folktales from the Punjab and it could be found in almost every Indian household in the 1970s.
Mother In Kashmiri Outfit
This is our mother, Jasvir Kang’s photo, which was possibly taken in the mid-1960s in India. It is a black and white photograph that has had its negative painted in colour, creating an image resembling a painting. She is wearing a Kashmiri outfit and jewellery, a style of clothing and jewellery she loved throughout her life.
Red book in Punjabi – Identity of Shaheed Bhagat Singh
This book in Punjabi is about Shaheed Bhagat Singh, who was an Indian anti-colonial revolutionary. After his execution by the British in 1931 at the age of 23, he became known as one of India’s most famous freedom fighters.
Pictures of freedom fighters, anti-colonial sentiments, and communist and socialist values were part of our home’s DNA. We would welcome members of the Indian Workers Association who would plan protests from our living room while listening to music, reciting poetry and drinking Johnny Walker whisky.
The ‘Little Red Book’ (Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung) in Punjabi
The ‘Little Red Book’ contains speeches and writings by Mao Zedong, the former Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. It was published in 1964 and widely distributed during the Cultural Revolution. This version is in Punjabi.
Framed poster of Indian film, Mother India
This is a poster of the Hindi film Mother India picked up from a screening of the movie at the Palladium cinema in the 1970s. Mother India was released in 1957 during the early years of the Parallel Cinema movement. Directors of this movement were making films to reflect the realities of a newly independent India. They addressed social and political issues in a much more nuanced way than previous Indian films. Mother India, directed by Mehboob Khan and starring the iconic Nargis, was epic in its storytelling, addressing the socio economic struggles of rural India post-independence. Its themes of poverty, social injustice and resilience, including the portrayal of a self-sacrificing mother, resonated with millions in India and abroad. It went on to become the first Indian film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Red book in Punjabi
Harbhajan Singh Virk
1979
As an author and poet, our father wrote several books in Punjabi including How to Enter Politics – homage to the people struggling for socialism which was published in 1979.
The following has been written by Dav Kaur (who is of Punjabi heritage and has worked on the ‘Stories That Made Us’ project since its inception) about our father’s books:
‘The first thing that struck me, when I picked up his work in Punjabi, was how he always added ‘Coventry’ to signing his name. It was his way of paying homage to the city he had made his home.
One of his books was a small handbook on politics and socialism. Despite its size, it was incredibly powerful. In it, he challenged many accepted beliefs about socialism, the class system, and how societies evolve. He pointed out how old systems are often dismantled entirely to create something new, yet without preserving or learning from the past. That contradiction stood out strongly in his writing and showed the depth of his critical thought.
What impressed me further was his versatility. He wasn’t only writing about politics, labour unions, or social struggles. He also created revolutionary poetry and drama scripts.
Punjabi has many dialects, including rural forms that can be difficult even for fluent speakers to fully understand. I grew up with a ‘metro Punjabi’ that blends Hindi and English. But Virk’s books are written in simple, approachable Punjabi. Whether poetry, politics, or drama, his writing is accessible even to those in the UK, who may not have a deep grasp of the language.’
Capital: A Critique of Political Economy
Karl Marx
Volumes 1, 2 & 3 translated into Punjabi and published between 1975 – 1977
These books are translated from the 1887 English edition edited by Friedrich Engels. They were translated into Punjabi by Piara Singh Sehrai, Karanjeet Singh, Gurbachan Bhullar and Prof Prem Singh with help from the Soviet Embassy. They were published between 1975 – 1977.
This set of books depict our father’s communist and socialist values. He believed that a capitalist system was responsible for many of the world’s inequalities.
Soviet Books By Progress Publishers
1976
Marxist Economic Theory
Ernest Mandel
1977
