Living Room 1970s:
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.
This environment of Resilience is captured in the design, artefacts and materials, music, footage of protests on the TV and the short film '31 St George's Road'.
What People Are Saying
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.
Reel to reels
Live concerts featuring artists from India took place in cities like Coventry, and my father recorded these onto reel-toreel 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.
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.
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.
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 mid1960s 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.
Mother In Kashmiri Outfit
This is our mother, Jasvir Kang’s photo, which was possibly taken in the mid1960s 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.
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 socioeconomic struggles of rural India postindependence. 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.’