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Bharat Joshi

British Deputy High Commissioner, Chennai

Part of FCDO Human Rights

30th September 2016 Chennai, India

Lord Clive would be spinning in his grave

A couple of weeks ago we hosted our first ever event at the Residence for the LGBTQ community in Chennai. It was a watershed event for us. It was – by diplomatic standards at least – daring, edgy and fun. It was the first time we’ve tried to engage with that community in a country where homosexuality remains illegal (in fact swype autocorrects to homozygous so I have, at least, learnt a new word).

My pride – pun intended – at both the quality of the event and the energy with which the team – Anita, Asha, Kumaresan and others -worked on it was tinged with a bit of shame that it’s taken so long to pull together. That’s my fault. This is genuinely something that I care about, but I’ve allowed other work priorities to push this work to the side. I recognise the challenges faced by brave activists. In Cameroon, as with much of Africa, and a country which in every other respect we adore, being gay was not just illegal, it was dangerous. Our friend and prominent LGBTQ activist, Eric Lembembe was murdered, and I will always remember the despair felt by so many at his funeral. The culprits remain at large.

Thankfully, the physical threat is considerably lower in India and it feels as if the situation is slowly improving. The courage and conviction shown by activists here to fight often lonely battles to carve out space for sexual minorities in the face of opposition from entrenched religious groups, traditional family structures, peer pressure and conservative Corporate India fills me with awe. So I’m so pleased that we were able to do our bit too show solidarity with them, and offer a safe space for them to meet.

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With live music from A R Rahman’s Music Conservatory, and a DJ, they totally rocked the official Residence Cottingley with its East India silverware and crockery, and even got me on the dance floor which has always been one of my red lines since I became a Head of Mission given how embarrassingly bad I am – and that to with no YMCA which I know the moves to. It was easily the best party we’ve ever had.

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The icing on the cake is that, as I said in my speech, I’m pretty sure that if long deceased colonial hands were befuddled by my succeeding hundreds of years of British Factors, Governors General and Residents in Chennai, I’m pretty sure they were spinning in their graves that night. That’s evidence of how much the UK has changed.

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The real work starts now. We’ve started to listen to the community, and to try and understand the challenges that remain. The next stage is working out how we can help them to make their lives better. That’s a challenge, but it’s also the part of this job that excites me the most.

My speech is attached below.

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/UKinIndia/status/773832734980444161

FB: https://www.facebook.com/bhcindia/videos/10154099966873323/

Bharat

About Bharat Joshi

Bharat was brought up in Kent. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1995 from the hotel industry and has had diplomatic postings to the Gambia, Dhaka and…

Bharat was brought up in Kent. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1995 from the hotel industry and has
had diplomatic postings to the Gambia, Dhaka and Qatar. He was most
recently British High Commissioner to Cameroon, and non-Resident Ambassador to Gabon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and Central African Republic.
Before that he worked as a Private Secretary to two British Ministers, as well as in various Departments of the FCO including the European Union Department and Press Office.
Bharat has experience of crisis management and has been deployed to the scenes of major incidents involving British nationals, including after the tragic bombing of the British Consulate-General in Istanbul in 2003.
Bharat’s varied career has been spent dealing with a full range of
HMG objectives, including promoting political and economic reform and
improved human rights; improved UK prosperity through trade; climate
change and UN policy issues. A major part of his portfolio in Chennai is supporting mutual prosperity between the UK and India, transforming lives through jobs, entrepreneurship and skills partnerships.
Bharat has been very happily married (at least forhim) to Bhakti for 18 years and they have two
wonderful daughters. His interests are cricket, badminton, history, reading and travelling.
Bharat speaks English, French, Gujarati and Hindi and Spanish, and is desperate to learn Tamil.