South Asian Heritage Month
South Asian Heritage Month is the name given to the month-long celebration in United Kingdom to celebrate the heritage of people with roots in the South Asian countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives. The Co-Founders of South Asian Heritage Month are Jasvir Singh OBE and Dr Binita Kane, and the Founding Patron is Anita Rani. Origins in Canada. The first Indo-Caribbean Canadian (OSSICC) was formed primarily to celebrate the upcoming 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indians to Guyana in 1988. OSSICC continued to celebrate Indo-Caribbean  Heritage Day until the year 2000, with interest coming mainly from Indo-Caribbeans. In April, 1997 the Indo-Trinidadian Canadian Association (ITCA) was formed and immediately started Indian Arrival Day celebrations that year. Also that year, community activist Asha Maharaj organized a display of Indian artifacts, the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Ottawa held its first celebration, and the Caribbean East Indian Cultural Organization headed by radio host Richard Aziz organized an Indian Arrival celebration in Toronto. By 1998 ITCA had decided to celebrate the event as Indian Arrival and Heritage Day, and held a huge show/display/dance at  the Etobicoke Olympium. It was never an Indo-Caribbean for ITCA but always Indian, meaning all people with roots in the Indian subcontinent. Indian Arrival and Heritage Month in Canada. Since 1997, ITCA and later the Council for Indian Arrival and Heritage Month had decided not to make this an Indo-Caribbean event. They realized that Indo-Caribbeans were only about 10 per cent of the "Indian" group in Toronto, and if they confined Indian Arrival to Indo-Caribbeans it would remain forever a marginal event. By 1999 ITCA had moved to celebrate the month of May as Indian Arrival  and Heritage Month. At this stage only ITCA and OSSICC were organizing events. By the year 2000 a Council for Indian Arrival and Heritage Month was in place, composed of people from ITCA, OSSICC, the Guyanese group GEAC, the Hamilton group CICA and several individuals. Becoming South Asian Heritage Month. When Indian Arrival and Heritage Month was launched at the Scarborough Civic Centre in 2001, the keynote speaker was Raminder Gill, at the time the South Asian Member of the Ontario Parliament. South Asian Heritage Month in the UK. The South Asian community in the UK organised the concept launch  of the first South Asian Heritage Month event in July 2019 at the House of Commons. The concept launch was a collaboration between City Sikhs, Faiths Forum for London, The Grand Trunk Project and The Partition Commemoration Campaign. South Asian Heritage Month runs from 18 July – 17 August and seeks to commemorate, mark and celebrate South Asian cultures, histories particularly the intertwined histories of the UK and South Asian communities and how South Asian cultures are present throughout the UK. Unlike most commemoration months, SAHM takes place across two Western calendar months (July and August). The reason for this is  that it respects the traditions of the South Asian solar calendar and the 18 July – 17 August contains several significant dates: The month also very nearly coincides with the South Asian month of Saravan/Sawan, which is the main monsoon month when the region's habitat undergoes renewal.