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Indo-Pak shirt launched in UK
A couple of enterprising young British Asians are furthering the cause of racial harmony in a unique and innovative way.
A couple of enterprising young British Asians are furthering the cause of racial harmony in a unique and innovative way.
Friends Ali Khan, a British Pakistani, and Yash Singh, a British Indian, were surprised at the level of animosity between Indians and Pakistanis in Britain, and decided to do something about it themselves.
So, they thought long and hard about the problem and, finally, they had their eureka moment: what love do the two countries have in common? They asked themselves. Answer: Cricket. So, they thought, how can we, in our own small way, harness that common love? Again, they thought long and hard - and came up with an answer: half and half shirts.
That means half the shirt in Pakistani colours and half in Indian colours.
The two young Asians had a number of the shirts made earlier in the year and then, with the help of other members of their families, sold them at the ICC Champions match between the two sides at Edgbaston.
So why were the two friends so determined to do something like this?
According to Ali Khan: "When I was growing up, I found lots of Pakistanis held prejudices about India and Indians even though they had friends from those communities. Yash found the same, though in reverse. So we thought why not find a way that we can express ourselves freely without having to say anything.
It was important to us to show the collaboration between our two families, so half the shirts were sewn together by my mum and my sister, and half by Yash's mum and sister, which meant we had 100 half-halfs to sell at Edgbaston".
They sold the lot, and could have shifted a lot more, and that meant that the successful day at the match was not the end of the story by any means. The two families went on to make more shirts in time for the Mega Mela in Birmingham in October.
Again, they were amazed at the response they received from other British Asians. As Ali said: "One lady even asked me if there was a range for babies. She was a Hindu from India and her husband was a Pakistani Muslim, so she said her children were literally half-halfs like our shirts".
This, as they say, could well be the start of something big.
