Amol Rajan: I’m Very Worried About My Children Growing Up in England

Amol Rajan has said he is “very worried” about his children growing up in England and is considering relocating to India so his children can “fall in love with the civilisation that’s in their blood”. The Telegraph has more.

The BBC broadcaster, who was born in Calcutta and raised in Tooting, south London, said he was “very worried” about England because it was no longer making history.

The 42 year-old said that India was “exciting and energetic in a way that Britain doesn’t always feel”.

Rajan said he wanted his four children to visit India and decide for themselves where they wanted to live.

He told Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast: “I can’t tell you how much I love my country, by which I mean England, but I’m very worried about it.

“I think we’ve got some big, big problems that need addressing, and one of the things is whether this is the best place for my four kids to grow up.

“My answer is that it is. But I would say specifically that I’m not sure whether it’s still a place where history is being made.”

Rajan said the UK used to have considerable influence in terms of culture, finance and world politics.

“In the 1960s and 70s, England is where history was being made,” he said, adding: “It had the cultural effusion, the dividend of the baby boomer years, relative peace.”

The broadcaster suggested he would like to raise his family in an area that exhibited more recent prosperity and innovation.

He said: “India is definitely somewhere where history is being made. India is the young country, 1.4 billion people, it adds one million people to the workforce every single month.

“It’s extraordinarily exciting and energetic in a way that Britain doesn’t always feel.

“I’d like my children to experience India and then make up their own mind. I want it to be their decision.

“My youngest is two and when she’s a bit older and the long-haul flights are a bit less perilous I would like to go to India a bit more frequently and invite my children to fall in love with the civilisation that’s in their blood.”

Rajan is married to Charlotte Faircloth, an Associate Professor at University College London’s Institute of Education, with whom he has four children.

Worth reading in full.

Seems weirdly telling to hear an Indian-born man raised in England with England-born, ethnically half-English children speaking of Indian civilisation being “in their blood”. So is ancestry suddenly central to people’s identity? Presumably only insofar as the ancestry isn’t white…

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Neil Datson
Neil Datson
1 day ago

Having recently been to India, a country which I have enjoyed visiting on more than one occasion but that is in no sense ‘in my blood’, I know exactly what he means. India has many problems and much wrong with it but it is a country which has a positive vibe, in which it feels as if real, worthwhile, progress is being made. That certainly isn’t the case with England today.

transmissionofflame
Reply to  Neil Datson

Maybe not, but I am English and would much rather live here than India (or pretty much anywhere else).

I guess everyone should try their best to be somewhere they feel suits them and their family – good luck to them. But I tend to think a “positive vibe” really should be coming from inside one. I believe one will live a much better live not expecting a “positive vibe” to be externally supplied.

st27
st27
19 hours ago

“But I tend to think a “positive vibe” really should be coming from inside one. I believe one will live a much better live not expecting a “positive vibe” to be externally supplied.”

I completely agree with this attitude. Or, at least, I used to. Since the COVID nonsense, I feel as though my positivity resources have been completely depleted. The sheer, relentless, pointless stupidity and enshittification of the UK is just draining. My only positive options are to overthrow it (but I’m tired – I tried, during COVID, and at least met some great people also trying), or to get out.

transmissionofflame
17 hours ago
Reply to  st27

Sorry to hear that. I am focused on my immediately family, myself, my work and close friends. I try to be a good human being, to enjoy life and do the right thing. Everything else I try to let go.

Heretic
Heretic
1 day ago
Reply to  Neil Datson

Errr… that’s because England has been overrun with Third World Invaders.

marebobowl
marebobowl
21 hours ago
Reply to  Heretic

And they continue to be allowed in. Predictions are being made on how many will come in over the summer, instead of ways to halt anyone coming in illegally. There is something seriously wrong her.

Heretic
Heretic
14 hours ago
Reply to  marebobowl

Yes, that’s what comes of choosing a Pakistani Muslim woman, whose preferred headgear is the hijab, and hates white men, to be in charge of immigration to Britain.

stewart
1 day ago

Good for him, if that’s what he wants. His business.

All I will say is that most people in Britain don’t have the luxury of choosing in which country to bring their children up. For most, it’s Britain, or Britain, because they can’t just freely choose to settle somewhere else.

In a world of sovereign nation states with well protected borders and sensible, limited immigration, only a privileged few get to move around freely. The vast majority are limited to living in their own country for most if not their entire lives.

marebobowl
marebobowl
21 hours ago
Reply to  stewart

Anyone with a decent education cal leave the UK any time they like and find gainful employment around the world. That no longer exists in this country.

transmissionofflame
14 hours ago
Reply to  marebobowl

I doubt that many have the qualifications needed to have a wide choice

JXB
JXB
1 day ago

Goodbye.

Heretic
Heretic
1 day ago
Reply to  JXB

And Good Riddance.

Hound of Heaven
Hound of Heaven
1 day ago

Strange that someone who works for the upper class hating, DEI loving BBC admires a country with a caste system, among other rather dubious traditions. Still, if it’s not a white culture it must be good. Has anyone ever told Rajan to try enunciating consonants? Useful things for broadcasters.

RTSC
RTSC
22 hours ago

He will be High Caste ….. so why should he care?

transmissionofflame
14 hours ago
Reply to  RTSC

Indeed
I think the BBC types actually like the caste idea because they consider themselves high caste but benevolent

SteveHoffmanUK
SteveHoffmanUK
1 day ago

As an American living in the US and married to a British woman, I had the luxury of being able to choose in which country to bring up our two US-born children and decided for very personal and family reasons to emigrate to the UK in 1973. I certainly didn’t do it because England was a country “where history was being made”. I didn’t read the full article in the Telegraph so don’t know how old his children are or what Rajan’s (presumably) English wife feels about his intentions, but he should be very careful about choosing where his children should live based on his view of a country’s place in history. If they have the right to emigrate to India – as our children always did to the US because they were dual citizens – let them make up their own minds when they are adults. What “cultural effusion” did England have in the 1960s and 70s? Well, yes, the Beatles and Carnaby Street, I suppose, but it also had miners’ strikes and unprosperous nationalised industries and a struggling economy, but our decision was personal and not disruptive to our children who were 4 and 18 months when we… Read more »

transmissionofflame

Worth watching in full if you have not seen it but best bit is from 25 minutes. Rajan asks Djokovic is if he is willing to give up the chance to become the greatest ever player because he won’t take the “covid vaccine”. Djokovic says yes, without hesitation. Rajan: “Why, Novak, why?” He seems not to understand what it means to have principles and stick to them. I wonder if he has ever reflected on what was said in that interview, which incidentally Djokovic handles brilliantly.

Amol Rajan Interviews – Novak Djokovic – BBC iPlayer

Hound of Heaven
Hound of Heaven
1 day ago

No Vac Djokovic – my hero: respect.

Gezza England
Gezza England
1 day ago

He earned my total respect when he refused the deadly jab.

Hound of Heaven
Hound of Heaven
21 hours ago
Reply to  Gezza England

And got thrown in jail for insisting on the medical autonomy which is our right.

Heretic
Heretic
1 day ago

Well done to Will Jones for his final paragraph, especially this: “So is ancestry suddenly central to people’s identity? Presumably only insofar as the ancestry isn’t white…” Absolutely spot on!

In my view, it’s fantastic that one of the most Repulsive and Obnoxious Third World Ethnic “diversity hires” now wants to clear off back to his Tamil homeland, but you can be sure that his half-Tamil sprogs will fight tooth & nail to stay in the West, so they can all find White Spouses like he did, scorning to marry their own, in order to be part of The Great Replacement, and be promoted beyond their abilities, just like him.

Ozone
Ozone
1 day ago

This just backs up what many on the right think and say – take away benefits of being here and people not attached will leave, even those who’ve spent most of their lives here and would be considered to be ‘integrated’.
That’s why it’s crazy to let people turn up illegally on a boat, give them them a place to stay, food to eat and money to spend, for years before there’s any chance of them leaving. It’s also why many minorities won’t join the armed services – if something happens they’ll be on the first flight out of here.

transmissionofflame
Reply to  Ozone

My mum came to England from Germany just after WW2 to marry my dad who she met in Berlin while he was stationed there.
She loved this country and never spoke of Germany as home. She was not the fighting type but she would I believe have done what she could to help this country. I think the harder it is to obtain something, the more people value it. If it’s easy to drift in and out of countries, get free stuff, not bother learning the culture or language but still be “accepted” then you will take that for granted and ultimately treat it and the people giving it to you with contempt. Mum became an English teacher in later life – I doubt anyone other than close friends and family would have detected a foreign accent.

Jack the dog
Jack the dog
1 day ago

Make up your mind pal – English or Indian? It’s obvious you feel Indian, so off you go..

Covid-1984
Covid-1984
22 hours ago

I worked for a UK company that did business in India. I asked a colleague what his overriding memory was and without hesitation he said; ” litter” and rubbish strewn everywhere. We used to have civic pride in the UK. In India, they never have. Be careful what you wish for.

Hound of Heaven
Hound of Heaven
21 hours ago
Reply to  Covid-1984

And beggars.

RTSC
RTSC
22 hours ago

This was one of the central points of Douglas Murray’s book “The Strange Death of Europe.”

All the “enrichment” which has been forced on the British (and European) people has fundamentally changed their homelands and culture.

The “enrichers” have the option to “return home” …. to their native countries which are recognisably their homelands, where their cultures are practised and not suppressed by an arrogant Establishment which is determined to eradicate it.

British people HAVE no other homeland. Our homeland has been deliberately destroyed by mass immigration.

I have nothing against Amol Rajan personally, but why should native (ie white) British people be required to accept that this man (and the other millions of ethnic minorities/immigrants here) are “as British as you and me,” let alone English, when, by his own admission he isn’t.

marebobowl
marebobowl
22 hours ago

A cousin, over ten years ago advised his four children to leave Ireland, because it has no future. Today, his words have come true.

Britain May have been a great country once, but those days are long gone, and a child’s future gone with it. I would encourage children today to seek their future elsewhere. Britain sadly is failing. There is no future here fir young people.

jsampson45
jsampson45
21 hours ago

As it is said, “May you live in interesting times”.

Dickie Hart
Dickie Hart
14 hours ago

Hi Amol. Need any help with packing?

mrbu
mrbu
13 hours ago

I suppose two attractions of India are (1) That it’s not ashamed of its own culture. (Here in the UK we apparently have to apologise for or deny our Christian cultural heritage.) And (2) India’s not afraid to use the cheapest sources of energy available to help its economy grow.