BANDED TOGETHER: Sikh immigrants in Britain

"We must strive to connect people from different backgrounds, tackle segregation, and overcome mutual hostility and ignorance. One factor in this is the ability of new migrants to speak English."

-David Blunkett, UK's home secretary

He's done it again. After faulting "fraudulent " arranged marriages as a growing problem in UK's immigration system and insisting that applicants for citizenship take an English language test, UK's Home Secretary David Blunkett has opened a can of worms with his suggestion that British Asians speak English at home.

In a collection of essays called Rethinking Britishness, published on September 16 by the Foreign Policy Centre, a think tank launched by Prime Minister Tony Blair four years ago, Blunkett said that parents can overcome the "schizophrenia which bedevils generational relationships" by speaking English, as well as their mother tongues, at home.

NEW ROW: Blunkett

He said this would enable parents with cultural practices alien to Britain to "participate in a wider modern culture". "Because of education or geography, some immigrants find themselves catapulted into effectively different centuries," the home secretary said. "They are making a journey in the space of a few weeks or months which has taken us hundreds of years to make."

His concern about language was reinforced by a finding in a Home Office citizenship survey of 2001 which said that 30 per cent of British Asian households do not use English.

As expected, the home secretary's words have raised a hornets' nest with the British Asians. "We have always supported the view that proficiency in English is essential for achievement in education and the workplace," says Beverley Bernard, acting chair of the Commission for Racial Equality (cre). "But any suggestion that the Government should prescribe where and to whom English should be spoken is unacceptable."

Taking offence at Blunkett's increasing intrusion into the Asian way of life, Shahid Malik, a member of Labour's National Executive Committee, says, "He has been targeting the Asian community-first by saying where they should marry, now it's what they should speak, tomorrow it will be what they can eat."

Many British Asians are fiercely guarded about their heritage. "Language is the cornerstone of one's culture," says Vikas Pota, director of the Labour Friends of India. "It teaches many different aspects and concepts of one's heritage and history." He adds that in spit of UK being a multicultural society, Blunkett's comments do not reflect the need for the British people to be more accepting and open minded.

Says Reema Singh, a computer professional: "My family speaks Punjabi and this gives us a strong sense of community-it is a linguistic link over continents, and across generations."

In spite of a clarification by a Home Office spokeswoman saying Blunkett "doesn't want to dictate what people say behind closed doors", and Blunkett too insisting he had never said that lack of fluency in English contributed to riots in Yorkshire and Lancashire last summer, British Asians are not placated.

"He talks of greater integration and cohesiveness in society. I agree with this," says Pota. "I differ with him on his recent statement that we should speak English at home. Mutual respect for other cultures is important," he says.

Unfortunately, most British Asians believe that Blunkett's suggestion of "shared participation" does not extend to expecting more tolerance from the British.

-Ishara Bhasi