I’m a journalist and social commentator on how our identities (national, racial, religious) influence our politics. My contact details are at the end.

I’m an Ambassador at Sharan Project, which campaigns for British Asian women; a trustee at Volteface, which advocates for cannabis reform; a patron at Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, which focuses on the white nationalism.

I work part-time at openDemocracy as social media editor and write freelance for various international and British media outlets.

Since I write about identity, this is a page where I discuss my own multiple identities.

I'm a British Journalist.

I love my country and what it has become, perhaps more than most people. The elder generation feels out of touch with modern culture; millennials feel it is too out of date. I think it’s a nice mix. I want to help improve Britain by writing about how we could improve our national debate on identity.

I’ve written a lot in recent years for The Independent (my articles), and was a fortnightly columnist for the Hindustan Times from 2017 - 2018. I’ve also written for Guardian (a lot), The Times, The Metro, The FT, the I, HuffPo and New Statesman. Internationally, I’ve written for Al Jazeera, CNN and Quartz.com.

Some of my big stories
» British Sikhs disrupt inter-faith marriages (Aug 2015)
Coverage: Independent, Telegraph, NSS

» Woman confronts anti-abortion protesters outside clinic (Dec 2014)
Coverage: Buzzfeed, Guardian, Metro, MSNBC, Channel4, TIME, HuffPo. Also spurred political change.

» Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg was guest of honour at far-right event (Aug 2013)
Coverage: Newsnight, BBC.co.uk, Independent, Channel4, Telegraph, Guardian

» BBC film on Britain's awful friendship with Saudi Arabia
» BBC film calling for humanitarian intervention in Syria.

I'm Sikh.

I'm not an authority on Sikhism, the faith. But I do write and speak on issues relating to the Sikh community in Britain. Mainly because as a journalist I can't help but report on and cover events in the community and my family.

I recently made a documentary for BBC1 - Young, Sikh and Proud - you can watch it from here - in which I explore my Sikh identity and my relationship with my brother, a popular British Sikh leader. You can still watch it on BBC iPlayer until January 2021 from here.

I'm of South Asian background.

My cultural and ethnic identity is rooted in Punjab, India and the broader South Asian region. I travel around the whole region (India, Pakistan and Nepal so far) like it's my ancestral home. I frequently highlight and speak out on violence against women and religious minorities in South Asia.

I wrote a mini-book in 2013 titled, “India Dishonoured: Behind a nation’s war on it's women” - commissioned by the Guardian and Amazon.co.uk. I used to run Asians in Media - the award-winning online industry journal on the media world (2003 - 2008). I also ran a blog called Pickled Politics 2005 - 2010.

I now run Barfi Culture as a news magazine reporting on the British South Asian communities.

I’m a Labour party member.

I joined in 2010 to support Ed Miliband as leader and became increasingly involved in debates, events and factional fights in the Labour party. I place myself on Labour’s “soft Left” and on the centre-left in UK politics.

I used to run Liberal Conspiracy (2009 - 2013), Britain’s most popular left-wing blog at its height. I was also editor of Political Scrapbook (2016-17) and wrote a regular column for LabourList.

I stand for drug reform.

I strongly believe Cannabis should be legalized for recreational use, with strict regulation. It should be treated as a medicinal product not a Class A drug. That would be better for cutting crime and improving teenage health. More broadly, evidence shows drug addiction would be better treated as a health problem than crime. I’m a campaigner for drug reform and a trustee at Volteface - the UK’s most known drugs reform group.

I was a Senior Visiting Fellow at Kingston University, London (2015 - 2017), lecturing on digital journalism and how to use web technologies to leverage journalism and building online communities. I also helped with Masters project supervision.