The history of BOPIO is documented in three handbooks. The books were originally published in 1993, 1995 and 1997. The editors were Dr Paul Flatther and Mr Sinna Mani. They contain essays from Dr Thomas Abraham served as a convener of the first global convention of people of Indian Origin in New York , Sudha Acharya President of the Federation of Indian Association of New York (1983-1984), Lord Megand Desai, Lord Bhiku Parekh, His excellancy Dr L M Sanghvi and others. The book pays tribute to Diane Birch for her production assistance. A special thanks to the London Borough of Lewisham, for the financil and practical support for the Festival of India. 

The book's are currently  edited by Nancy Woods and will be available on Amazon to buy. In the mean time please use the contact form for more information.

Ashvir Sangha of Queens College, Oxford University for his research thesis Re-imaging the British Indian Diaspora in modern political discourse which is relevant now. The public copy of the research on the history of BOPIO upto the present times is availabe to read here. Please open Link. 

BOPIO- A NEW CHAPTER BEGINS

Namrata Dhingra was appointed General Secretary of the British Organisation of People of Indian Origin, an NGO at the House of Lords. In an interview, she remarked that, "I was the only woman in the room that day and I was appointed to the role of General Secretary. I had no idea about what I was taking on, and no one in the community was willing to put in the work to revive the organisation. There were more closed doors than open." She added that, "Our attempts to retain the same name for the organisation came under scrutiny from diaspora organisations, and the organisation leaders unanimously agreed to change the name to the British Organisation of People of Indian Sub-Continental Origin. At the same time, the structure of the organisation was altered by Mr. Sinna Mani to add new membership for its revival and survival." Prior to 2011, only organisations could join BOPIO. However, after the Solidarity Conference and a renewed awareness of community cohesion, individual memberships grew in a surge. Everyone wanted to be part of this historic organisation, which had an illustrious past of academics and diplomatic contacts at high government levels across countries like Russia, India, the US, Egypt and the UK. Namrata recalls, "This period had a major impact on me. I was doing the work alongside Mr. Mani, but the organisation was constantly sabotaged by its leaders. It was such a gratifying and pleasurable experience to work for the organisation, as I was constantly evolving and learning. Despite Mr. Mani's great vision to keep the organisation going, it was hard to find a suitable leader in the UK, thus compromising the mission-focused practises." She affirms that, "It was a eureka moment for me, as I started to devise a plan for a social enterprise within the organisation's vision. This meant I could carry on my global work with a sustainable plan of action. However, it proved to be much harder to do than I had anticipated, as it was a complex and strategic task to transform the organisation. After two years of analysis, from January 2017 to March 2019, I concluded that the organisation did not deliberately marginalise women, but the work was time consuming and thorough." It was then that Namrata decided to make the projects her own, and as a woman, she realised the need for a multi-dimensional approach on gender issues. As a development practitioner, she also gained knowledge about finding practical solutions to global business negotiations. Under her leadership, BOPIO has been transformed from a traditional NGO to a Social Enterprise. The traditional structure of BOPIO has completely changed under her executive leadership role - its affiliations are with new organisational forms, and its activities offer innovative solutions to social problems. The organisation is more proper, more appropriate, and more legitimate than ever before!

In essence, she used the reflective Gibbs 1988 Cycle model for the analysis which allowed her to reach her evaluation.