Bishan Dass Bains | |
---|---|
Lord Mayor of Wolverhampton | |
In office May 1986 – May 1987 | |
Member of Wolverhampton City Council for Ettingshall Ward | |
In office 1975–2016 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Shaffipur, Jalandhar, India |
Political party | Labour (2010-present) |
Alma mater | Panjab University |
Bishan Dass is a British politician who became the first British Asian Lord Mayor of Wolverhampton in 1986.[1][2] He was first elected as Councillor of Ettingshall Ward on 1 May 1975.[3]
Bishan Dass was born in a family of Village Shaffipur in the North Indian state of Punjab.[4] In 1963, he came to the UK. He was elected for the first time to the Metropolitan Borough Council of Wolverhampton in 1979.[5]
He faced bitter experiences of casteism when Jat men of the left-wing Indian Workers Association (IWA), active in Britain since the 1950s, challenged his candidature in the local council elections in 1979.
He published a book named Pride Vs Prejudice, in which he penned down his lifelong struggle against inequality, discrimination, and prejudice. There are a number of horrifying and distressing stories about caste-based untouchability still practising in India and racial prejudice in the UK.[6]