Created by Shayarix
Last edited February 18, 2026


Occupation
Writer, journalist and activist



Amrit Wilson (born 1941)[1] is a British-Indian[2] writer, journalist and activist who since the 1970s has focused on issues of race and gender in Britain and South Asian politics.[3] Her 1978 book Finding a Voice: Asian Women in Britain[4] won the Martin Luther King Award, and remains an influential feminist book.[2] Her other book publications include Dreams, Questions, Struggles: South Asian Women in Britain (London: Pluto Press, 2006), and as a journalist she has been published in outlets including Ceasefire Magazine,[5] Media Diversified,[6] openDemocracy[7] and The Guardian.[8][9]

Background

Wilson grew up in India and came to Britain as a student in 1961. She became a freelance journalist in 1974, and was active as an anti-racist militant in the 1970s.[10] Wilson's book Finding a Voice: Asian Women in Britain, first published in 1978 and reprinted 40 years later,[11] has been described as "[c]hallenging the views of South Asian women as weak, submissive, one-dimensional stereotypes" and as having "cleared the space for Asian women to speak for themselves".[12] Wilson was a founder member of Awaz, the UK's first Asian feminist collective, and was active in OWAAD, the Organisation of Women of Asian and African Descent (1978–82).[3][13] She was formerly chair of Imkaan, a national network of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee women's refuges and services for women facing violence, and is a founder member of South Asia Solidarity Group.[7][14]

She also was Senior Lecturer in Women's Studies/South Asian Studies at Luton University,[15] and has carried an Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI).[16]

In April 2024, Wilson revealed that she had had her OCI card withdrawn by the Indian government and is unable to travel to India after having been accused of "anti-India activities" and "detrimental propaganda against India."[17]

Selected bibliography

References

  1. Amrit Wilson(1997).Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore
  2. 2.0 2.1 South Asian women in Britain: Finding a voice, 40 years on. Media Diversified(17 January 2019).
  3. 3.0 3.1 'Reclaiming our collective past': Amrit Wilson reflects on 40 years of anti-racist feminist work, Siddiqui, Sophia. gal-dem(30 October 2018).
  4. A burning fever: the isolation of Asian women in Britain. Race & Class({Template:Date).
  5. Amrit Wilson.
  6. Category: Amrit Wilson. Media Dversified(16 July 2015).
  7. 7.0 7.1 Amrit Wilson. Open Democracy(22 July 2020).
  8. Speaker bios. Islamophobia Conference 2017: The Rise of Nativism.
  9. Amrit Wilson.
  10. Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Routledge(2002). ISBN 978-1-134-70025-7
  11. Event Report – 'Finding a Voice: Asian Women in Britain'. Islamic Human Rights Commission(6 March 2019).
  12. Review – Finding a Voice: Asian women in Britain, Goodfellow, Maya(8 June 2019).
  13. Amrit Wilson. British Library.
  14. Amrit Wilson. The Strike at Imperial Typewriters.
  15. Amrit Wilson. Pluto Press.
  16. Hearing adjourned in journalist's revision plea on cancelled OCI card. The Indian Express(2023-05-23). Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  17. Solidarity With Amrit Wilson, Barnett, Marcus. Tribune(2024-04-26). Retrieved 2024-05-06.

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