Meera Syal recalls unease about MBE ‘Empire’ amid Partition memories

What was said

"That year, I keenly realized the impact that imperialism had on my family and countless other people. And in that very year, he received a medal that included the word 'Empire'."

Dame Meera Syal says she felt conflicted about accepting an MBE after revisiting her father’s Lahore home, which he fled during the 1947 Partition. She recalls the trip deepened her sense of imperialism’s impact on her family, though her parents’ reaction later shifted her view.