Sunny Hundal
Sunny Hundal (born 1977) is a British blogger.
He was born in London to Sikh parents of Indian origin. He describes himself as a vegetarian and a strong environmentalist.[1] He has a degree in Economics from Brunel University and has written articles for leading British newspapers including The Financial Times and The Independent. He has been interviewed by ITV News, Sky News, and Channel 4 News.
Sunny Hundal was the founder and editor of the now defunct Asians in Media website.[2] He also set up the now defunct Barfi Culture community website.[3] Both of these websites were instrumental in establishing Hundal's credentials as a commentator on British Asian identity politics. In 2006 he was one of the founder members of the now defunct New Generation Network, a short-lived group and manifesto that attempted to challenge the current discourse on race relations in the UK.
Hundal now runs the Pickled Politics weblog,[4] which describes itself as politically progressive, and deals with issues related to his own eccentric brand of activism. He is a regular contributor to Comment is Free on The Guardian website, and was named as their blogger of the year in 2006.[5] In 2007 he set up Liberal Conspiracy, a group weblog which features a number of mainly left-of-centre bloggers. His own blog there has been featured in the New Statesman's "best of the blogs" selection.[6] Other newspapers have described him as a leading blogger[7] and a well-known twitterer.[8]
Hundal has criticised various religious organisations including the Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir,[9][10] the Muslim Council of Britain,[11] Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK,[11] Christian Concern For Our Nation,[10] Sikh Federation[12] and Hindu Forum of Britain.[12]
In February 2007 he made a BBC radio documentary Lost in Translation about Asian brides brought to the UK.[13] The BBC also quoted his claim that Shahrukh Khan's endorsement of skin-lightening creams was "completely immoral".[14]
In 2008, he wrote a blog post saying that non-white voters should consider voting Conservative, on the basis that "brown people" were being deliberately targeted by anti-terrorism legislation brought in by the New Labour government of Gordon Brown.[15]
In 2010, on his Liberal Conspiracy blog, he backed the Liberal Democrats in the UK General Election.[16] The Liberal Democrats went on to form a Coalition Government with the Conservative Party.
About three months after the Coalition Government was announced, Hundal joined the Labour Party in order to influence its political direction.[17] In August 2010 Hundal backed Ed Miliband in the Labour leadership election.[18]
[edit] References
- ^ Introducing guest blogger Sunny Hundal, The f word (feminist blog), 18 January 2009
- ^ About AiM at Asians in Media magazine
- ^ About Barfi Culture at Barfi Culture
- ^ Contributors at Pickled Politics
- ^ Blogger of the year at Comment is free on The Guardian
- ^ Web Only: the best of the blogs, New Statesman, 3 February 2010. Retrieved 3 Feb 2010
- ^ Richard Ackland, Old news is better news in the eyes of the law, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 January 2010
- ^ Howard Jacobson, We don't dare to criticise 'real people' – just those in the twittersphere, The Independent, 23 January 2010
- ^ Sunny Hundal, The enemy within, April 1, 2007, Comment is Free
- ^ a b Sunny Hundal, Fundamentally flawed, May 21, 2008, Comment is Free
- ^ a b Sunny Hundal, Stop whining!, June 9, 2006, Comment is Free
- ^ a b Sunny Hundal, The tables have turned, November 2, 2007, Comment is Free
- ^ Lost in Translation, 26 Feb 2007, BBC Asian Network
- ^ Beyond the pale?, 25 Sept 2007, BBC News
- ^ It’s time for brown people to switch to Tory, 16 June 2008, Pickled Politics
- ^ The Guardian endorses the Lib Dems and I'm with them, 01 May 2010, Liberal Conspiracy
- ^ Why I’ve decided to join the Labour party, 16 August 2010, Liberal Conspiracy
- ^ Why I think Ed Miliband is the right person to lead the Labour party, 23 August 2010, Liberal Conspiracy
