Record revealed
A Sivanandan's British nationality certificate
This record is the British nationality certificate of Ambalavaner Sivanandan (1923–2018), the novelist, activist and former director of the Institute of Race Relations, perhaps best known for the expression: 'We’re here because you were there.'
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Partial transcript
HOME OFFICE
British Nationality Act 1981
Certificate of registration as a British citizen
The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred by the British Nationality Act 1981, has registered the person named below as a British citizen.
Surname/Family name: Sivanandan
All other names: Ambalavaner
Name at birth if different from above: —
Date of birth: 20th December 1923
Place and country of birth: Colombo, Sri Lanka
Issued on the direction of the Secretary of State
HOME OFFICE LONDON
Date: 30 OCT 1984
Reference no.: S.618293
S.7(1)
Why this record matters
- Date
- 30 October 1984
- Catalogue reference
- HO 334/4055/1127552
Commonly known as 'A Sivanandan' or simply 'Siva', Ambalavaner Sivanandan is widely seen as one of the most important voices on race and migration in postwar Britain. He coined the phrase 'We’re here because you were there', making a powerful statement of resistance and affirmation, framing Black and Asian migration to Britain within centuries of colonial rule.
The National Archives holds records of naturalisations like Sivanandan's up to October 1986. His British nationality certificate shows his date of birth as 20 December 1923 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at a time when Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) was still under British rule. His award-winning first novel, When Memory Dies, describes the stories of members of a Tamil family over three generations against the backdrop of colonialism and then independence.
Sivanandan himself was the son of a postal worker and would become one of the first Sri Lankan bank managers in his country of birth. Although this certificate provides few details of his life, its existence speaks to the broader context of Sivanandan’s work, which focuses on the uneven relationship between the colonial power, Britain, and its subjects abroad. The certificate is both personal to Sivanandan and a record of the impersonal immigration process he experienced.
In the words of his author biography in When Memory Dies, Sivanandan 'came to Britain from Ceylon [Sri Lanka] in the wake of the race riots of 1958 – and walked straight into the riots of Notting Hill'. He wrote about the events and personalities he encountered, many of which also surface in records found at The National Archives, through its role as the official archive of the UK government.
Such topics included The Grunwick Strike, two years of industrial action between 1976 and 1978 led by East African Asian women, and Paul Robeson, the African-American bass baritone and communist monitored in MI5 surveillance files. You can find these in Sivanandan's 1987 collection of essays, A Different Hunger: Writings on Black Resistance, in The National Archives' library.
Sivanandan became the Director of the Institute of Race Relations in 1972, who today host an online archive of his writings that includes speeches, articles, aphorisms and reviews spanning six decades.