An exhibition of photographs depicting the lives of south Asian communities in Scotland will be displayed in the British Council Chennai office from 25 October. Their creator is Herman Rodrigues, the proprietor of the well-known Suruchi restaurants in Edinburgh.

Herman Rodrigues, photographer, photojournalist, lecturer and restaurateur was born in Jaipur in 1961. On migrating to Edinburgh in 1990, he was immediately captivated by the lives of Scottish Asians. His subjects vary from the Gaelic-speaking Pakistani community on the remote island of Lewis, Stornoway, to the 600 strong Sikh communities living in Leith, Edinburgh.

Herman is excited by the fusion and blurring of traditional boundaries. The South Asians he shows are confident in their identity here in Scotland.

The influence of South Asian culture on the Scots is also apparent in Herman’s work, particularly in fashion, music and film. There are now two Indian/ Scottish tartans - the Leith Sikh tartan which includes blue for the Scottish flag, green for the Indian flag and the saffron of the Sikh community. The other tartan is that of the Laird of Lesmahagow, a south Glasgow Sikh landowner who has had the works of Robert Burns translated into Punjabi.

Many Indian weddings and funerals in Scotland feature pipers and kilts alongside bhangra musicians. Herman comments: “Both cultures have strong traditional roots and I hope to capture in my photographs how the communities in Scotland have successfully combined these.”

The 20 photographs, selected by Kitty Douglas-Hamilton fall into four themes: Education, Festivals and Religion, Portraits and Stornoway. The latter category may surprise many Scots who are unaware that peddlars licenses were granted to Indian traders selling woollens and linens. In order to reach wider markets these entrepreneurs fanned out across the west coast including the Western Isles.

Herman summarises: “For me photography was a good way of trying to show the diversity of the communities and the influence Scotland has had on them. The community doesn’t live in isolation. It blossoms where it lives.”

For more information on the exhibition, contact Maya.Sivakumar@in.britishcouncil.org.