THE ASIAN INDEPENDENT UK
Friends, parliamentarians, faith leaders, campaigners and academics remembered a gentle but determined advocate whose moral courage gave marginalised communities a voice in Westminster.
Wednesday, 9th September 2026
A commemoration organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Dalits brought together colleagues and friends of Lord Richard Harries to remember his personal warmth, intellectual breadth and sustained commitment to equality. Across the gathering in Parliament, speakers returned to one central message: Harries paired conviction with kindness and used his position to open doors for people and causes that public life too often ignored.
Jeremy Corbyn MP opened the event by describing Harries as a unique and wonderful man whose support reached well beyond any single part of his public life. He highlighted Harries’s long service to the parliamentary group, his backing for the campaign to include caste discrimination in Britain’s equality law and his solidarity with Dalit communities. Corbyn also recalled how Harries helped make BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day inclusive and relevant to current affairs. Reading a poem about the burden carried by those who escape inherited oppression, he said its concern for shared humanity was exactly the kind of reflection Harries would have welcomed.
Meena Varma, Director of the International Dalit Solidarity Network, the APPG coordinator and the organiser of the tribute, said Harries’s death left an irreplaceable void in the international movement for Dalit rights. She remembered him as the founder and first chair of the group, a dependable ally who brought accounts of untouchability into Parliament and amplified Dalit voices without presuming to speak for them. His advocacy, she said, also addressed supply chains and injustice in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. Varma recalled his incisive listening, humility, friendship and humour, and pledged that the campaign for justice and legislation would continue.
Yasmin Qureshi MP, a former chair of the group, first worked with Harries through the All Party Parliamentary Group on Religion in the Media. She remembered the probing questions he asked before joining that initiative, and how he later persuaded her to chair the Dalit group. Qureshi called him one of the kindest and gentlest people she had met in politics, devoted to humanity and equality. Drawing on the Islamic idea of noor, or spiritual light, she said his goodness was visible in both public service and the care he gave his wife.
David Haslam, founder of Dalit Solidarity Network, traced a partnership with Harries that began in the campaign to end British bank lending to apartheid South Africa. Harries agreed to chair End Loans to Southern Africa and even made his office at King’s College available to campaigners. Haslam later introduced him to the Dalit cause, which both men understood as another system of entrenched exploitation. He also pointed to Harries’s books, including Should a Christian Support Guerrillas and The Beauty and the Horror, as evidence of a mind that brought theology, art, literature and human suffering into the same moral frame.
Lord Michael Cashman said Harries understood that equality could not be divided into separate causes. He recalled being welcomed to the House of Lords and immediately recruited to the Dalit group because of his work on caste in the European Parliament. For Cashman, Harries combined kindness with impatience for injustice and encouraged campaigners to challenge opponents without losing their humanity. His closing instruction was the one he believed Harries would give the gathering: get on with the unfinished work and deliver justice.
Santosh Dass, chair of the Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance, remembered Harries leaving Parliament to meet a small protest supporting caste provisions in the Equality Bill in 2010. That gesture captured a commitment that went beyond speeches. She praised his courage and persistence in the legislative campaign, as well as his advice that even robust opponents should be treated with courtesy. Dass also emphasised his annual celebrations of Dr B R Ambedkar and his willingness to raise the cases of imprisoned human-rights defenders, including Father Stan Swamy and Anand Teltumbde.
In a written tribute read by Varma, Lord David Alton recalled a friendship of four decades and work with Harries on the plight of India’s Dalits and the cruelty of caste. He described Harries’s debates, books, broadcasts and speeches as kind, compassionate and intelligent, and said his wise voice was deeply missed on the crossbenches.
Lord Leslie Griffiths remembered a bishop who refused to be confined by the caution of office. Harries supported causes ranging from West Papua to peace and justice more broadly, while remaining rooted in Christian faith.
Griffiths, a fellow Welshman and fellow contributor to Thought for the Day, praised his rare combination of churchmanship, moral commitment and delight in poetry, art and literature.
Nicole Piche, coordinator of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, recalled Harries’s work on West Papua and his ability to be forceful without aggression. When Indonesian officials and parliamentarians resisted concerns raised at a meeting he chaired, Harries responded patiently and kept returning the discussion to the dignity and aspirations of West Papuans. Piche said his kindness could disarm opponents and prompt them to reconsider their own position. She remembered him as a parliamentary champion of human-rights causes that few others made time to support.
Professor David Mosse of SOAS focused on Harries’s recognition that caste oppression crosses national and religious boundaries, including the discrimination experienced by Dalit Christians. He said Harries gave academics a parliamentary forum in which evidence and research could inform heated debates about caste in Britain. His grasp of complexity, respect for scholarship and steady support kept minority concerns visible even when public and parliamentary attention was scarce.
Sat Pal Muman, chair of Caste Watch UK, described Harries as a devoted supporter of the anti-caste movement whose soft-spoken manner rested on strong moral conviction. Harries endured hostility from opponents of caste legislation from the British Hindu Right without letting it weaken his resolve. Muman reminded the gathering of the continuing practice of untouchability in India. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge addressed a public rally last month. Following this, Hindus shamefully conducted a religious purification ritual to purify the area where he stood, because Kharge is deemed a Dalit. He referenced William Wilberforce, who campaigned for the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade and slavery, comparing the steadfast resolve of Harries and British parliamentarians who champion the cause of Dalits to remove centuries-old caste slavery that persists today.
Lord Paul Boateng drew on an Akan expression, saying a mighty tree had fallen. He recalled how Harries insisted that caste discrimination be treated alongside racism during the ecumenical struggle against apartheid. Boateng also remembered Harries’s powerful contribution to equalising the age of consent. His command of language, gentleness, humour and ability to push others toward action, Boateng said, made him a figure people wanted to hear and one who made a lasting difference.
Elizabeth Joy, Director of the Dalit Solidarity Network UK, remembered being put at ease by Harries’s gentleness when they met in 2010. He invited her to lead a devotion in the House of Lords, showed her around Parliament and repeatedly hosted Dalit-rights events, staying until the end to meet participants. Her poetic tribute thanked him for raising his voice for Dalit and Adivasi rights and called on campaigners to continue working for a dignified life for all.
Paul Flather addressed Harries in the form of a letter. He praised the thoughtful and progressive wisdom of the broadcaster, writer, teacher, public intellectual and citizen. Flather highlighted Harries’s positions on ethical investment, equal rights for women and gay people, interfaith engagement and the annual parliamentary commemorations of Ambedkar. He urged those present to follow Harries’s example by remaining thoughtful, kind and responsive to a changing society.
Varma also read a message from Baroness Lola Young, who had shared an office with Harries. Young remembered his mischievous humour, genuine humility and clear understanding that membership of the House of Lords carried responsibility. Their differences on religion never obstructed friendship or shared judgment. She added that former interns continued to ask after him years later, a sign of the care and respect he extended to people regardless of status.
Baroness Jan Royall portrayed Harries as erudite, humble, compassionate and deeply attentive to others. She said his interfaith work grew more important throughout a life spent breaking down barriers, in part because he listened as well as spoke. Royall recalled his support for Dalit scholars at Somerville College, Oxford, a profound conversation about faith and death at Gandhi’s memorial in India, and the care he gave his wife alongside his parliamentary and academic work. Though not usually a listener to Thought for the Day, she always listened to Harries because he could be profound, accessible and lightly humorous at once.
Aidan Mcquade, human rights expert and former Director of Anti Slavery International, reflected on Harries’s influence within his own family after realising that Harries’s son, Mark, had treated McQuade’s wife during her cancer treatment. The grace and compassion shown in that difficult period, he said, spoke well of the parents and of Harries’s private as well as public life. He concluded with lines from Seamus Heaney’s Exposure, evoking a gift used on behalf of people in desperate circumstances.
Professor Alpa Shah said institutions such as Parliament need people like Harries to make them serve democracy and justice. She valued the space he created for academic evidence and the solidarity he built across movements. Beyond Dalit rights, Harries worked with her on Adivasi rights, challenged British mining interests over abuses affecting Indigenous communities in India and hosted a discussion of the case of Father Stan Swamy.
Gautam Chakraborty, speaking for the Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations, thanked Harries for helping to sustain the annual commemoration of Ambedkar in Parliament over the previous decade. Harries consistently gave time to young people and encouraged them to take part. Gautam said the best tribute would be to find new parliamentary support and carry the tradition forward.
Davinder Prasad, former general secretary of Caste Watch UK, remembered Harries as the first bishop and first member of the House of Lords he had met. He was struck by Harries’s knowledge of caste and his readiness to listen. Prasad said Harries understood how Parliament worked but also insisted that change had to be driven by affected communities. His call for public action and testimony helped campaigners mobilize, bring victims’ experiences into the media and strengthen the parliamentary case for making caste discrimination unlawful.
Prasad stressed that the provision they fought for remains unimplemented and must still be pursued.
Lord Cashman closed the commemoration by returning to the love and respect evident throughout the room. Harries’s influence, he said, reached people who never met him because he spoke for those denied a voice and had the courage to imagine a better life from another person’s position. The gathering ended with a shared commitment to carry forward the work of a deeply respected and learned public servant.
Taken together, the tributes presented a consistent portrait. Harries was a bishop, broadcaster, writer and parliamentarian of unusual range, but speakers measured him most clearly by how he used those roles: he listened, convened, questioned, encouraged and persisted. His memorial was therefore as much a call to action as an act of remembrance, especially for those continuing the campaign against caste discrimination and for Dalit and Adivasi rights.
Compiled by Sat Pal Muman, Chair Caste Watch UK
