Scottish Indian shadow minister calls for public messaging in Hindi

London: A Scottish Indian member of the Scottish Parliament has called for the devolved administration to ensure public messaging and health campaigns are made available in Hindi, in recognition of Indians as the second-largest immigrant group in Scotland.

Dr Sandesh Gulhane, shadow cabinet secretary for health and social care and also a general practitioner (GP) in the National Health Service (NHS) in Glasgow, tabled the question in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Wednesday to flag that Hindi is conspicuously absent from a range of other languages used for public messaging in the region.

The 42-year-old on Wednesday called on Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes to commit to ensuring that where such information is available in alternative languages, Hindi is always one of them.

“The 2022 census disclosed that Indians are the second largest immigrant group in Scotland,” he said adding, Hindi, one of the official languages of India, is the third most widely spoken language in the world, with the number of Hindi speakers in Scotland equalling approximately the population of Perth.

“However, I have noticed that across NHS health boards and other public bodies, public information and messaging is available in a range of languages but not in Hindi,” stated Gulhane, a Conservative Party member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP).

“I have raised the issue before in the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee and recently with Food Standards Scotland, which was campaigning on vitamin D, including to reach that population, yet the information was in other languages but not in Hindi.

“Will the Deputy First Minister commit to ensuring that, where information and messaging are available in alternative languages, Hindi is always one of them?” he asked.

Forbes responded to say that the government would “give that some thought” because Hindi speakers make an enormous contribution to Scotland and “it is very important that they feel that all government material is accessible to them in their own language”.

It marks the Maharashtra-origin parliamentarian’s focus on the healthcare sector, which first brought him into the field of politics in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

Gulhane, who continues to work part-time as a GP, says he decided to join the race to be elected in May 2021 as one of the first Indian-heritage MSPs for Glasgow Region to offer solutions.

“What we need now are fresh perspectives, rooted in real-world experience. As a GP, I see first-hand what works and, more importantly, what doesn’t. That’s why I continue to work one day per week as a GP, seeing patients. This, I firmly believe, makes me a better politician because working on the front line means I am more informed,” Gulhane explained in an interview.

As a member of the Cross-Party Group (CPG) on India, the medic-politician is also committed to closer India-Scotland ties across all sectors. “At a time of marked divisions in society, it is important to celebrate our cultural differences and learn more about one another,” he said.

“The CPG is currently developing a strategy for how the Scottish and Indian fintech industries can work together more effectively in the future, with the potential for a memorandum of understanding to be signed in the future between FinTech Scotland and organisations in India, which builds upon the existing UK-India Joint Working Group,” he added.

Gulhane, who grew up in London before making his home in Glasgow, has also been advocating for Scotland’s NHS to provide pathways for Indian professionals to work in the NHS through better family visa arrangements.

“I am deeply proud of my Indian heritage. My parents hail from Maharashtra, and my values — strong work ethics, community commitment, and a passion for growth — are rooted in our Indian culture. Indian families respect the pursuit of excellence, especially in education. In fact, many families like mine aspire for their children to become doctors, and here I am,” he added.