A place called home

A new generation redefines what it means to be both Nepali and British, honouring a past of military valour but forging an identity unbound by it.

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Ayo Gorkhali!” (“The Gorkhas come charging!”) A phrase every Nepali child has chanted.

Once a war cry, today it stands as a slogan of identity. In Stratford, East London, a Nepali restaurant has claimed the chant as its moniker, serving curries across the road from a traditional British pub. To the passerby, it may seem innocuous; to those who know, it nods to the Gorkha—the stoic mercenary sent to fight other people’s wars in far-flung lands. For the community, it also carries the weight of the long journeys Nepali families made to settle in the UK. Despite employing Gorkhas in its armed forces for almost 200 years, Britain only granted them and their families the right to stay in 2008.