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© House of
Lords/photography by Roger Harris |
Parliamentary
Tributes Honour Lord Richard Harries and His Work for Dalit Rights
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.
C Gautam,
Joint Secretary speaking for the Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist
Organisations UK, paid homage and thanked Lord 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. Ambedkarites are always grateful to express a
deep sense of gratitude to Lord Harries.
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 mobilise, 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
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