Kannada Community in Birmingham

Where they come from

Karnataka lies in south-west India, and its capital Bengaluru is often called India's Silicon Valley. Kannada, its language, has a literary history stretching back well over a thousand years. Kannadigas in Birmingham include doctors, engineers, researchers, students and families who have come for work and study.

The community in numbers

The 2021 Census does not publish a separate Birmingham figure for the Kannada community, which is counted within the census's figures for Indian heritage and for other South Asian languages. By any measure it is one of the city's smaller communities, which makes the ties between its members all the closer.

Working for Birmingham

Members of the community work in healthcare, information technology, engineering, finance and academic research, and many have brought experience from Bengaluru's technology sector to Birmingham's growing digital economy. Kannadiga doctors and nurses serve patients across the city, and students add to the international life of its universities.

Every community that has settled in Birmingham has helped to shape it. Newcomers have filled gaps in the workforce, opened shops and restaurants, and raised children who have gone on to become the city's doctors, teachers, engineers and entrepreneurs. The Kannada community is part of that tradition of hard work and ambition, and of the city's own motto: Forward.

Culture and community life

Karnataka Rajyotsava, the state's foundation day on 1 November, and Ugadi, the new year festival in spring, are occasions for music, food and dance. Families share dishes such as bisi bele bath and Mysore pak, and cultural groups help children learn Kannada and the classical arts of their heritage.

In a city where scores of languages are spoken, the Kannada community adds another voice to the conversation. Its members, old and new, are helping to make Birmingham the confident, outward-looking city it wants to be.