When Julie Sangani moved to Cardiff in 2008 it felt like a world away from her home city of Mumbai. She and her husband, Shardul Pandit, arrived by coach on a quiet Sunday evening and were dropped off in the city centre.
"We were very, very new from India. Mumbai is a very fast city. When I came here it was a very quiet life... I remember we got down by City Hall. I couldn't even see anybody on the road and I thought: 'Oh my God, are there people living in this country?'" she laughed.
It was a solitary start at first for the pair as they established their new life. "We did not know any Indian family apart from one or two people. Quite a lot of the time I was all alone and there was the language barrier.
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"Although I'm educated in English our first language in India was not English. So when we came here we had a different community, different people, and the working atmosphere was different – and more importantly we had difficulty in conversation and understanding the dialogue of the English language."
They met another Indian family who helped them to settle in. "From there we really felt a homely atmosphere and that's where our journey begins in Cardiff and then we started exploring – and here I am today."
"Here" is 15 years later with the mum-of-two having fully immersed herself in the capital – and made history in the process. In November 2021 she was elected as councillor for Heath and it is believed she is the first first-generation Indian woman to have become a Cardiff councillor.
And less than a year later, in May 2022, she was appointed by Cardiff Council leader Huw Thomas as cabinet member for public health and equalities – becoming the first Indian woman to reach the council's coveted ranks. Cllr Sangani had worked as a homeopathic doctor in India but when she came to Cardiff, before turning to politics, she decided to switch careers and worked as an underwriter for a finance company for more than a decade.
On her transition to community work she said: "I started engaging with the community – with the local people and many different society groups. I realised there are so many different cultures [in Cardiff] living in cohesion. It was so nice to be engaged with everybody.
"From there I went down the pathway of being a school governor for Ton-Yr-Ywen primary school, which is one of the local schools in my ward. From there I was selected as the Labour member for the by-elections in November 2021."
Her journey to the cabinet elections the following May was both a "very exciting" and "anxious" time. "In November there was nothing to lose – it was a new avenue. But in May I had a hunger and craving to work for the community – I really wanted to be on the city council to help the community."
She entered the cabinet elections with a strong history of championing diversity in the capital – in particular helping to transform Cardiff's large Indian and Hindu population into a more cohesive whole. "When I came there were a couple of different Indian communities but I was unable to explore the wide Indian community network – people didn't know [about them], they only knew via word of mouth," she said, adding that Hindu festivals have been a way of bringing everyone together.
"Today I have encouraged so many people to come under one roof and try and celebrate – so now we celebrate every festival together. And that's the way we encourage our children to stay connected with back home as well. Because when we go back home they wouldn't understand if we didn't do it here."
She has contributed to Indian cultural events in Cardiff, been responsible for running an interschool Diwali project to promote diversity in primary schools in north Cardiff, served as co-vice chair of NWAMI (Networking for World Awareness of Multicultural Integration) since 2018, and presented an Indian folk dance event to raise funds for a Rhodri Morgan statue in City Hall.
During the pandemic she also distributed an Indian herbal plant known as tulsi to 98 families in Cardiff to raise funds for food for cow shelters in India and supported a vulnerable group in the BAME community. Fluent in Hindi and Punjabi, and able to speak some Bangladeshi, she also works as an interpreter in the Wales Interpretation and Translation Service, offering her services in healthcare settings – helping people with their medical appointments – and the judicial sector.
Her work has earned her the Indian Centre Award for Invaluable Community Service from the Cardiff-based Hindu Cultural Association. Winning the May election and being the first Indian woman to be appointed to Cardiff council's cabinet was a "really proud moment," she said, adding: "Not only for me but for the whole Indian community."
She continued: "It's an extreme privilege and honour to be on the city council... I'm a symbol of the whole Indian community and of women. One of the newspapers in India emailed me saying they would like to do a story on me.
"The Indian community has achieved various levels [in Cardiff] – in IT, doctors, the medical profession, the nursing profession, even in building, construction – every potential. But particularly when it comes to politics none of the women – especially those born and brought up in India – have taken that stand till now.
"When I was just a candidate I saw the huge amount of support from the Indian community – particularly from the women. They were like: 'That's great, Julie. You can do it.'"
It's not just Cardiff's Indian and Hindu community that the councillor has immersed herself in. "I try and attend all religious festivals so that it becomes easier for people to approach me if they have any concerns or want any help for their projects," she said. She also hopes to hold a festival in Cardiff this year bringing all ethnicities under one roof to share their food, views, and faiths.
Speaking of the importance of her role in the cabinet in championing diversity in the city, she said: "I am a person who comes from a diverse background. Diversity and cohesion is equally important today. Cardiff is an incredibly diverse city. Cardiff council's cabinet is a perfect example of diversity and gender balance. We've got so many languages, faiths, and religions here, which makes it a lovely place to live.
"When I was working as a school governor I knew diversity is required and how much more we can do – there are vast gaps still to reach, to overcome. Cardiff Council is working hard but a person coming from a diverse background has a more approachable, more sensitive approach which I could have got.
"It makes me feel so proud that I can be a role model – a symbol for the diversity, the ethnicities, for the minority group which I'm coming from." The councillor also works as the engagement officer for Welsh gender equality charity Chwarae Teg. She's currently involved with the charity's project Not Just For Boys, an alternative careers fair for women and girls exploring ‘non-traditional’ careers.
"As a woman who comes from an ethnic minority you have to really work hard to make your voice heard compared to men... Sometimes when you suggest something you feel if the same thing came from a man it would have gone through straightaway," she said.
"I have come across a couple of times where I feel if I wouldn't have been from an ethnic minority, or if I was not a woman, it would've been a different scenario. Things are far better than before and the council has been really supportive but there is still a need for us all to work together for women, for gender equality, as a society."
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