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Maya Bahra: 'Pivotal' race relations campaigner dies aged 92

Kanta Dicorato Maya BahraKanta Dicorato
Maya Bahra helped to set up a number of organisations dedicated to equality advocacy, race relations and community issues

A "pivotal" equality campaigner and founding member of a charity set up to support victims of racism has died.

Maya Devi Bahra, 92, from Bath, was "ahead of her time" in race relations, people who knew her say.

She helped to set up the Bristol-based charity Stand Against Racism & Inequality (Sari), after moving from India to the UK, in 1953.

Mother to three girls, Indra, Kanta and Usha and a son, Nicholas, Mrs Bahra was also a "compassionate" woman.

She also had a part in setting up Easton Community Centre, a Bath carers centre and Bath Ethnic Minority Senior Citizens' Association (BEMSCA).

Kanta Dicorato Kanta family photoKanta Dicorato
Mrs Bahra (third from the left) leaves behind three daughters, one son and her husband, Gurdayal Singh Bahra (fourth from the left), who died in 2008

Kanta Dicorato said her mother was "never afraid to tell people her opinions".

"When I was young we were the only Indian family in Bath at the time. My mum faced lots of challenges," she said.

Kanta Dicorato Kanta and MayaKanta Dicorato
Mrs Bahra migrated from India to live in Bath in the West of England

"My memories of her is her dancing. We'd dance together even when she was in an elderly home.

"Although she had Alzheimer's and she forgot a lot of things, she'd tell me about India and the partition.

"She will be missed. She's going to leave a really big hole in all our lives."

Usha Seymour Usha SeymourUsha Seymour
Usha Seymour said her mother had a "sense of duty"

Usha Seymour said her mother would be missed by many.

"In 1997, she was invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace with the Queen," she said.

"They both had a sense of duty in their own way."

Esther Deans Esther DeansEsther Deans
Esther Deans said "we would not be where we are now" without Maya Bahra's hard work as an equalities advocate

Former Sari chair Esther Deans MBE said Mrs Bahra came from "a generation of changemakers such as Roy Hackett and Barbara Dettering".

"They were determined to make things better for the next generations," she said.

Roy Hackett and Barbara Dettering were civil rights campaigners and Bristol Bus Boycott activists.

"[Maya] knew about the many issues that our community was facing and this was at a time when people didn't recognise these issues," Ms Deans continued.

Esther Deans SariEsther Deans
Ms Deans said Maya Bahra was a "lioness" for Sari, who was determined to fight for it

"We would not be where we are right now if we didn't have people like that.

"She was the lioness for Sari, fighting for it every time. We want to appreciate her life and her legacy."

Alex Raikes, from Sari, said: "She was a woman who was ahead of her time.

"She was a Sikh, older woman, who was full of humour. She was wise, compassionate and passionate about equality."

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