Rajan Madhok

Professor Rajan Madhok was born in Delhi, India in 1954. In a set of three wide-ranging interviews for the NHS at 70 project he talks about how being an overseas doctor shaped his journey since his arrival in the UK in 1980 after qualifying in India, to working as a public health doctor and subsequently taking on leadership roles. He reflects on the importance of his background: his parents were refugees (from Pakistan to India), and he has the experience of being an immigrant who married within the UK and has children with mixed heritages. He considers these factors have given him the opportunity to have a broader and more liberal outlook on life alongside the persistent challenges of feeling like an outsider both professionally and culturally in the UK. This is the focus of reflection in his poem The immigrant. In the interviews he speaks candidly, and in his words ‘irreverently at times’ when sharing his experiences. ‘I stood on the shoulders of giants’, he said, ‘and my way of thanking them is to share my learning with the next generation’.

Listen to Rajan's three oral history interviews below:

Follow the links to the archive, to listen to Rajan's first, second and third interview with a written summary accompanying each one. 

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