{{Short description|British Labour Party politician|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = Councillor | name = Bishan Dass Bains | honorific_suffix = | image = | order = | office = Lord Mayor of Wolverhampton | monarch = | 1blankname = Leader | term_start = May 1986 | term_end = May 1987 | office2 = Member of Wolverhampton City Council<br><small>for Ettingshall Ward</small> | deputy2 = | term_start2 = 1975 | term_end2 = 2016 | predecessor2 = | successor2 = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = Shaffipur, Jalandhar, India | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = | signature = | party = Labour <small>(2010-present)</small> | spouse = | children = | parents = | alma_mater = Panjab University | website = | footnotes = | caption = Bishan Dass as the Lord Mayor of Wolverhampton }}
'''Bishan Dass''' is a British politician who became the first British Asian Lord Mayor of Wolverhampton in 1986.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/assets/files/word/Jobs/Artist%20brief%20-%20Citizen%20UK%20Wolverhampton.pdf |website=www.npg.org.uk |title=Citizen UK – Wolverhampton, Sikh and Punjabi stories|access-date=5 May 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Meena Dhanda |title=The Concurrence of Anti-Racism and Anti-Casteism |journal=The Political Quarterly |date=July–September 2022 |volume=93 |issue=3 |pages=478–487 |doi=10.1111/1467-923X.13147|hdl=2436/625161 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> He was first elected as Councillor of Ettingshall Ward on 1 May 1975.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/31002963|title=How upper castes in UK tried to defeat me : Bishan Dass Bains, Former Mayor Wolverhampton|first=Vidya|last=Rawat|via=www.academia.edu}}</ref>
==Life== Bishan Dass was born in Ravidassia family of Village Shaffipur in the North Indian state of Punjab.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://globalambedkarite.org/alderman-bishan-dass-bains/|title=Alderman Bishan Dass Bains – Global Ambedkarite Convention}}</ref> In 1963, he came to the UK. He was elected for the first time to the Metropolitan Borough Council of Wolverhampton in 1979.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pride vs Prejudice: one man's fight against racism and inequality |url=https://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk/collections/getrecord/GB149_LS_L302_32 |website=wolverhamptonart.org.uk |access-date=5 May 2023}}</ref>
==Opposition to Racism and Caste Discrimination== He faced bitter experiences of casteism when Jat men of the left-wing Indian Workers Association (IWA), active in Britain since the 1950s, challenged his candidature in the local council elections in 1979.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.academia.edu/31002963 | title=How upper castes in UK tried to defeat me : Bishan Dass Bains, Former Mayor Wolverhampton | last1=Rawat | first1=Vidya }}</ref>
==Publications== He published a book named ''Pride Vs Prejudice'', in which he penned down his lifelong struggle against inequality, discrimination, and prejudice. There are a number of horrifying and distressing stories about caste-based untouchability still practising in India and racial prejudice in the UK.<ref>{{cite book | title=Pride Vs Prejudice| id={{ASIN|0957523858|country=uk}} }}</ref>
==See also== *List of mayors of Wolverhampton
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bains, Bishan Dass}} Category:Labour Party (UK) councillors Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:Mayors of Wolverhampton Category:Councillors in Wolverhampton