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Harpreet Chandi

Harpreet Chandi

FOR a “woman of colour”, Harpreet Chandi, is a pioneer.

If that name means nothing to you, how about her soubriquet, “Polar Preet”? OK, you need more help. How about putting into Google “polar explorer”? Now hit “images”. Look to the fifth photo, and you will see Chandi in her blue hooded coat. This unassuming, humble and determined British Army captain, yes you read correctly, British Army captain, did something no other non-white woman has done.


She became the first woman of colour to complete a solo trek across Antarctica – the South Pole – in January 2022. Before she left for her solo mission, you would not have found a non-white face as a polar explorer. It was not until recently that she became comfortable using, and owning, that term “woman of colour”.

“A woman of colour. I’m so glad I finally felt comfortable to use this term, which was only a few months before I left,” she told a homecoming audience at The Shard in London days after completing her voyage. “I thought about what had been stopping me and it was how others may perceive it. But then, why would I change the way I identify based on other people’s perceptions?”

Chandi was born in Derby, but she is proud of her Indian roots. She joined the British Army reserves when she was 19. It was only six years ago that she decided to serve her country fulltime, as a physiotherapist.

“A lot of people ask why it is mentioned at all. Are we not equal? I have seen it on numerous occasions in the comments.

“To me, equality never meant we are all the same. After all, nobody questions it when my job role as an Army officer is mentioned, or my age or that I am a female. So why can I not embrace the colour of my skin?

“It is important to me to show others they can do anything they want.”

It was not always like that, Chandi told the GG2 Power List. Growing up as a south Asian, she learnt what every girl is instinctively taught – our communities embrace men but rarely do we champion women.

“I remember thinking back to people telling me I couldn’t do things, so being told by certain members of the community that I wouldn’t be able to do my degree. When I joined the army reserves, I didn’t tell anybody, and then people telling me that basically I was stupid and done the wrong thing, and I didn’t know what I was doing.

“That’s just kind of continued with lots and lots of other things.”

So, Chandi developed a coping strategy.

“I just started to not tell people the things,” she recalled. “I started to downplay my achievements, or whatever was ‘out the norm’.”

That denial of her abilities was not healthy.

“It just made me feel frustrated, and I think back to why people stop you from doing certain things. There are loads of different reasons, obviously, when you’re doing something that’s out of the norm, different from their norm.

“A lot of the time from my experience, you know, it was well what will other people say in the community?”

The criticism was not just aimed at her but to family members.

“They would say, why is your daughter doing this? It was about what other people would say.

Today, she is no longer that girl who worries about what others think, say or do. If she has learnt one thing, it is to ignore nay-sayers and live on her own terms.  Chandi now wants to inspire others to live their dreams in their own way.

“I really want to encourage people to push those boundaries and not just younger people. I want to say to the generations that it’s okay for people to push their boundaries. I know it’s scary because it’s something different, but success isn’t just one thing, it’s not one lane.

“It doesn’t have to be, get a degree become whatever is expected, whether that’s a doctor lawyer, dentist. Get a house, get married, have kids. It’s okay, there are so many different people who have success in different areas, and I’m just one of those people.”

When she is not walking through -50-degree weather, suffering from sickness and diarrhoea, Chandi works at a medical regiment in the northwest of England. Her main role is to organise and validate training for medics in the army as a clinical training officer.

But the army realises that this officer is something special, and she is currently touring the country to engage with the next generation of potential military recruits – although she makes it clear to the Power List that she is not there to enlist people.

The captain revealed that she has never faced racism in the armed forces – the opposite in fact. “I found that people wanted to get me involved in things or they wanted my opinion on things so we can be more diverse. I’m going to be going for three to four months around different schools all over the UK, to talk about my experiences. It’s not part of the recruiting.

“They said, this isn’t about recruiting, this is about engagement. It’s just showing that I’m a person that has pushed my boundaries. I’m a oman that has pushed my boundaries. I’m a south Asian female that was pushed by boundaries. Yes, I’m also an army officer, and if that’s something you’re interested in, fantastic, and even if it’s not, actually, there are a lot of different things you can do in the army. But I’m there to talk about my expedition.”

The racism she faced was outside her army family, and as a teenager.

“I will never forget feeling ashamed when I was 13, having eggs thrown at me from a bedroom window when I was with my uncle who was in traditional clothing. Instead of putting my head down and not saying a word about it, I wish I could go back and hold his hand and talk about how it had made me feel. That uncle sadly passed away in his 50s in an accident, so I won’t ever get that opportunity, but I hope he is proud of me now.”

Chandi is also completing her master’s degree in sports and exercise medicine at Queen Mary’s University in London.

The army captain is proud of her family, and she is fiercely loyal to her mother who brought up her brother and her singlehandedly. So, she knows all about taboos and being different.

“When my mom got divorced, I remember a lot of people being unhappy,” she told the Power List. “That was her breaking boundaries, and I’m so glad she did break that boundary. Again, most people were not happy with that decision.”

Chandi also believes that those in her community who do not believe in equality are letting themselves down. “I want to say in a calm manner, rather than anger, Guru Nanak ji, believed in equality. How have we gotten here to this place where we believe that women are not equal?

“Look at older generations, and they say, oh, this person did every right because they stayed at home, they are happy doing that. But did you ask them? Did you or anybody even ask that person, if they wanted to do that, or if they wanted to go out and have a career.

“We can do so much, and people are breaking different boundaries.”

For Chandi, it is about learning from new experiences, no matter how much it might upset the status quo. “I’m always learning from other people, and there are some people who just don’t want to learn. It’s really hard to change minds. Sometimes I think to myself, don’t even get in a conversation, don’t get in an argument, because you’re not going to win.

“But I just to those say to those people, just take a step back and be more open and just think about, what are the differences here? Like, why does that person need to stay at home? What is your actual reasoning for that? Where does that come from?”

The army captain said some people may question her race, gender and the fact she serves the British Army. But for her, equality is about “embracing people’s differences”.

“I’m not using it to offend people. I’m using it because a lot of people from my community, who have had similar experiences to me, a lot of other women of colour will have different barriers and boundaries.”

But her experiences have been positive as well. “I’ve had amazing experiences. I have been to South Sudan with the British Army and met the Indian Army out there. They invited me to their camp every week, so I can have roti and daal. They made me feel like I’m family. What I’m saying is there are differences, and it’s okay to embrace those differences, representation is super important.”

Polar Preet is taking the new-found spotlight in her stride. She has hundreds of e-mails to answer, and she suspects there may be job offers, something she is not interested in, for the moment. She recently celebrated her 33rd birthday, and before she went to the South Pole, Chandi got engaged to a British Army reservist in IT.

“I’ve learnt that if you’re in a certain position, you’re not alone,” she concluded. “There will be a lot more people that feel the way you do, and I thought, actually, I want to be as real and honest as possible about my experiences, because it might help other people.

“I’m not the only person who has felt like this, and there’ll be other people out there. Obviously, you say what you’re comfortable saying. I wouldn’t tell everybody everything, but at the same time, I can say to people that I’m being more honest about the experiences I’ve had growing up and what boundaries I’ve broken.

“To be honest, now, I feel that I get to choose who’s in my life, which I don’t think I probably would have felt that comfortable saying before, and it’s important to surround yourself with, you know, people who believe in you.

“Otherwise, it can be quite mentally difficult, with the people who are still trying to stop you from pushing those boundaries. You get to choose who you have in your life.

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