India Knight (née Gisèle Aertsens;[1] born 14 December 1965) is a British journalist and author.
She was born to Sabiha Rumani Malik (born 1948) (of a family related to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, one of the leaders of the Indian independence movement and a scholar and poet) and Michel Robert Georges Aertsens (1927–2002), the son of First World War hero Gaston Aertsens and Marie-Louise Lacroix, of the family of Belgian statesman Henri Jaspar.
At 13, she changed her name by deed poll to India Knight, choosing the name to reflect her mother's Asian heritage alongside her stepfather's surname.
[3] In an newspaper interview in 2000, Knight stated that in England she was educated at the French Lycée and Wycombe Abbey both of which she was expelled from.
[9] In August 2014, Knight was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.