A South-Asian History of Britain: Four Centuries of Peoples from the Indian Sub-Continent

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

People from India have been coming to Britain - risking their lives in voyages across the 'Kala Pani' (Black waters) - since the beginning of the seventeenth century. Their story has both grand historical sweep and the intimate drama of individual lives. They came as sailors, servants, wives, merchants, ambassadors and scholars, sometimes for betterment or profit, sometimes for adventure, and sometimes for justice. Occasionally, they became famous, like the Bengali Muslim calling himself 'John Morgan', a renowned animal trainer, or Sake Dean Mahomed (1759-1851), 'shampooing surgeon' to the Royal Family. Often they remained anonymous. After the 'Indian Mutiny' of 1857, the South Asian presence in Britain, more visible than before, was also more sharply defined. 'Brown Victorians', now to be found in the docks and factories, universities and theatres, law courts and hospitals - and eventually Parliament - played an increasingly important role in British life. Through two world wars and the independence of India (and Pakistan), their importance grew further. From the 1950s, increased immigration swelled the numbers of South Asians in Britain, who experienced both racism and economic hardship as they strove to express their entrepreneurial spirit and assert their religious identity. More recently still, growing radicalism among British-Asian youth has led to new interest in the South-Asian community, its spirit, heritage and achievements. The narrative is chronologically structured, beginning in 1600 and coming up to the present day. After an introduction outlining the major themes and setting them in context, eight chapters examine key periods in detail: 1) 'Earliest Asian Visitors and Settlers during the Pre-colonial Period, c. 1600-1750s', 2) 'Asian Arrivals during Early Colonialism, 1750s-1790s', 3) 'Widening and Deepening of the South Asian Presence in Britain, 1790s-1830s', 4) 'South Asian Settlers and Transient Networks and Communities in Britain, 1830s-1857' (all Michael Fisher), 5) 'Brown Victorians, 1857-1901', 6) 'From Empire to Decolonisation, 1901-1947' (Shompa Lahiri), 7) 'Migrating to the Mother Country: South Asian Settlement and the Post-war boom 1947-80' and 8) 'Riding the storm of Thatcherism and Re-inventing Lives and Aspirations' (Shinder Thandi).

Reviews

The authors offer a history of one of Britain's largest and most visible minorities. The book covers the arrival of the first South Asian settlers in the 1600s right up through the present day.This book is an important and well-written contribution to the histories of both Britain and the South Asian diaspora. With the rise of the sub-continent in global affairs, and the vast contribution of the South Asians abroad, this book will be a welcome addition in a wide variety of fields, as well a fascinating read for the interested layman. * MultiCultural Review *
Some have come out of curiosity and some to get a Western education, but many came from South Asia to Britain to find jobs and a new life. In crossing the black water from one culture to another they did not cut their ties. In fact, they enriched the culture to which they came immeasurably despite their experiencing racism and, typically, economic deprivation. The authors, who hail from the US and the UK, offer the first full-length treatment of the history of Britons of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent, from those who served Queen Victoria as surgeons and members of Parliament to those who struggle now to express their religious identity. Their scope ranges from pre-colonial immigration to the Indian Victorians to the era of decolonization and to the present, which holds within it a spirit of celebration within adversity. * Reference & Research Book News *
This book tells of a remarkable south Asian success story, and tells it well. This said, it does not shy away from some of the difficulties and nuances of that story. * Economic History Review *
Superb survey of South Asians in Britain in what is a well-produced and inexpensive book. * History *
[A]n interesting book.diligently researched. * Asian News *
Meticulously researched, A South-Asian History of Britain is an absorbing addition to the growing literature on the multifaceted experiences of people who have traveled to these islands from the Indian subcontinent over the last 400 years. . . . Digging into an extensive range of scattered archives, and deploying a very full range of research modalities, it weaves a rich narrative that throws much fresh light on the diverse and historically complex evolution of South Asian life in Britain as it engaged with the full spectrum of British people and British institutions. * Journal of British Studies *
What Jeffrey Green and Paul Gilroy have done for the African diaspora, this volume and the other works of its co-authors have accomplished for South Asians. * Journal of Social History *

Author Bio

Michael H. Fisher is Robert S. Danforth Professor of History, Oberlin College, USA. His most recent book is Counterflows to Colonialism: Indian Travellers and Settlers in Britain, 1600-1857 (2004). Shompa Lahiri is Harry Weinrebe Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Migration, Queen Mary, University of London. She is the author of Indians in Britain: Anglo-Indian Encounters, Race and Identity, 1880-1930 (2000). Shinder Thandi is Head of Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting at Coventry University. His most recent book was People on the Move: Punjabi Colonial and Post Colonial Migration (2004).