Asians in Britain: 400 years of history

by Rozina Visram

reviewed by

Radhika Bynon

Project Researcher (Asian history)

The Black Jewish Forum History Project

In 1810 Sake Dean Mahomed opened London's first Indian restaurant, The Hindoostanee Coffee House in London's Portman Square, providing Hookha with "real Chiln tobacco" and Indian dishes "unequalled to any curries ever made in England" in a setting decorated with Indian scenes - presumably the 18th Century equivalent to pictures of the Taj Mahal and flock wallpaper. The restaurant was short-lived, and the enterprising Dean Mahomed went on establish his highly successful Indian Vapour Baths and Shampooing Establishment in Brighton, offering cures for rheumatism and other aches in the form of a herbal bath and massage with special oils "brought expressly from India". Such was his success that Dean Mohamed was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to King George IV, and a Vapour Bath was installed at the Brighton Pavilion for royal use. Rozina Visram, in Asians In Britain, paints a wonderful picture of Dean Mahomed's life, and she uses this better-known example of 'cultural enterpreneurship' to make links to the lives of other Asians who adopted similar strategies, the itinerant pedlars, street vendors and drummers, surviving on the edges of society, trading on their ethnic identity to survive in a harsh and alien world.

Asians In Britain is Visram's follow-up to her pioneering Ayahs, Lascars & Princes (1986) which was funded through an ILEA fellowship and was the first attempt to firmly establish the presence of Asians in this country dating back to the 17th Century. At the time it was a ground-breaking work, and one would expect - I certainly did - that many scholars would have followed her footsteps and pursued this rich vein. But in the 15 years between the two books, little has been published on this subject.

The publication of Asians in Britain is to be celebrated - here we have the detailed, carefully researched account of the individuals whose very presence and contribution to this country is the counterblast to the racism and xenophobia of our present age. The book is based on painstaking research, weeks and months poring over India Office files to unearth the story of these hitherto obscure individuals. It builds on the heroic work of archivists around the country who have been poring over parish records and newspapers, finding and tracing every mention of a black and Asian person, unearthing the history of a community.

The Asians who lived in Britain over the past 400 years were as diverse as today's British Asians: some were poor, surviving on the margins of society, others mingled with the rich and the powerful. Some embraced English life and customs, many like Dean Mahomed traded on their ethnic heritage to carve themselves a niche in hostile terrain, for many others being at the heart of Empire was the ideal place from which to struggle for Indian independence. Through this wonderful book we learn something about the lives of the seamen and servants, tract sellers and road sweepers, as well as the politicians, businessmen and intellectuals, doctors, lawyers, ministers of religion who settled in this country.

Visram's contention is that these people have made significant and lasting contributions to British society, and have indeed shaped British culture to a far greater extent than is readily acknowledged. What Asians in Britain provides is not a list of names, but a collage of the wonderful stories of these pioneers, how they got here, the struggles they faced, both the prejudice and discrimination they encountered as well as the support and generosity of so many in the host community.

These are inspiring stories, full of that resourcefulness, determination and adaptability which marks so many tales of migration. Did you know about Abdul Karim, Queen Victoria's Mushi (personal aide) whose power became so threatening to the court that they repeatedly trumped up charges against him; George Edalji, a highly successful lawyer who was jailed in 1903 for a crime he did not commit, with anonymous literature used as the key evidence against him and the public outrage leading to a subsequent independent inquiry - the entire story has peculiar echoes to the Virdi case of nearly 100 years later; Cornelia Sorabji, the first woman ever to study law at a British university; Dr Baldev Kaushal, a GP in Bethnal Green who was awarded an MBE for gallant conduct for attending casualties night after night during the heavy blitz, even after he was injured himself…..

The stories are wonderful, the picture they create inspiring - fight racism, read this book.

Asians in Britain: 400 years of history, by Rozina Visram. Published 7th April 2002 / 215x135mm / 256pp Pb £14.99 / ISBN: 0 7453 1373 6 Hb £45.00 / ISBN: 0 7453 1378 7 Published by Pluto Press. Please email pluto@plutobks.demon.co.uk for more details.

The Black Jewish History Project