Ruvani Ranasinha (ed), South Asians and the shaping of Britain, 1870-1950: a source book, Manchester University Press, 2012, 290pp pbk,  £16.99

This is a book of essays: ‘Equality of citizenship’ by Rehana Ahmed; ‘Britain’s forgotten volunteers: South Asians contributions to the two world wars’ by Florian Stadtler; ‘Textual culture and reception (1870-1950)’ by Ruvani Ranasinha; ‘The representation and display of South Asians in Britain (1870-1950)’ by Sumita Mukherjee. There are some illustrations and a ‘select’ bibliography. There is a ‘Chronology of Events,’  which offers far too little about Indians here and far too much on generalities, eg ‘1908 Franco-British Exhibition held in London’. But I learned from this that the Indian political Intelligence Unit began monitoring South Asians in Britain in 1915!

The Introduction by the editor outlines the content: ‘it aims to document, analyse and highlight the remarkable, yet still overlooked, formative contributions made by South Asians to British culture, politics and identity’.  Each chapter ends with ’diverse archival  forms ((ie, excerpts) from ‘British governmental records, press coverage and reviews’, including some local history archives, museums  and the BBC Written Archives records. These make this book very valuable – and unique, providing not only the bases for the analyses by the contributors, but wonderful sources for future researchers.

Chapter 1: though Queen Vic proclaimed equality, this was not practised in the two World Wars.  The author deals with the 1919 riots and various issues regarding Indian seamen (lascars), but sadly has not read what I’ve written on this or nearly enough on Cardiff.  Saklatvala, Sophia Duleep Singh and Krishna Menon are discussed, but again she has not read my article on Menon in Dundee nor the IWA papers deposited in Birmingham archives. So a somewhat limited essay.

Chapter two begins with the Indian military in WWI: they fought in the Western Front and Mesopotamia. A total of 53,485 were killed and 64,350 wounded. Segregated Indian hospitals were set up in Britain. The WWII section is equally thorough, looking at the Indian armies, the men in the RAF, lascars and the Indians in the ARP services in the UK; medals/awards granted and numbers killed and injured. But there is nothing at all on the women in the Indian ATS. The author concludes by arguing that  ‘there remains a lack of awareness of South Asian contributions to the world wars, erasing them from the official radar in both Britain and India’. (p.100)  How very true! The excerpts from correspondence, memoirs etc are very illuminating.

Chapter three looks at the influence/contributions of writers – eg how Kipling perpetuated racist stereotypes; at the interaction of Indian writers with intellectuals, ‘Black’ and White, in Britain, and on the influence of Indian writers (and translated works) on British writers/political figures/intellectuals/the reading public. Indian nationalists in the UK are covered, including their relations with Irish nationalists and the Left-wing press. (Sadly there is no date for an article in the 1934 Daily Herald in 1934 on the Colour Bar. ((p.168, n.56)

The final chapter ‘will consider the ways In which south Asians visitors were represented and put on ‘display” in Britain’. (p.207) Indian princes, for example, were ‘exotic’  and were ‘emblems of the wealth and opulence of the empire and symbols of the “ornamentalism” of empire’. (p.209). That India was the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ had to be impressed upon the public. Though there were changes in representations over time, in contrast to the African ‘savages’, Indians were usually portrayed as having a culture. The performance of Indian plays on the British stage probably began with plays by Rabindranath Tagore ‘after 1912’. (p.220) However, Indian cultures were always homogenised. The author emphasizes that how Indians were represented at any time is influenced by the political context.

The book concludes with an ‘Afterword’ by Rozina Visram, whose pioneering work is well noted by all the contributors.

So this is an important book; the many excerpts at the end of each chapter are very helpful and should set an example for future historical essays.  Perhaps the limitations indicate the lack of research on the history of Indians in Britain  after all, not all Indians were ‘visitors’ to the ‘Mother Country’. These ‘limitations’ include the lack of discussion  on the co-operation of Indian activists in the UK with the West Indian and African organisations, or, with activists such as George Padmore, T. Ras Makonnen or Fenner Brockway; or even the attendance of Surat Alley, representing the Federation of Indian Organisations at the 1945 Pan-African Congress.

Marika Sherwood