The Indian Community

Crangle, Jack

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-18821-3_5

Jack Crangle⁶

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Migration History ((PSMH))

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Abstract

Chapter 5 focuses on migrants from the Indian subcontinent who arrived in Northern Ireland from the late 1920s. Indian migrants came overwhelmingly from the Punjab region in northern India (part of which later became Pakistan). Early Indian immigrants were mainly Muslim, almost exclusively men and worked as door-to-door clothing salesmen. These early migrants were later followed by large numbers of Sikhs and Hindu men and women, with the Indian community establishing itself as a permanent, visible migrant population. The chapter traces this community growth while considering how the Indian community was received in an overwhelmingly white society. It considers the extent of racism, noting that many Indian interviewees denied or downplayed the occurrence of racial discrimination. Considering potential reasons for this narrative reticence, the chapter analyses how the community’s collective narrative of self-made entrepreneurship has shaped its public presentation. Chapter 5 assesses the position of Indian immigrants, as supposedly ‘neutral’ bystanders, in relation to the Troubles. It finishes by considering the community’s evolving gender dynamics, particularly changing attitudes towards arranged marriage and women’s work, and analysing intergenerational change as we near the hundredth anniversary of Northern Irish-Indian settlement.

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Notes

1.
Letter: H.J. Campbell, Belfast to Home Office (Aliens Department), London, 3 May 1939 (PRONI HA/8/789).
2.
Letter: RUC Inspector General’s Office, Belfast to Ministry of Home Affairs, Belfast, 6 March 1939 (PRONI HA/8/789).
3.
Safeguarding of Employment Bill (Northern Ireland) (PRONI ED/13/1/2382).
4.
See, for example: letter: Home Office, London to Commonwealth Relations Office, London, 15 July 1953 (PRONI HA/8/790); Letter: Home Office, London to Ministry of Home Affairs, Belfast, 28 July 1955 (PRONI HA/8/790).
5.
Irwin, ‘The Indian community’, 186–7.
6.
These are documented numerous RUC reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Belfast (1939–1951) in PRONI HA/8/789 and PRONI HA/8/790.
7.
Letter: RUC Inspector General’s Office, Belfast to Ministry of Home Affairs, Belfast, 3 June 1949 (PRONI HA/8/789).
8.
Interview with Raj Abbi.
9.
Letter: RUC Inspector General’s Office, Belfast to Ministry of Home Affairs, Belfast, 25 April 1949 (PRONI HA/8/789).
10.
Letter RUC Inspector General’s Office, Belfast to Ministry of Home Affairs, Belfast, 4 March 1949 (PRONI HA/8/789).
11.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Narinder Kapur. 5 July 2017.
12.
Vaughan Robinson, ‘The Indians: onward and upward’. Ceri Peach, ed. Ethnicity in the 1991 census. Vol.2, the ethnic minority populations of Great Britain. London: HMSO, 1996, 97–108.
13.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Baldev Tandon. 4 June 2017.
14.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Jagdish Malhi. 4 June 2017.
15.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Somnath Aggarwal. 2 October 2017.
16.
Interview with Raj Abbi.
17.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Davinder Kapur of Antrim. 18 July 2017.
18.
Interview with Somnath Aggarwal.
19.
Keya Ganguly, ‘Migrant identities: personal memory and the construction of the selfhood’. Cultural Studies 6, no. 1 (1992), 32.
20.
Interview with Somnath Aggarwal.
21.
Letter: RUC Inspector General’s Office, Belfast to Ministry of Home Affairs, Belfast, 30 May 1947 (PRONI HA/8/789).
22.
Letter: RUC Inspector General’s Office, Belfast to Ministry of Home Affairs, Belfast, 4 August 1953 (PRONI HA/8/790); Letter: RUC Inspector General’s Office, Belfast to Ministry of Home Affairs, Belfast, 2 December 1955 (PRONI HA/8/790).
23.
Handwritten note, 10 June 1949 (PRONI HA/8/789).
24.
Letter: R. Green, Belfast to E. Gilfillan, Belfast, 22 August 1939 (PRONI HA/8/789).
25.
Handwritten note, 10 June 1949 (PRONI HA/8/789).
26.
Letter: ‘W.D.’, Belfast to Home Office Nationality Division, London, 14 June 1949 (PRONI HA/8/789).
27.
Kessler, ‘In search of Jewish footprints’, 195.
28.
Hansard NI (Commons), 21 October 1936, volume 18, 2188–93.
29.
Letter: H.J. Campbell, Belfast to Home Office Aliens Department, London, 3 May 1939 (PRONI HA/8/789).
30.
Elizabeth Buettner, ‘“This is Staffordshire not Alabama”: racial geographies of Commonwealth immigration in early 1960s Britain’. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 42, no. 4 (2014), 721.
31.
Letter: ‘W.D.’, Belfast to Home Office, London, 14 June 1949 (PRONI HA/8/789).
32.
Letter: Illegible to A.J. Kelly, Belfast, 14 November 1958 (PRONI HA/8/1989).
33.
Kapur, The Irish Raj, 150.
34.
Interview with Narinder Kapur.
35.
Interview with Jagdish Malhi.
36.
Kapur, The Irish Raj, 150.
37.
Letter: James Fleck, Dervock to Minister of Commerce, Belfast, 6 August 1953 (PRONI HA/8/790).
38.
Letter: James Fleck, Dervock to Minister of Commerce, Belfast, 15 August 1953 (PRONI HA/8/790).
39.
Interview with Davinder Kapur.
40.
Joanna Bornat, Leroi Henry and Parvati Raghuram, ‘“Don’t mix race with the speciality”: interviewing South Asian strained geriatricians’. Oral History 37, no. 1 (2009), 79.
41.
Interview with Raj Abbi.
42.
Interview with Narinder Kapur.
43.
Interview with Davinder Kapur.
44.
Ibid.
45.
Janis Wilton, ‘Identity, racism, and multiculturalism: Chinese-Australian responses’. Rina Benmayor and Andor Skotnes, eds. Migration and identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, 87–90.
46.
See, for example: Interview with Somnath Aggarwal; Interview with Jagdish Malhi; Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Ashok Sharma. 5 December 2017.
47.
Interview with Ashok Sharma.
48.
Glenn Jordan and Satwinder Singh, ‘On an island without sun: coping strategies of Sikhs in Ireland’, Journal of Intercultural Studies 32, no. 4 (2011), 421.
49.
Interview with Somnath Aggarwal.
50.
McKee, ‘Love thy neighbour?’, 781.
51.
Irwin, ‘The Indian community’, 187.
52.
See, for example: Interview with Raj Abbi; Interview with Somnath Aggarwal; Interview with Davinder Kapur.
53.
Herbert, ‘Negotiating boundaries and the cross-cultural oral history interview’, 259.
54.
Holland, ‘The social networks of South Asian migrants’, 248.
55.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Bharat Sharma of Belfast. 4 June 2017.
56.
Hansard 5 (Commons), 10 February 1977, volume 925, 799.
57.
Interview with Bharat Sharma.
58.
Delargy, ‘Do you speak Bollywood? Perceptions of the Indian community in Northern Ireland’. Irish Journal of Anthropology 11, no. 1 (2008), 21.
59.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Raj Puri. 6 September 2017.
60.
Anuradha Basu, ‘Immigrant entrepreneurs in the food sector: breaking the mould’. Anne Kershen, ed. Food in the migrant experience. Aldershot: Routledge, 2002, 151–2; Giles Barrett, Trevor Jones and David McEvoy, ‘United Kingdom: severely constrained entrepreneurialism’. Robert Kloosterman and Jan Rath, eds. Immigrant entrepreneurs: venturing abroad in the age of globalization. Oxford: Berg, 2003, 101.
61.
Sarah Hackett, ‘From rags to restaurants: self-determination, entrepreneurship and integration amongst Muslim immigrants in Newcastle upon Tyne in comparative perspective, 1960s–1990s’. Twentieth Century British History 25, no. 1 (2014), 141.
62.
Interview with Raj Abbi.
63.
Charlotte Vij, ‘Unintended death’. Marie Smyth and Marie-Therese Fay, eds. Personal accounts from Northern Ireland’s Troubles: public conflict, private loss. London: Pluto, 2000, 92.
64.
Kapur, The Irish Raj, 188–9; Irish Press, 7 October 1974, 6.
65.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Prem Tohani. 20 November 2017.
66.
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Interview with Sharada Bhat. 16 December 2003 (http://www.ochs.org.uk/research/bhohp/interviews).
67.
Interview with Raj Puri.
68.
Interview with Davinder Kapur.
69.
Interview with Ashok Sharma.
70.
Interview with Prem Tohani; Irish Independent, 6 April 1977, 26.
71.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Naresh Jairath. 4 June 2017.
72.
Interview with Somnath Aggarwal.
73.
Interview with Bharat Sharma.
74.
Mike Morrisey, Marie-Therese Fay and Marie Smyth, Northern Ireland’s Troubles: the human costs. London: Pluto, 1999, 74.
75.
Interview with Raj Puri.
76.
Ibid.
77.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Bobby Rao. 16 March 2018
78.
Interview with Raj Abbi.
79.
Interview with Somnath Aggarwal.
80.
Interview with Raj Abbi.
81.
Interview with Narinder Kapur.
82.
Interview with Somnath Aggarwal.
83.
Henri Nickels, Lyn Thomas, Mary Hickman and Sara Silvestri, ‘Constructing “suspect” communities and Britishness: mapping British press coverage of Irish and Muslim communities, 1974–2007’. European Journal of Communication 27, no. 2 (2012), 138–47.
84.
Interview with Narinder Kapur.
85.
Katy Gardner, ‘Narrating location: space, age and gender among Bengali elders in East London’. Oral History 27, no. 1 (1999), 67.
86.
See: Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Vivek Tohani. 4 May 2017; Interview with Raj Puri.
87.
Interview with Prem Tohani.
88.
Bryson, ‘“Whatever you say”’.
89.
Fortier, Migrant belongings, 48.
90.
Kapur, The Irish Raj, 118–20.
91.
Interview with Prem Tohani.
92.
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Interview with Nisha Tandon. 17 December 2003 (http://www.ochs.org.uk/research/bhohp/interviews).
93.
Irwin, ‘The Indian community’, 194–5.
94.
Bharati Ray and Aparna Basu, ‘Introduction’. Bharati Ray and Aparna Basu, eds. From independence towards freedom: Indian women since 1947. New Delhi: Oxford University Press (India), 1999, xiii.
95.
Interview with Prem Tohani; Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Interview with Nisha Tandon.
96.
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Interview with Sharada Bhat.
97.
Interview with Prem Tohani.
98.
Prema Kurien, ‘Gendered ethnicity: creating a Hindu Indian identity in the United States’. American Behavioral Scientist 42, no. 2 (1999), 657.
99.
Interview with Davinder Kapur.
100.
Letter: RUC Inspector General’s Office, Belfast to Ministry of Home Affairs, Belfast, 4 August 1953 (PRONI HA/8/790); Letter: The High Commission of India Consular Department, London to Home Office Nationality Division, London, 5 July 1951 (PRONI HA/8/789); Letter: RUC Inspector General’s Office, Belfast to Ministry of Home Affairs, Belfast, 6 January 1953 (PRONI HA/8/790).
101.
Ganguly, ‘Migrant identities’, 32–42; Mary Chamberlain, ‘Gender and the narratives of migration’. History Workshop Journal 43, no. 1 (1997), 92.
102.
Kurien, ‘Gendered ethnicity’, 650.
103.
Ibid., 649–50.
104.
Irish Examiner, 6 May 1966, 11.
105.
Irish Press, 6 May 1966, 13; Evening Herald, 11 December 1968, 8.
106.
Sundari Anitha and Aisha Gill, ‘Coercion, consent and the forced marriage debate in the UK’. Feminist Legal Studies 17, no. 2 (2009), 178.
107.
See: Interview with Narinder Kapur; Interview with Prem Tohani; Interview with Bharat Sharma.
108.
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Interview with Sharada Bhat.
109.
Interview with Ashok Sharma.
110.
Brannigan, Where are you really from?, 13.
111.
Interview with Raj Abbi.
112.
Interview with Bobby Rao.
113.
Kapur, The Irish Raj, 200.
114.
Burrell, Moving lives, 169.
115.
Interview with Narinder Kapur.
116.
Jayne Olorunda, Legacy: one woman’s story as an unlikely victim of the Northern Ireland Troubles. 3^rd ed. Belfast: Excalibur, 2015, 61–5.
117.
Belfast Buildings Trust, ‘Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church’ (http://belfastbuildingstrust.org/carlisle.php).
118.
Northern Visions Television (NVTV), Becoming Irish—stories of an Indian community, documentary film (http://archive.northernvisions.org/specialcollections/ogfeatures/becoming-irish-stories-of-an-indian-community).
119.
Interview with Jagdish Malhi.
120.
NVTV, Becoming Irish.
121.
Ibid.
122.
Interview with Narinder Kapur.
123.
Kapur, The Irish Raj, 129–30.
124.
Interview with Prem Tohani.
125.
Interview with Ashok Sharma.
126.
Rajinder Kumar Dudrah, ‘Vilayati Bollywood: popular Hindi cinema-going and diasporic South Asian identity in Birmingham (UK)’. Javnost 9, no. 1 (2002), 24–5.
127.
Ibid., 21.
128.
Kapur, The Irish Raj, 134.
129.
Nancy Fraser, ‘Rethinking the public sphere: a contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy’. Social Text 25/26 (1990), 61.
130.
Maruška Svašek, ‘Criss-crossing pathways: the Indian Community Centre as a focus of diasporic and cross-community placemaking’. Milena Komarova and Maruška Svašek, eds. Ethnographies of movement, sociality and space: place-making in the new Northern Ireland. New York, NY: Berghahn Books, 2018, 214.
131.
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Interview with Nisha Tandon.
132.
Loretta Baldassar, ‘Transnational families and the provision of moral and emotional support: the relationship between truth and distance’. Identities 14, no. 4 (2007), 403–4.
133.
Interview with Davinder Kapur.
134.
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Interview with Sharada Bhat.
135.
Interview with Vivek Tohani.
136.
Interview with Raj Puri.
137.
Ibid.
138.
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Interview with Nisha Tandon.
139.
Interview with Bharat Sharma.
140.
Interview with Jagdish Malhi.
141.
Interview with Prem Tohani.
142.
Malhotra, ‘“Distance” makes the heart grow fonder: transnational intimacy—contracting South Asian marriage in Northern Ireland’. PhD. thesis, Queen’s University Belfast, 2014, 152.
143.
Interview with Bobby Rao.
144.
Ibid.
145.
NVTV, Becoming Irish.
146.
Kapur, The Irish Raj, 200–1.

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Department of History, Rhetoric House, South Campus, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland
Jack Crangle

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Crangle, J. (2023). The Indian Community. In: Migrants, Immigration and Diversity in Twentieth-century Northern Ireland. Palgrave Studies in Migration History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18821-3_5

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18821-3_5
Published: 01 January 2023
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-18820-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-18821-3
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