Punjabi,
Mirpuri,
Hindko
Hindko (, romanized: , ) is a cover term for a diverse group of Lahnda dialects spoken by several million people of various ethnic backgrounds in several areas in northwestern Pakistan, primarily in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pun ...
(dialects of Punjabi),
Sindhi,
Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to:
* People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir
* Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley
* Kashmiri language, their language
People with the name
* Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...
,
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...
and
Saraiki. Gujaratis who emigrated from India and East Africa speak
Gujarati
Gujarati may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India
* Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat
* Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
* Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
,
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
, and
Kutchi (a dialect of Sindhi), while a sizeable number of
Gujarati Muslims speak Urdu for religious and cultural reasons. Bangladeshis speak
Sylheti
Sylheti may refer to:
* Sylhetis, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group in the Sylhet division and South Assam
* Sylheti language, a language of the Sylheti region
* Sylheti Nagri
Sylheti Nagri or Sylheti Nagari ( syl, , ISO: , ), known in cla ...
and Bengali. People from Sri Lanka speak Tamil and
Sinhala. Those who speak dialects mainly refer their language to the main language, for example Sylheti speakers say they speak Bengali or Mirpuri speakers say they speak Punjabi. The reason for this is because they do not expect outsiders to be well informed about dialects.
Religion
![East London Mosque Front View](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/East_London_Mosque_Front_View.jpg)
Asian Britons have significant numbers of adherents to various major religions. Based on
2011 census figures for
England and Wales
England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...
(94.7 percent of UK statistics), Muslims account for 43% of the group, while Hindus make up over 18%, and Christians almost 11%. Sikhs constitute nearly 9% of British Asians, and 3.5% are Buddhists.
[DC2201EW - Ethnic group and religion (Excel sheet 21Kb)](_blank)
ONS. 15 September 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
British Chinese are mainly
irreligious
Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and ant ...
, with 55% of the population subscribing to no religion, 19% Christians and 12% Buddhists. British Pakistanis and Bangladeshis tend to be religiously homogeneous, with Muslims accounting for 92% of each group while their counterparts of Indian and Sri Lankan origin are more religiously diverse, with 55% Hindus, 29% Sikhs, and 15% Muslims. British Gujaratis are predominantly Hindu, belonging to various caste organizations, with large minorities of
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
,
Jains
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...
, and smaller numbers of Christians and
Zoroastrians. Notable religious buildings are the
East London Mosque
The East London Mosque (ELM) is situated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets between Whitechapel and Aldgate East. Combined with the adjoining London Muslim Centre and Maryam Centre, it is one of the largest mosques in Europe accommodating ...
,
London Central Mosque
The London Central Mosque (also known as the Regent's Park Mosque) is an Islamic place of worship located on the edge of Regent's Park in central London.
Design and location
It was designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd, completed in 1977, and ...
,
Birmingham Central Mosque
Birmingham Central Mosque, is a mosque in the Highgate area of Birmingham, England, run by the Birmingham Mosque Trust. The organization, 'Muslims in Britain’ classify the Birmingham Central Mosque as, nonsectarian. The mosque has a capacity o ...
,
Baitul Futuh Mosque
The Baitul Futuh (English: ''House of Victories'') is a mosque complex of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, situated in Morden, London. It is purported as one of the largest mosques in Europe however this claim has been debunked by surveyors t ...
,
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir London
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (also commonly known as the Neasden Temple) is a Hindu temple in Neasden, London, England. Built entirely using traditional methods and materials, the Swaminarayan mandir has been described as being Britain's fir ...
,
Bradford Lakshmi Narayan Hindu Temple
The Lakshmi Narayan Hindu Temple in Bradford is the largest Hindu temple (mandir) in Northern England. The temple was designed by local Yorkshire architects and built by a local construction company. The temple is faced with Yorkshire stone, and ...
, Shikharbandi Jain Derasar in
Potters Bar
Potters Bar is a town in Hertfordshire, England,in the historic County of Middlesex Hertsmere Borough Council – Community Strategy First Review (PDF) north of central London. In 2011, it had a population of 21,882. In 2022 the population was ...
,
Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha
Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha Southall (SGSS) is a Sikh gurdwara situated on Guru Nanak Road and Park Avenue, Southall, in the London Borough of Ealing. It is the largest Sikh temple in London. Building work at the Havelock Road site commence ...
in
Southall
Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...
and
Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara
The Guru Nanak Temple is a Sikh Gurdwara situated in the town of Gravesend, Kent. It is the largest Gurdwara in Europe and also one of the largest outside India.
The complex has 3 prayer rooms and 2 langar halls. There is a building used for ...
in
Gravesend
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...
.
The publication of
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Wes ...
's novel ''
The Satanic Verses
''The Satanic Verses'' is the fourth novel of British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie. First published in September 1988, the book was inspired by the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical realism ...
'' in 1988 caused
major controversy. Muslims condemned the book for
blasphemy
Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religiou ...
. On 2 December 1988 the book was publicly burned at a demonstration in
Bolton
Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...
attended by 7,000 Muslims, followed by a similar demonstration and book-burning in
Bradford
Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...
on 14 January 1989. In 1989
Ayatollah
Ayatollah ( ; fa, آیتالله, āyatollāh) is an Title of honor, honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran and Iraq that came into widespread usage in the 20th century.
Etymology
The title is originally derived from ...
Ruhollah Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...
of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
issued a
fatwa
A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist i ...
ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie.
Britain is also home of notable Asian religious leaders and scholars. Some of them are
Mirza Masroor Ahmad
Mirza Masroor Ahmad ( ur, ; born 15 September 1950) is the current and fifth leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. His official title within the movement is Fifth Caliph of the Messiah ( ar, خليفة المسيح الخامس, ''khal ...
(Caliph of the
Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...
Community),
Sheikh Abdul Qayum (one of the best known scholars in Europe and Chief Imam of
East London Mosque
The East London Mosque (ELM) is situated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets between Whitechapel and Aldgate East. Combined with the adjoining London Muslim Centre and Maryam Centre, it is one of the largest mosques in Europe accommodating ...
),
Abu Yusuf Riyadh ul Haq
Riyadh ul Haq (born 1971) is a British Islamic scholar. He has been lecturing and teaching as the lead scholar at Al Kawthar Academy, Leicester since 2004.
Early life
Riyadh ul Haq was born in the village of Nani Naroli, Gujarat, India in 1971 ...
(Khateeb of
Birmingham Central Mosque
Birmingham Central Mosque, is a mosque in the Highgate area of Birmingham, England, run by the Birmingham Mosque Trust. The organization, 'Muslims in Britain’ classify the Birmingham Central Mosque as, nonsectarian. The mosque has a capacity o ...
), Dr. Mahmudul Hasan (Khateeb of Essex Mosque), Abdur Rahman Madani (Chairman of Global Eid Trust and Chief Imam of Darul Ummah Mosque),
Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi
Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi (born 1967) is a Muslim scholar, principal of the Hijaz College, National Convenor of the Muslim Action Committee (MAC), Secretary General of the International Muslims Organisation, Grand Blessed Guide of the Naqshbandi ...
(principal of
Hijaz College
Hijaz College is a British Muslim school located in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Hijaz College combines traditional Islamic education with the British National Curriculum. The philosophy of Hijaz was formulated by its patron and founder A ...
),
Ajmal Masroor
Ajmal Masroor ( bn, আজমল মসরূর; born 19 October 1971) is a Bangladeshi-born British imam, broadcaster and politician. He is well known for being a television presenter on political discussions and on Muslim channels.
Early lif ...
(Imam and Liberal Democrats politician) and
Pramukh Swami Maharaj
Pramukh Swami Maharaj (born Shantilal Patel; ordained Narayanswarupdas Swami; 7 December 1921 – 13 August 2016) was the guru and Pramukh, or president, of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a major branch of t ...
(fifth spiritual successor of Hindu
Swaminarayan
Swaminarayan (IAST: ', 3 April 1781 – 1 June 1830), also known as Sahajanand Swami, was a yogi and Asceticism, ascetic, who is believed by followers to be a manifestation of God Krishna, or as the highest Theophany, manifestation of ...
).
History in Britain
![Portrait Gandhi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Portrait_Gandhi.jpg)
The earliest date at which South Asians settled in
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
is unclear. If the
Romany are included, then the earliest arrivals were in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
. DNA surveys have linked Romanies to present-day South Asian populations and the
Romani language
Romani (; also Romany, Romanes , Roma; rom, rromani ćhib, links=no) is an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities. According to '' Ethnologue'', seven varieties of Romani are divergent enough to be considered languages of their ...
is a member of the
Indo-Aryan language family. Romanies are believed to have begun travelling westward around 1000 CE, and have mixed with
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
ren and European populations over many centuries. Romani began arriving in sizeable numbers in parts of
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
in the 16th century. The Romani who settled in Britain are known as
Romanichal
Romanichal Travellers ( ; more commonly known as English Gypsies or English Travellers) are a Romani subgroup within the United Kingdom and other parts of the English-speaking world. There are an estimated 200,000 Romani in the United Kingdom; ...
.
The first educated South Asian to travel to Europe and live in Britain was
I'tisam-ud-Din
Mīrzā Sayyid Muḥammad Iʿtiṣām ad-Dīn ibn Tāj ad-Dīn ibn Shahāb ad-Dīn Panchnūrī or Itesham Uddin ( bn, মির্জা সৈয়দ মোহাম্মদ ইতেশামুদ্দীন পাঁচনূরী, fa, ...
, a
Bengali Muslim
Bengali Muslims ( bn, বাঙালি মুসলমান; ) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising about two-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the sec ...
cleric,
munshi
Munshi is a Persian word, originally used for a contractor, writer, or secretary, and later used in the Mughal Empire and India for native language teachers, teachers of various subjects, especially administrative principles, religious texts, ...
and diplomat to the
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...
who arrived in 1765 with his servant Muhammad Muqim during the reign of
King George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
.
He wrote of his experiences and travels in his
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
book, ''Shigurf-nama-i-Wilayat'' ('Wonderous Chronicle of Europe'). This is also the earliest record of literature by a British Asian. Also during the reign of George III, the ''hookah-bardar'' (hookah servant/preparer) of
James Achilles Kirkpatrick
Lieutenant-Colonel James Achilles Kirkpatrick (1764 – 15 October 1805) was an East India Company officer and diplomat who served as the Resident at Hyderabad Deccan from 1798 until 1805. Kirkpatrick also ordered the construction of the Koti Resid ...
was said to have robbed and cheated Kirkpatrick, making his way to England and stylising himself as the ''Prince of
Sylhet
Sylhet ( bn, সিলেট) is a metropolitan city in northeastern Bangladesh. It is the administrative seat of the Sylhet Division. Located on the north bank of the Surma River at the eastern tip of Bengal, Sylhet has a subtropical climate an ...
''. The man was waited upon by the
British Prime Minister
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ire ...
, and then dined with the
Duke of York
Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of English (later British) monarchs. The equivalent title in the Scottish peerage was Du ...
before presenting himself in front of the King.
Lascars
When the Portuguese explorer
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea.
His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...
arrived in
Calicut, India in 1498, he established the first
European-Asian sea route
The European-Asian sea route, commonly known as the sea route to India or the Cape Route, is a shipping route from the European coast of the Atlantic Ocean to Asia's coast of the Indian Ocean passing by the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas ...
(commonly called the Cape Route), opening up direct maritime passage between South Asia and Europe. An extension of this route, devised by the Dutch explorer
Hendrik Brouwer
Hendrik Brouwer (; 1581 – 7 August 1643) was a Dutch explorer and governor of the Dutch East Indies.
East Indies
Brouwer is thought to first have sailed to the Dutch East Indies for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1606. In 1610, ...
in 1611 and known as the
Brouwer Route
The Brouwer Route was a 17th-century route used by ships sailing from the Cape of Good Hope to the Dutch East Indies, as the eastern leg of the Cape Route. The route took ships south from the Cape (which is at 34° latitude south) into the Roa ...
, subsequently found a new waterway to Southeast Asia.
In the following centuries, the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, and its predecessor states, utilised these sea routes to form the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
. Capitilising on their growing naval dominance among the other European powers, the British colonised the coastal areas in the West, South, Southeast and East of the continent, creating dozens of British colonies and protectorates in Asia. The administrators of the British Empire termed Asian labourers working for them ''
coolies
A coolie (also spelled koelie, kuli, khuli, khulie, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a term for a low-wage labourer, typically of South Asian or East Asian descent.
The word ''coolie'' was first popularized in the 16th century by European traders acros ...
'', of which ''
lascars
A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, British Somaliland, or other land east of the Cape of Good Hope, who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the middle of the 2 ...
'' were considered the maritime equivalent.
Lascars were sailors or seamen from many different ethnic backgrounds. The term was sometimes used to specifically refer to a sailor of any Asian ancestry, however there were also African lascars recorded in Britain.
Of the Asian lascars, Austronesian
Malay people
Malays ( ms, Orang Melayu, Jawi: أورڠ ملايو) are an Austronesian ethnic group native to eastern Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and coastal Borneo, as well as the smaller islands that lie between these locations — areas that are ...
, from Southeast Asia, formed a significant part of the lascar population settling in, and sailing to and from Britain. From East Asia,
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
and
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
seamen were often operating as lascars for British ships and trading companies.
From South Asia, Indians made up a huge proportion of these sea crews, particularly in the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
's earliest decades of operation.
Parsees
Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim co ...
(who originate from
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, West Asia) and
Luso-Asians
Luso-Asians (Portuguese: ''luso-asiáticos'') are people whose ethnicity is partially or wholly Portuguese and ancestrally are based in or hail primarily from Portugal, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. They historically came under the ...
of mixed Portuguese and Indian heritage, also came from South Asia to work as lascars.
From West Asia,
Armenians
Armenians ( hy, հայեր, ''hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora ...
formed part of diverse lascar crews,
and
Yemenis
Yemenis or Yemenites ( ar, يمنيون) are the nationals of Yemen.
Social hierarchy
There is a system of social stratification in Yemen that was officially abolished at the creation of the Republic of Yemen in 1962 but, in practice, this syst ...
increasingly served as lascar sailors and militiamen after the completion of the
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
in 1869, going on to open businesses, like
boarding houses, in port cities such as Cardiff and South Shields. There were also the Ceylonese (Sri Lankans) and the Bengalis who also took part in sailing.
Post–World War II migration
Following the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and the
breakup
A relationship breakup, breakup, or break-up is the termination of a relationship. The act is commonly termed "dumping omeone in slang when it is initiated by one partner. The term is less likely to be applied to a married couple, where a brea ...
of the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
, South Asian migration to the UK increased through the 1950s and 1960s from Pakistan (including present-day Bangladesh), India and Sri Lanka (who are all members of the
Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
). Additionally immigrants from former
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
colonies (including
Indo-Caribbeans
Indo-Caribbeans or Indian-Caribbeans are Indian people in the Caribbean who are descendants of the Jahaji Indian indentured laborers brought by the British, Dutch, and French during the colonial era from the mid-19th century to the early 20th ce ...
) were also moving to Britain.
Although this immigration was continuous, several distinct phases can be identified:
*Manual workers, mainly from Pakistan, were recruited to fulfill the labour shortage that resulted from World War II. These included
Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The ''Oxford English ...
s who were recruited to work on the railways as they had done in India.
*Workers mainly from the
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
region of India and Pakistan arrived in the late 1950s and 1960s. Many worked in the foundries of the English
Midlands
The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...
and a large number worked at
Heathrow Airport
Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...
in west London. This created an environment to where the next generation of families did not lose their identity as easily. An example would be
Southall
Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...
which is populated by many
Sikhs
Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism (Sikhi), a monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ...
.
*During the same time, medical staff from the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
were recruited for the newly formed
National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
. These people were targeted as the British had established medical schools in the Indian subcontinent which conformed to the British standards of medical training.
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
social reformer and founder of the All-India Seamen's Federation,
Aftab Ali
Aftab Ali ( bn, আফতাব আলী; 1907–1972) was an early 20th-century Bengali social reformer, politician and entrepreneur. His work is recognised to have helped thousands of British Asian lascars to migrate, settle and find employmen ...
's work is recognised to have helped thousands of Asian
lascar
A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, British Somaliland, or other land east of the Cape of Good Hope, who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the middle of the 2 ...
s to migrate, settle and find employment in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
. He organised rallies and meetings with the likes of the
Trades Union Congress
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre
A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national tra ...
. He encouraged lascars and seamen to remain and settle in the United Kingdom. In the 1950s, he founded the Overseas Seamen's Welfare Association which campaigned distressed seamen and their families to be granted
British passport
A British passport is a travel document issued by the United Kingdom or other British dependencies and territories to individuals holding any form of British nationality. It grants the bearer international passage in accordance with visa requ ...
s. Ali also played an instrumental role in the opening of a passport office in his own home in
Sylhet
Sylhet ( bn, সিলেট) is a metropolitan city in northeastern Bangladesh. It is the administrative seat of the Sylhet Division. Located on the north bank of the Surma River at the eastern tip of Bengal, Sylhet has a subtropical climate an ...
.
Asian migration from East Africa
Beginning around 1964
Africanization
Africanization or Africanisation (lit., making something African) has been applied in various contexts, notably in geographic and personal naming and in the composition of the civil service via processes such as indigenization.
Africanization ...
policies in East Africa prompted the arrival of Asians with British passports from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. At first these were the people employed in government and administrative roles, but this was expanded to include those Asians engaged in commerce. The movement was called the "Exodus".
In 1972, all South Asians were
expelled from Uganda by the controversial figure
Idi Amin
Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...
, then president of Uganda. Those holding British passports came to Britain. Many such displaced people who were predominantly of
Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
i origins had left behind successful businesses and vast commercial empires in Uganda, but built up their lives all over again in Britain, starting from scratch. Some of these "twice-over" migrants became retailers, while others found suitable employment in white-collar professions.
The
Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962
The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act entailed stringent restrictions on the entry of Commonwealth citizens into the United Kingdom. Only those with work permits (which were typically onl ...
and
Immigration Act 1971
The Immigration Act 1971c 77 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning immigration and nearly entirely remaking the field of British immigration law. The Act, as with the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, and that of 1968, re ...
largely restricted any further
primary immigration
Primary immigration is a term which describes the movement of the earner of a family, or a young unattached single man, from one country to another, usually to improve their economic condition. Once the primary immigrant is established in the new ...
, although family members of already-settled migrants were still allowed. In addition, much of the subsequent growth in the South Asian community has come from the births of second and third-generation South Asian Britons.
Notable contributions
Arts and entertainment
Several Asian Britons have broken into the
UK film industry
The United Kingdom has had a significant film industry for over a century. While film production reached an all-time high in 1936, the "golden age" of British cinema is usually thought to have occurred in the 1940s, during which the directors ...
, as well as Hollywood, and the
U.S. film industry at large; starring in high-grossing
box office
A box office or ticket office is a place where ticket (admission), tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a Wicket gate, wicke ...
films, including major
film series A film series or movie series (also referred to as a film franchise or movie franchise) is a collection of related films in succession that share the same fictional universe, or are marketed as a series.
This article explains what film series are ...
, and receiving subsequent international recognition and media attention. In television, prominent roles in American sitcoms, series, and long-running British soap operas, such as ''
Coronation Street
''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford.
Origi ...
'', ''
EastEnders
''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...
'', ''
Emmerdale
''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British soap opera that is broadcast on ITV1. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, '' ...
'' and ''
Hollyoaks
''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside''. Since 2005, episodes have been aired on ...
'', have all had a number of Asian characters portrayed by British actors of Asian heritage.
Tsai Chin Tsai Chin may refer to:
* Tsai Chin (actress) (born 1933), actress from Shanghai, also known as Irene Chow
* Tsai Chin (singer) (born 1957), Taiwanese singer
{{Hndis ...
, the first Asian British actress to play a
Bond girl
A Bond girl is a character who is a love interest or female companion of James Bond in a novel, film or video game. Bond girls occasionally have names that are double entendres or puns, such as Pussy Galore, Plenty O'Toole, Xenia Onatopp, o ...
, appeared in 1967's ''
You Only Live Twice'' and the 2006 re-make of ''
Casino Royale''.
Burt Kwouk
Herbert Tsangtse Kwouk, (; ; 18 July 1930 – 24 May 2016) was a British actor, known for his role as Cato in the ''Pink Panther'' films. He made appearances in many television programmes, including a portrayal of Imperial Japanese Army Ma ...
, who appeared in over fifty films, including three of the
James Bond film series
James Bond is a fictional character created by British novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. A British secret agent working for MI6 under the codename 007, Bond has been portrayed on film in twenty-seven productions by actors Sean Connery, David Niv ...
, received an
OBE for services to drama in 2010.
Art Malik
Athar ul-Haque Malik (born 13 November 1952), known professionally as Art Malik, is a Pakistani-born British actor who achieved international fame in the 1980s through his starring and subsidiary roles in assorted British and Merchant Ivory tel ...
had notable roles in ''
The Jewel in the Crown'' and ''
The Living Daylights
''The Living Daylights'' is a 1987 spy film, the fifteenth entry in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the first of two to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by John Glen, the film's ...
'', and Sir
Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Grammy Award, and two ...
(born Krishna Pandit Bhanji) is one of Britain's most acclaimed and well-known performers. Kingsley is one of few actors to have won all four major motion picture acting awards, receiving
Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology), ...
,
BAFTA,
Golden Globe
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
and
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...
awards throughout his career, including the
Academy Award for Best Actor
The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The ...
for his performance in ''
Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
'' (1982).
The actor
Dev Patel
Dev Patel (; born 23 April 1990) is a British actor. His breakthrough came in 2008 with the leading role of Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's drama ''Slumdog Millionaire'', for which Patel was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leadin ...
, who played the role of
Anwar Kharral
Anwar Kharral is a fictional character in the television series '' Skins'' portrayed by Dev Patel.
Characterisation
Anwar is portrayed as a boy of Pakistani origin. Raised in an Islamic household, Anwar claims to pray five times a day. However, ...
in the teen drama series ''
Skins'', portrayed the leading role in
Danny Boyle
Daniel Francis Boyle (born 20 October 1956) is an English director and producer. He is known for his work on films including ''Shallow Grave'', '' Trainspotting'' and its sequel ''T2 Trainspotting'', '' The Beach'', '' 28 Days Later'', '' Su ...
's ''
Slumdog Millionaire
''Slumdog Millionaire'' is a 2008 British drama film that is a loose adaptation of the novel '' Q & A'' (2005) by Indian author Vikas Swarup. It narrates the story of 18-year-old Jamal Malik from the Juhu slums of Mumbai. Starring Dev Patel ...
'', for which he received several awards and was nominated for the
2009 BAFTA Award for
Best Leading Actor.
Parminder Nagra
Parminder Kaur Nagra (born 5 October 1975) is a British actress of Indian Punjabi descent and Sikh heritage. She is known for portraying Jess Bhamra in the film ''Bend It Like Beckham'' (2002) and Dr. Neela Rasgotra in the NBC medical drama s ...
, who played a prominent role in the US TV series ''
ER'', starred in successful British film ''Bend It Like Beckham'' (2002). The actor
Naveen Andrews
Naveen William Sidney Andrews (born 17 January 1969) is a British-American actor. He is best known for his role as Sayid Jarrah in the television series ''Lost'' (2004–2010), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime ...
plays the role of
Sayid Jarrah
Sayid Hassan Jarrah ( ar, سَعِيد حَسَّان جَرَّاح, ''Sa‘īd Ḥassān Jarrāḥ'') is a fictional character from the ABC show ''Lost'' portrayed by Naveen Andrews.
Appearances Prior to the crash
Sayid originally served as a ...
in the popular US TV series ''
Lost
Lost may refer to getting lost, or to:
Geography
*Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland
* Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US
History
*Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
'', and also had a prominent role in the award-winning film ''
The English Patient
''The English Patient'' is a 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje. The book follows four dissimilar people brought together at an Italian villa during the Italian Campaign of the Second World War. The four main characters are: an unrecognisably burne ...
'' (1996).
Kunal Nayyar
Kunal Nayyar (, ; born 30 April 1981) is a British actor. He portrayed Raj Koothrappali on the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory'' (2007–2019) and voiced Vijay on the Nickelodeon animated sitcom ''Sanjay and Craig'' (2013–2016). Nayyar als ...
plays the character of
Raj Koothrappali
Rajesh "Raj" Ramayan Koothrappali, Ph.D. is a fictional character on the CBS television series ''The Big Bang Theory'', portrayed by British actor Kunal Nayyar. He is one of four characters in the show, alongside Howard Wolowitz, Sheldon Coope ...
in the popular US sitcom, ''
The Big Bang Theory
''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...
''.
Gemma Chan
Gemma Chan (born 29 November 1982) is an English actress. Born and raised in London, Chan attended the Newstead Wood School for Girls and studied law at Worcester College, Oxford before choosing to pursue a career in acting instead, enrolling at t ...
and
Benedict Wong
Benedict Wong (born 3 July 1971) is an English actor. He is known for his roles as Kublai Khan in Netflix's ''Marco Polo'' (2014–2016), Bruce Ng in '' The Martian'' (2015), and Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since ''Doctor Strange'' (2 ...
have featured in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published by ...
franchise. Chan has had two starring roles in both 2019's ''
Captain Marvel'' and ''
Eternals'' (2021), making her the first actress to portray separate characters within the cinematic universe. Wong, who has also appeared in two
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...
films (''
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, know ...
'' and ''
The Martian''), first appeared for a Marvel production in 2016's ''
Doctor Strange
Doctor Stephen Strange is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in ''Strange Tales'' #110 (cover-dated July 1963). Doctor Strange serves as Sorce ...
'', twice reprising the role for ''
Avengers: Infinity War'' (2018) and ''
Endgame
Endgame, Endgames, End Game, End Games, or similar variations may refer to:
Film
* ''The End of the Game'' (1919 film)
* ''The End of the Game'' (1975 film), short documentary U.S. film
* ''Endgame'' (1983 film), 1983 Italian post-apocalyptic f ...
'' (2019), the latter of which is the highest grossing release in film history.
Riz Ahmed
Rizwan Ahmed (; ; born ) is a British actor and rapper. As an actor, he has won an Emmy Award and has received nominations for a Golden Globe and three British Independent Film Awards, and as a rapper he has won an Academy Award for the short ...
has starred in both the ''
Bourne
Bourne may refer to:
Places UK
* Bourne, Lincolnshire, a town
** Bourne Abbey
** Bourne railway station
* Bourne (electoral division), West Sussex
* Bourne SSSI, Avon, a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Burrington, North Somerset
* Bourne ...
'' film series and ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' saga, appearing in anthology film ''
Rogue One
''Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'' (or simply ''Rogue One'') is a 2016 American epic space opera film directed by Gareth Edwards. The screenplay by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy is from a story by John Knoll and Gary Whitta. It was produced by Luc ...
''. ''Star Wars'', Marvel's ''
The Avengers'', the Bourne and
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
film series are some of the highest-grossing film franchises of all time.
Art and design
Anish Kapoor
Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor (born 12 March 1954) is a British-Indian sculptor specializing in installation art and conceptual art. Born in Mumbai, Kapoor attended the elite all-boys Indian boarding school The Doon School, before moving to the UK ...
is an Indian-born British sculptor. Born in Mumbai, Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the
Chelsea College of Art and Design
Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation.
It offers further and higher educat ...
. Kapoor received the
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...
in 1991.
Poulomi Desai
Poulomi Desai is a British photographer, multi-media artist, curator and an activist community worker. A self-taught outsider artist originally inspired by a street theatre background, her works are performative, textual, image based, and acoustic ...
, born in Hackney, London is a photographer and
sound artist
Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art ...
working with noise and electricity since the 1980s. She is an Oram Awards winner and curator of Usurp Art. Born in London and of Asian origin,
Shezad Dawood
Shezad Dawood (born 1974) is an artist born and based in London.
Shezad Dawood works across the disciplines of painting, film, neon, sculpture, performance, virtual reality and other digital media to ask key questions of narrative, history and emb ...
became known for this work in various media in the early 2000s. Also born in London and of Pakistani origin,
Haroon Mirza
Haroon Mirza (born 1977) is a British contemporary visual artist, of Pakistani descent. He is best known for sculptural installations that generate audio compositions.
Early life and education
Mirza was born in 1977 in London, England. He is ...
emerged as an artist in the late 2000s. Best known for his sculptural installations that generate sound, Mirza was awarded the Silver Lion for the Most Promising Artist at the
54th Venice Biennale
The 54th Venice Biennale was an international contemporary art exhibition held in 2011. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Bice Curiger curated its central exhibition, "ILLUMInations".
Awards
* ...
in 2011.
Shahidul Alam
Shahidul Alam (born 1955) is a Bangladeshi photojournalist, teacher and social activist. He has been a photographer for more than forty years and "his photographs have been published in almost every major western media outlet".
Alam founded the ...
is a
Bangladeshi
Bangladeshis ( bn, বাংলাদেশী ) are the citizens of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centered on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay.
Bangladeshi citizenship was formed in 1971, when the ...
photojournalist, teacher and social activist. He has been a photographer for more than forty years and "his photographs have been published in almost every major western media outlet".
Saiman Miah
Saiman Miah ( bn, সায়মান মিয়া; born 7 December 1986) is a British Bangladeshi architectural designer and graphic designer. He designed one of the two £5 commemorative coins for the 2012 London Summer Olympics.
Early l ...
is an
architectural designer
The term architectural designer may refer to a building designer who is not a registered architect, architectural technologist or any other person that is involved in the design process of buildings or urban landscapes.
Architectural designers ...
and
graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...
who designed one of the two £5
commemorative coin
Commemorative coins are coins issued to commemorate some particular event or issue with a distinct design with reference to the occasion on which they were issued. Many coins of this category serve as collectors items only, although some countries ...
s for the
2012 London Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event
A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competi ...
.
Theatre company
RIFCO Arts
Rifco Arts is a theatre company which focuses on bringing British Asian stories to the stage, and audiences from the community into theatres. The company was founded in 1999 by director Pravesh Kumar.
Rifco is an Arts Council National Portfolio ...
has been producing and touring productions based on the British Asian experience since 1999.
Literature
Well-known South Asian writers include
Muhammad Mojlum Khan
Muhammad Mojlum Khan (born 6 December 1973) is a Bangladeshi-born British non-fiction writer.
Early life
Khan was born in Habiganj District, Bangladesh, and was brought up and educated in England.
Khan studied classical Arabic and traditional ...
,
Abdur Rouf Choudhury
Abdur Rouf Choudhury (1 March 1929 – 1996) was a Bengali writer.
Early life
Choudhury was born on 1 March 1929, in Mukimpur, Nabiganj, Habiganj District, Bangladesh (then part of Assam) where his father Azhar Choudhury, a land owner, and h ...
,
Aminul Hoque,
Shahida Rahman
Shahidun Nessa Rahman ( bn, শহীদুন নেসসা রহমান; née Karim bn, করিম; born 14 December 1971), commonly known by her pseudonym Shahida Rahman, is an English author, writer and publisher. She is best known ...
,
H.S. Bhabra
Hargurchet Singh Bhabra (7 June 1955 – 1 June 2000) was a British Asian writer and broadcaster who settled in Canada.
Bhabra was born in Mumbai, India, and moved to England with his family in 1957. The family eventually settled in Beare Gre ...
,
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Wes ...
,
Ghulam Murshid
Ghulam Murshid ( Born 8 April 1940 ) is a Bangladeshi author, scholar and journalist, based in London. He won a number of awards, including Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1982 for his contribution to research.; Prothom Alo Book Award in 2007 ...
,
Tahir Shah
Tahir Shah ( fa, طاهر شاه, gu, તાહિર શાહ; ''né'' Sayyid Tahir al-Hashimi (Arabic: سيد طاهر الهاشمي); born 16 November 1966) is a British author, journalist and documentary maker of Afghan-Indian descent. ...
,
Gurinder Chadha
Gurinder Chadha, (born 10 January 1960) is a British film director of Indian origin. Most of her films explore the lives of Indians living in England. The common theme among her work showcases the trials of Indian women living in the UK and ho ...
,
Nazrin Choudhury
Nazrin Choudhury is a British screenwriter and actress of Bangladeshi descent, best known for her radio dramas and extensive work in American television.
Early life
Choudhury was born in South West London, England to parents of Bangladeshi or ...
,
Rekha Waheed
Rekha Waheed ( bn, রেখা ওয়াহিদ রহমান; née Waheed) is an English novelist and writer of Bangladeshi descent. She has written four novels including 2004's ''The A-Z Guide to Arranged Marriage'', and 2010's '' S ...
,
Hanif Kureishi
Hanif Kureishi (born 5 December 1954) is a British playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and novelist of South Asian and English descent. In 2008, ''The Times'' included Kureishi in its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.
Early l ...
,
Monica Ali
Monica Ali FRSL (born 20 October 1967) is a British writer of Bangladeshi and English heritage. In 2003, she was selected as one of the "Best of Young British Novelists" by ''Granta'' magazine based on her unpublished manuscript; her debut nove ...
,
Meera Syal
Meera Syal FRSL (born Feroza Syal; 27 June 1961) is a English comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created '' Goodness Gracious Me'' and portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, ...
,
Gautam Malkani
Gautam Malkani is a journalist for ''The Financial Times'', and the author of the novel '' Londonstani''. He has worked on the FT's UK news desk in London as well as in the Washington bureau. He is currently an associate editor on the FT Weekend M ...
,
Bali Rai
Bali Rai (born 30 November 1971) is an English author of children's and young adult fiction.
Early life
Rai was born in Leicester in 1971, to Punjabi parents. At the age of eleven, he read ''The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole'' by Sue Townsend, ...
and
Raman Mundair
Raman Mundair (Punjabi: ਰਮਨ ਮੰਡੈਰ) is a British poet, writer, artist and playwright. She was born in Ludhiana, India and moved to live in the UK at the age of five. She is the author of two volumes of poetry, ''A Choreographer's ...
.
Music
Since the 1970s, South Asian performers and writers have achieved significant mainstream cultural success. The first South Asian musician to gain wide popularity in the UK and worldwide fame was
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
lead singer
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in the ...
, born Farrokh Bulsara in
Zanzibar
Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...
, East Africa, to parents of
Parsi
Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...
descent from
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
(now Mumbai). In 2006, ''
Time Asia
''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...
'' magazine voted him as one of the most influential South
Asians
Asian people (or Asians, sometimes referred to as Asiatic people)United States National Library of Medicine. Medical Subject Headings. 2004. November 17, 200Nlm.nih.gov: ''Asian Continental Ancestry Group'' is also used for categorical purpos ...
in the past 60 years.
At around the same time, music producer, composer and songwriter
Biddu
Biddu Appaiah (born 8 February 1944) is a British-Indian singer-songwriter, composer, and music producer who composed and produced many worldwide hit records during a career spanning five decades. Considered one of the pioneers of disco, Euro d ...
gained worldwide fame for a number of hit songs, including "
Kung Fu Fighting
"Kung Fu Fighting" is a disco song by Jamaican vocalist Carl Douglas, written by Douglas and produced by British-Indian musician Biddu. It was released in 1974 as the first single from his debut album, '' Kung Fu Fighting and Other Great Love ...
" by
Carl Douglas
Carlton George Douglas (born 10 May 1942) is a Jamaican recording artist based in the UK who is best known for the 1974 disco single "Kung Fu Fighting".
Early life
Carlton George Douglas was born in Kingston, Colony of Jamaica. He later liv ...
and "
I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance)
"I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance)" is a song by British singer Tina Charles (singer), Tina Charles, released in 1976 as the second single (music), single from her debut album, ''I Love to Love''. The song was songwriter, composed by Jac ...
" for
Tina Charles. In the 1990s the South Asian artists who gained mainstream success included
Apache Indian
Steven Kapur (born 11 May 1967), known by the stage name Apache Indian, is a British singer-songwriter and reggae DJ. He had a series of hits during the 1990s. He is best known in the UK for the song "Boom Shack-A-Lak", which reached the top ...
, whose 1993 single "
Boom Shack-A-Lak
"Boom Shack-A-Lak" is a 1993 song by British musician Apache Indian. It was included on his EP ''Nuff Vibes''. The EP gave him his biggest hit in the United Kingdom, reaching number five on the UK Singles Chart in 1993. The song and EP were al ...
" was used in many
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
movies, and
Jas Mann
Jasbinder Singh "Jas" Mann ( Punjabi: ਜਸਵਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਮੱਨ, born 24 April 1971) is a British songwriter, musician, singer, record producer and film producer. He was lead singer of Babylon Zoo, known for their 1996 UK char ...
, who headed
Babylon Zoo
Babylon Zoo were an English rock band formed in 1992 in Wolverhampton. Their song " Spaceman" gained considerable exposure through its use in a Levi's jeans television advert in the United Kingdom in late 1995. Released as the band's debut sin ...
and whose 1996 single "
Spaceman" set a UK chart record when it sold 418,000 copies in its first week of release. The most successful South Asian musician in 2008 was the
British Tamil
British Tamils ( ta, பிரித்தானியத் தமிழர், irittāṉiyat tamiḻar are British people of Tamil origin.
However, "Tamil" is not one of the predefined tick-box answers for the ethnicity question on the UK Cen ...
artist
M.I.A., who was nominated for two
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
s for her single "
Paper Planes
A paper plane (also known as a paper airplane in American English or paper aeroplane in British English) is a toy aircraft, usually a glider made out of single folded sheet of paper or paperboard. A simple nose-heavy paper plane, thrown like ...
", and has been nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Original Score
The Academy Award for Best Original Score is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by t ...
for "
O... Saya", from the
''Slumdog Millionaire'' soundtrack.
In 2009, R&B and hip-hop artist,
Mumzy Stranger
Muhammad Mumith Ahmed ( bn, মুহাম্মদ মুমিথ আহমেদ; born 18 January 1984), known professionally as Mumzy Stranger or his producing name SP (an abbreviation of Stranger Productions), is a British rapper, singer, ...
, became the first British Bangladeshi to release a music single; titled "One More Dance". In October 2009, Jay Sean's single "
Down" reached the #1 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 and sold four million copies in the United States,
making him the first South Asian-origin solo artist and "the first UK
Urban
Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to:
* Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas
* Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities
Urban may also refer to:
General
* Urban (name), a list of people ...
act to top ''Billboard''s Hot 100," "the most successful male UK urban artist in US chart history," and the most successful
British male artist in the US charts since
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
in 1997. A new generation of British Asian musicians have followed such as
Raxstar
Raxstar (born 21 November 1983) is British rapper from Luton. Raxstar came into popularity after the release of "Keep It Undercover" in 2005. Following up with tracks like "Jaaneman", "Ego", "Poison" and "Balwant", he gained more mainstream atte ...
, Bilal and Nish. In the early 2010s, Asian boy band members,
Siva Kaneswaran
Siva Michael Kaneswaran ( ta, சிவ மைக்கல் கணேசுவரன்) (born 16 November 1988) is an Irish singer best known for being a member of the boy band The Wanted.
Early life
Kaneswaran grew up in Corduff Blanchar ...
of
the Wanted
The Wanted are a British-Irish boy band consisting of group members Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness and Nathan Sykes and, until his death in 2022, Tom Parker (singer), Tom Parker. The group was formed in 2009 and signed a worldw ...
and
Zayn Malik
Zain Javadd Malik ( ; born 12 January 1993), known mononymously as Zayn, is an English pop and R&B singer. Zayn auditioned as a solo contestant for the British music competition television series ''The X Factor'' in 2010. After being eliminate ...
of
One Direction
One Direction, often shortened to 1D, are an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London in 2010. The group are composed of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and previously Zayn Malik until his departure from the gr ...
, have gained considerable mainstream popularity worldwide; the Wanted reached No. 3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 with "
Glad You Came
"Glad You Came", also known as "I'm Glad You Came", is a song by British-Irish boy band the Wanted, released on 10 July 2011 as the second single from their second studio album, '' Battleground''. The song was written by Steve Mac, Wayne Hector ...
" while One Direction topped the
''Billboard'' 200 with ''
Up All Night''. British Bangladeshi YouTuber-turned-rapper Koomz is best known for his breakthrough single "Mariah" which has hit over 10 million streams and views across many platforms and also Number 1 in the Official Asian Music Chart of 2018.
Charity and interfaith
There is a growing number of young British Asians who are making a mark in the charity and interfaith sectors. A recent example is Onkardeep Singh who became the youngest person of South Asian heritage in 2018 to be awarded an
MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
for his interfaith and voluntary works.
Saif Uddin Ahmad
Saif Uddin Ahmad ( bn, সাইফ উদ্দিন আহমদ; born 28 February 1957) is a British humanitarian and was Chief Executive Officer of Al-Khair Foundation. He was formerly the chief executive officer of UK charities Muslim Aid ...
is a humanitarian and chief executive officer of
Al-Khair Foundation
Al-Khair Foundation (AKF) is an international Muslim aid NGO based in the United Kingdom, and is the third largest Muslim charity in the UK. It was established in 2003, and aims to deliver aid to the poor and vulnerable, as well as education fo ...
. He was formerly the chief executive officer of the UK charities
Muslim Aid
Muslim Aid is a UK based Islamic International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO).Muslim Aid Souvenir Brochure, (2010) Published by Muslim Aid, London The international humanitarian charity has relief and development programmes in countries ac ...
and Islamic Help, and he also founded the charities Faith Regen foundation, MADE in Europe and Global One 2015.
Socially responsible investing, Responsible investment consultant and writer, Niaz Alam was a trustee of the charity War on Want from 2000 to 2007.
Sports
![Hammad Miah PHC 2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Hammad_Miah_PHC_2016.jpg)
Mohammed Salim (footballer), Mohammed Salim of Bengal became the first South Asian to play for a European football club in 1936.
[Breck, A. ''Alan Breck's Book of Scottish Football''. Scottish Daily Express, 1937, cited in See also, ] In his two appearances for Celtic F.C., he played the entire matches barefoot and scored several goals. Anwar Uddin began his career at West Ham United, where he joined the winning team of the FA Youth Cup Finals of the 1990s#1998–99: West Ham United v. Coventry (3–0 and 6–0, 9–0 Aggregate), 1999 FA Youth Cup Finals. In May 2015, he was appointed manager of Sporting Bengal United F.C., Sporting Bengal United.
Aston Villa F.C., Aston Villa defender, Neil Taylor (footballer), Neil Taylor and Leicester City F.C., Leicester City midfielder Hamza Choudhury are the first players of Bengali descent to play in the Premier League. Choudhury has also made appearances for the England national under-21 football team, England under-21 team.
Michael Chopra played for the England national under-21 football team and became the first Association football, footballer of Indian descent to play and score in the Premier League. In 2006 he scored one of the fastest goals in Premier League history, as Chopra had only been on the pitch for fifteen seconds after coming on as a substitute.
Jawaid Khaliq, the first world champion boxer of
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
i origin, was born in Nottingham. Amir Khan (boxer), Amir Khan, born in Bolton, won a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and went on to become a world light-welterweight boxing champion. Bulbul Hussain of Whitechapel is a wheelchair rugby player of Bengali origin, and he has been a part of the Great Britain at the Paralympics, Great Paralympic Team since 2008.
Just as in South Asia, the most popular sport among the British Asian community is cricket; as much as third of the players of the sport at recreational level are of South Asian descent.
This has not translated into equal levels of success professionally however, with only 4.2% of cricketers being of British South Asian descent in first-class cricket across the UK.
Regardless, many British South Asians have gone on to represent England cricket team, England in cricket internationally. Nasser Hussain, who was the captain of the England cricket team, was born in Madras, India. Other success stories of the past have included Mark Ramprakash, of Indo-Caribbeans, Indo-Caribbean descent, Isa Guha, of
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
descent, and Monty Panesar, of Indian Sikh descent. Currently, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid are the only players in the England men's squad, both of Pakistani (Mipuri) descent.
Other British Asian sport personalities:
* Akaash Bhatia
* Haroon Khan
* Vikram Solanki
* Qasim Nisar
* Imran Khan (kickboxer), Imran Khan
* Tanveer Ahmed (boxer), Tanveer Ahmed
* Sajid Mahmood
* Saqlain Mushtaq
* Adam Khan
* Dimitri Mascarenhas
* Ravi Bopara
* Kabir Ali
* Owais Shah
* Kadeer Ali
* Hamza Riazuddin
* Min Patel
* Samit Patel
* Riaz Amin
* Adil Rashid
* Zesh Rehman
* Bilal Shafayat
* Harpal Singh
* Anwar Uddin
* Usman Afzaal
* Adnan Ahmed
* Hammad Miah
* Nayan Doshi
* Majid Haq
* Ronnie Irani
* Omer Hussain
* Tosh Masson
* Kash Gill
* Netan Sansara
* Mandip Sehmi
* Rikki Bains
* Rajiv Ouseph
* Ali Jacko
* Bulbul Hussain
* Ruqsana Begum
* Zubair Hoque
Celebrities in popular culture
![Shazia Mirza](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Shazia_Mirza.jpg)
The comedians Sanjeev Bhaskar,
Meera Syal
Meera Syal FRSL (born Feroza Syal; 27 June 1961) is a English comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created '' Goodness Gracious Me'' and portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, ...
, Papa CJ and Shazia Mirza are all well-recognised figures in British popular culture. The presenter and match maker of the BBC marriage arranging show ''Arrange Me a Marriage'' is a South Asian-Scot Aneela Rahman. Hardeep Singh Kohli is a presenter, reporter and comedian on British television and radio. British Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian contestants have appeared on ''The Apprentice (British TV series), The Apprentice'' including Syed Ahmed (businessman), Syed Ahmed, Tre Azam, Lohit Kalburgi, Ghazal Asif, Shazia Wahab, Sara Dhada, and most notably Saira Khan, who is now a British TV presenter. The broadcasters Daljit Dhaliwal, Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Samira Ahmed are known for working on ''Channel 4 News''.
![Save The World Awards 2009 show24 - Suleman Mirza and Madhu Singh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Save_The_World_Awards_2009_show24_-_Suleman_Mirza_and_Madhu_Singh.jpg)
In 2008, in the Britain's Got Talent (series 2), second series of reality television ''Britain's Got Talent'', one of the country's most successful reality television shows, the South Asian dance duo Signature (dance group), Signature, consisting of Suleman Mirza (a British Pakistani) and Madhu Singh (a
British Indian
British Indians are citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) whose ancestral roots are from India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian origin as well as Indians who have migrated to the UK. Today, Indians comprise about 1.4 mil ...
) performing a fusion of Michael Jackson and Bhangra (music), Bhangra music and dance styles, came second on the show.
Humza Arshad and Ali Shahalom are well known British Asian comedians for their YouTube careers which normally consists of stereotyping Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Muslim culture. In 2011, one of Humza Arshad's video was the seventh most viewed on YouTube in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
.
British Bangladeshi comedian Ali Shahalom, along with British Pakistani comedian Aatif Nawaz, starred on BBC's first ever British Muslim sketch show, Muzlamic.
Cultural influence
Economic
In 2001, the Centre for Social Markets estimated that British Asian businesses contributed more than £5 billion to GDP. Many British Asians are regarded as affluent middle-class people. As business owners and entrepreneurs, Asian Britons are celebrated for revolutionising the corner shop, expanding the take-away food trade, including the revitalisation of the UK's fish and chips industry by
British Chinese
British Chinese (also known as Chinese British or Chinese Britons) are people of Chineseparticularly Han Chineseancestry who reside in the United Kingdom, constituting the second-largest group of Overseas Chinese in Western Europe after France. T ...
, and energising the British economy to a degree which changed Britain's antiquated retail laws forever. In 2004, it was reported that Sikhs had the highest percentage of home ownership in the country, at 82%, out of all UK religious communities. Hindus ranked third highest at 74%, Buddhists were 54%, and Muslims households were listed at 52%.
Many Asian British people have made important contributions to the country's economy by leading and innovating in major UK and international industries. Due to their commercial success, there are a number of British citizens or UK-resident billionaires of Asian ancestry in the United Kingdom. From a Baniya family, Lakshmi Mittal is one of Britain's richest men. In 2017, ''Forbes'' ranked him as the 56th-richest person in the world with a net worth of US$20.4 billion. He is also the "57th-most powerful person" of the 72 individuals named in ''Forbes "Most Powerful People" list for 2015. The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' has included Mittal in its listings since the mid-2000s.
For several years, the publication has had an ''Asian Rich List'' section, featuring the wealthiest Asian Britons and UK-residents of Asian descent. In 2019, eight of the top ten, including Mittal, were of a South Asian ethnic background, including Indian-born Briton S. P. Hinduja, of Sindhi people, Sindhi heritage, who topped the rankings via the Hinduja Group, with an estimated fortune of £22 billion.
Exceptions included British nationals David and Simon Reuben, who were both born in India, and were listed in joint-second place. The Reuben brothers, of West Asian Baghdadi Jewish heritage, are worth over £18 billion. Part of the top ten since 2018, property magnate, and London-resident, Samuel Tak Lee is of East Asian descent and born in British Hong Kong. Other 2019 ''Asian Rich List'' UK billionaires included British-Iraqi Nadhmi Auchi and British-Iranian Farhad Moshiri.
Food
The biggest influence of South Asians on popular British culture has probably been the spread of Indian cuisine, though of the 9,000 Indian restaurants in the UK, most are run by Sylhetis; their Sylhet Division, ancestral home was part of British India until Partition of India, partition in 1947.
An early record of a Sylheti migrant, by the name of Saeed Ullah, can be found in colonial officer Robert Lindsay (Sylhet), Robert Lindsay's autobiography. Saeed Ullah was said to have migrated not only for work but also to attack Lindsay and avenge his Sylheti elders for the Muharram Rebellion of 1782.
They eventually made peace with each other and Saeed was invited to Lindsay's home as a chef. Saeed Ullah's curry is often considered as the first Indian curry cooked in Britain.
Shah Abdul Majid Qureshi is said to be the first Sylhetis, Sylheti to open a restaurant in the country. It was called ''Dilkush Delight'' and located in Soho.
Another one of his restaurants, known as ''India Centre'', alongside
early Sylheti migrant Ayub Ali Master's Shah Jalal cafe, became hub for the British Asian community and was sites where the India League would hold meetings attracting influential figures such as Subhas Chandra Bose, V. K. Krishna Menon, Krishna Menon and Mulk Raj Anand. Ali was an influential figure who supported working-class lascars, providing them food and shelter. In 1943, Qureshi and Ali founded the ''Indian Seamen's Welfare League'' which ensured social welfare for British Asians. Ayub Ali was also the president of the All-India Muslim League, United Kingdom Muslim League having links with Liaquat Ali Khan and Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
The Indian International Chef of the Year Competition founded in 1991 by celebrity chef and restaurateur Tommy Miah, Mohammad Ajman "Tommy" Miah MBE.
The British Curry Awards was founded by restaurateur Enam Ali Member of the British Empire, MBE in 2005.
Performing arts
Like India, Bhangra music has become popular among many in Britain not only from the works of List of British Asian people#Music, British South Asian musicians such as Panjabi MC, Swami (band), Swami and Rishi Rich but also incorporated into the works of a number of non-South Asian musicians not only British but including North American artists such as Canadian Shania Twain, who created a whole alternate version of her multi-platinum album ''Up! (album), Up!'' with full Indian instrumentation, produced by South Asian producers Simon & Diamond. Diamond, better known as DJ Swami has also collaborated with rapper Pras, of the Fugees, and his band Swami (band), Swami have become one of the most renowned acts in South Asian music history, having had songs in major Hollywood movies and best-selling video games.
One of the first artists of South Asian Indian origin to achieve mainstream success was
Apache Indian
Steven Kapur (born 11 May 1967), known by the stage name Apache Indian, is a British singer-songwriter and reggae DJ. He had a series of hits during the 1990s. He is best known in the UK for the song "Boom Shack-A-Lak", which reached the top ...
who infused reggae and hip hop with Indian popular music to create a sound that transcended genre and found a multicultural audience. He is the only Indian artist to have achieved 7 top forty hits in the National UK charts. A subsequent wave of "Asian Underground" artists went on to blend elements of western underground dance music and the traditional music of their home countries, such as Nitin Sawhney, Talvin Singh, Asian Dub Foundation, Panjabi MC, Raghav, and the Rishi Rich Project (featuring Rishi Rich, Jay Sean and Juggy D).
![British Asian musicians combining Eastern and Western musical traditions](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/British_Asian_musicians_combining_Eastern_and_Western_musical_traditions.jpg)
The influence of South Asian music has not only been from South Asians living in the UK, but also from some UK artists that were starting using South Asian instruments creating a new sound that was a mixture of sitars and tablas with more rock-based western instruments like drums and guitar.
Media
The films ''East Is East (1999 film), East Is East'', ''Chicken Tikka Masala'' and ''Bend It Like Beckham'' and the TV shows ''Goodness Gracious Me (TV series), Goodness Gracious Me'' and ''The Kumars at No. 42'' have managed to attract large, multi-ethnic audiences. The success and popularity of British Pakistani boxer Amir Khan (boxer), Amir Khan influenced the revival of boxing on ITV Sport.
The Asian web series ''Corner Shop Show'' was launched by actor and director Islah Abdur-Rahman aired from 2014 to 2019.
In 2020, BBC Four released an episode of ''A Very British History'' focusing on the History of Bangladeshis in the United Kingdom, history of British Bangladeshis and emigration from Bangladesh from the 1960s onwards, hosted by Dr
Aminul Hoque.
Although there are roughly double the number of South Asians in the UK today compared to people of African descent, South Asians are less represented in global and British media than any other major group; in the UK there is less than half the amount of South Asians represented in the media than those of African and Caribbean descent.
Awards and achievements
![Organisers and Hosts of the Asian Professional Awards](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Organisers_and_Hosts_of_the_Asian_Professional_Awards.jpg)
With the increasing number of high achievers and trail blazers within the Asian community across a variety of professions, the British Asian community has over the years set up a variety of high-profile Award ceremonies to recognise Asian achievements across the full spectrum of professions and industries. These organisations and ceremonies include:
* Asian Achievers Awards organised by ''Asian Voice'' since 2000 with women dominating the nominee list for the first time in 2017
* Asian Women of Achievement Awards organised by Pinky Lilani CBE DL since 1999
* Asian Legal Awards organised by the Society for Asian Lawyers since 1994 making it one of the oldest Asian awards ceremonies
* Asian Curry Awards celebrating the best of Asian cuisine, Asian restaurants since 2010
* The Asian Awards organised by the Lemon Group since 2010 and usually attended by a host of leading celebrities
*The Asian Professional Awards organised by Jasvir Singh (barrister), Jasvir Singh OBE and Param Singh (entrepreneur), Param Singh since 2014 aimed at celebrating success within the City professions
* The British Curry Awards founded by restaurateur Enam Ali Member of the British Empire, MBE in 2005.
* Indian International Chef of the Year Competition founded in 1991 by celebrity chef and restaurateur Tommy Miah, Mohammad Ajman "Tommy" Miah Member of the Order of the British Empire, MBE.
Social and political issues
Discrimination and racism
![Shaheed Minar, Altab Ali Park](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Shaheed_Minar%2C_Altab_Ali_Park.jpg)
British Asians from a wide range of backgrounds have faced discrimination and racism since the second half of the twentieth century. There have been examples of abuse faced by British Asians and their communities, dating from the 1960s up until the 2020s. Following
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
's Rivers of Blood speech, and the establishment of the National Front (UK), National Front in the late 1960s, the South Asian community in particular faced racial discrimination. This included overt racism in the form of Paki bashing, predominantly from white power skinheads, the National Front, and the National Party (UK, 1976), National Party, throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
British Asians have been historically subjected to forms of discrimination and racism since significant immigration into the UK during the 20th century. Drawing inspiration from the civil rights movement, the Black Power movement, and the Internal resistance to apartheid, South African anti-Apartheid Movement, young British Asian activists began a number of Anti-racism, anti-racist Asian youth movements in the 1970s and 1980s, including the Bradford Youth Movement in 1977, the Battle of Brick Lane following the murder of Altab Ali in 1978, and the Newham Monitoring Project, Newham Youth Movement following the murder of Akhtar Ali Baig in 1980.
According to the UK's Hate crime in the United Kingdom, hate crime statistics, during the Covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, coronavirus pandemic hate crimes directed at both South and East Asian communities increased between two and three-fold.
A 2020 YouGov survey found that 61 percent of Asians (under the label "Other Asian") had experienced being called a List of racial slurs, racial slur, with
British Chinese
British Chinese (also known as Chinese British or Chinese Britons) are people of Chineseparticularly Han Chineseancestry who reside in the United Kingdom, constituting the second-largest group of Overseas Chinese in Western Europe after France. T ...
in particular, self-reporting being racially abused at 76 percent.
LGBT communities
There have been reports and examples of cultural difficulties with tolerance for LGBT people within some Asian British communities. ITV News has reported: "For many in the Asian Community the fear of stigma or rejection from family leads them to hide their true self and in extreme cases turn to alcoholism, drugs and even suicide".
In 1987, pioneers, Shivanandan Khan and Poulomi Desai co-founded Shakt, Timeline of South Asian and diasporic LGBT history, the first South Asian LGBTQ campaigning group in Europe.
In 2014, Nazim Mahmood, a British Asian medical doctor working in Harley Street, committed suicide after being advised to "seek a cure" for his sexuality by his parents. As a result of Mahmood's suicide, the Naz and Matt Foundation was created, as a charity to challenge homophobia caused by religious and cultural beliefs.
In 2017, it was reported how gay Asian Britons were "forced into heterosexual marriages" by cultural and religious pressure. As a result, some were actively finding other gay members of the opposite sex for, what the BBC described as, "marriages of convenience".
In 2018, the BBC reported how British comedy-drama series ''Ackley Bridge'' had challenged "the taboo and divisive subject of homosexuality" in British Asian society. The broadcaster also reported how a ComRes survey showed that Asian British people, of all ages, appeared to hold "more socially conservative views on gay relationships". According to a survey by the charity Stonewall (charity), Stonewall, more than 50 percent of Asian Britons who identified as LGBT had faced discrimination.
In 2019, the BBC documented the struggle for gay men to find acceptance in the UK's British Punjabis, Punjabi Sikh community. ITV News has reported on similar difficulties for gay Sikhs living in Rochdale. In 2020, British actress Jameela Jamil, describing herself as "queer", stated that "it's not easy within the south Asian community to be accepted".
See also
*
British Bangladeshi
British Bangladeshis ( bn, বিলাতী বাংলাদেশী, Bilatī Bangladeshī) are people of Bangladeshi origin who have attained citizenship in the United Kingdom, through immigration and historical naturalisation. The term ...
*
British Indians
British Indians are citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) whose ancestral roots are from India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian origin as well as Indians who have migrated to the UK. Today, Indians comprise about 1.4 mil ...
*
British Pakistanis
British Pakistanis ( ur, (Bratānia men maqīm pākstānī); also known as Pakistani British people or Pakistani Britons) are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes people born in ...
* List of British Sikhs
*
British Sri Lankans
British Sri Lankans ( si, බ්රිතාන්ය ශ්රී ලාංකිකයන්, , ta, பிரித்தானிய இலங்கையர்) are an ethnic group referring to British people who can trace their a ...
* British Tamils
*
British Chinese
British Chinese (also known as Chinese British or Chinese Britons) are people of Chineseparticularly Han Chineseancestry who reside in the United Kingdom, constituting the second-largest group of Overseas Chinese in Western Europe after France. T ...
* List of British Asian people
* Scottish Asian
*
Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The ''Oxford English ...
*
BBC Asian Network
BBC Asian Network is a British Asian radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station's target audience is people "with an interest in British Asian lifestyles", especially British Asians between the ages of 18 and 34. The station has ...
* British Asians in politics of the United Kingdom
* British Cypriots
* British Indo-Caribbean people
* Foreign-born population of the United Kingdom
* Mauritian diaspora in the United Kingdom
* Nepalese in the United Kingdom
* Non-resident Indian and Overseas Citizen of India, Non-resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin
* Overseas Chinese, Non-resident Chinese and Person of Chinese Origin
* East Asian Canadians
* South Asian Canadians
* Sunrise Radio
* Ugandan migration to the United Kingdom, primarily of Indians in Uganda, Ugandan Asian origin
References
External links
BBC Radio Player discussion on the dissatisfaction over the term Asian
hWeb – An outline of the immigration pattern of the Pakistani community in BritainBBC News Many Asians 'do not feel British'30 July 2007 based on ICM Research poll conducted 4–12 July 2007
Reassessing what we collect website – The Asian Community in LondonHistory of Asian London with objects and images
{{DEFAULTSORT:South Asians in the United Kingdom
Asian diaspora in the United Kingdom,
British people of South Asian descent,
British people of East Asian descent,
British people of Asian descent