Shapurji Dorabji Saklatvala (28 March 1874 – 16 January 1936) was a communist activist and British politician of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

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 ...

heritage. Saklatvala is notable for being the first person of Indian heritage to become a British

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for the

UK Labour Party The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. The Labour Party sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. In all gene ...

, and was also among the few members of the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

(CPGB) to serve as an MP.

Early years

Shapurji Saklatvala was born on 28 March 1874 in Bombay (now

Mumbai 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- ...

, the son of a merchant, Dorabji Saklatvala, and his wife Jerbai, a sister of Jamsetji (aka J.N.) Tata, the owner of India's largest commercial and industrial empire.Article by Mike Squires. He was educated at St. Xavier's School in Bombay before moving to St. Xavier's College for his collegiate education.Colin Holmes, "Shapurgi Dorabji Saklatvala," in A. Thomas Lane (ed.), ''Biographical Dictionary of European Labor Leaders: M-Z.'' Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995; p. 835. He worked briefly as an

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

and

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

prospector for Tata successfully unearthing iron ore and coal deposits in the states of Bihar and Odisha (previously called Orissa). His health suffered with

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

which led to his moving to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1905Klugmann, ''History of the Communist Party of Great Britain: Volume 1,'' p. 236. to convalesce and run Tata's

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

office. He later joined

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

, although he left before qualifying as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

Political career

Saklatvala was a committed socialist, and first joined the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

(ILP) in

in 1909. The

Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolsheviks, Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was ...

in Russia of November 1917 was an inspiration to Saklatvala, and following the establishment of the

Communist International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...

in 1919, he became active in attempting to affiliate the ILP with that new organisation. Saklatvala joined with Emile Burns, R. Palme Dutt, J. Walton Newbold,

Helen Crawfurd Helen Crawfurd ( Jack, later Anderson; 9 November 1877 – 18 April 1954) was a Scottish suffragette, rent strike organiser, Communist activist and politician. Born in Glasgow, she was brought up there and in London. Biography Born Helen Jack ...

, and others as part of an organised faction called the Left Wing Group of the ILP which was dedicated to this effort. When the affiliation drive by Saklatvala and the ILP's left wing ended in failure in the party's March 1921 national conference, Saklatvala left the organisation with the others in the Left Wing Group to join the new Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). He attended the 2nd Pan-African Congress held in Paris in 1921 as a delegate of the CPGB. In the October 1922 general election, the Communist Party of Great Britain launched its first electoral campaign, putting forward candidates in six constituencies.Klugmann, ''History of the Communist Party of Great Britain: Volume 1,'' p. 188. Saklatvala ran in the Battersea North district of London, one of two Communists to receive the official endorsement of the Labour Party – which was in effect an umbrella organisation which included affiliated political parties like the ILP as well as representatives of various trade unions. Saklatvala won election in North Battersea, receiving 11,311 votes – topping his nearest rival by more than 2,000 votes. Also elected running as a Communist, without official Labour Party support, was J. Walton Newbold, capturing a plurality of the vote in

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

. Saklatvala was accepted into the Labour Party's parliamentary caucus, but while Newbold applied for the same, he was rejected. This did not stop Saklatvala and Newbold from joint activity, however, and the pair attempted to raise the demands of the unemployed and the cause of cheap housing and lower rents whenever possible.Klugmann, ''History of the Communist Party of Great Britain: Volume 1,'' p. 193. Newbold wound up being suspended from the House in May 1923 over his actions with respect to the Curzon ultimatum during the French occupation of the Ruhr. The November 1923 general election saw the CPGB putting forward 9 of its members as candidates, including Shapurji Saklatvala in Battersea North, where he was unanimously adopted as the nominee of the Battersea Labour Party.Klugmann, ''History of the Communist Party of Great Britain: Volume 1,'' p. 242. Although not all the Communist candidates were endorsed by the Labour Party, they all were the recipients of support from local Labour activists. Despite modest gains for Labour in the election overall, the results of the election returned the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

as the largest party in the House of Commons (although their number of seats fell from 346 to 259).Klugmann, ''History of the Communist Party of Great Britain: Volume 1,'' p. 243. All Communist candidates were defeated in the 1923 election, however, including Saklatvala in Battersea North. The 1924 general election came in the wake of the so-called Zinoviev letter and saw the Conservatives increase their vote by more than 2 million to win the election.Klugmann, ''History of the Communist Party of Great Britain: Volume 1,'' p. 356. The Labour Party saw a net loss of 42 seats despite contesting more constituencies than ever before. In Battersea North, Saklatvala ran without formal Labour Party endorsement for the first time, but still managed to win election by a slim margin of 544 votes, the only one of 8 CPGB candidates elected. Saklatvala was arrested during the 1926 General Strike following a speech he made in support of striking coal miners and was jailed for two months on charge of sedition. He was active in the

League Against Imperialism The League against Imperialism and Colonial Oppression (french: Ligue contre l'impérialisme et l'oppression coloniale; german: Liga gegen Kolonialgreuel und Unterdrückung) was a transnational anti-imperialist organization in the interwar period. ...

from the time of its formation in 1927. Saklatvala's parliamentary career was effectively ended when he lost his seat in the 1929 general election. He ran again in 1930 in a by-election in Glasgow Shettleston without success, and mounted a final losing campaign in the 1931 general election in Battersea. In 1934 he visited the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

to tour the Union's Far Eastern republics, whose governance he compared favourably to that in British India. During that tour he suffered a heart attack but recovered. During the 1935 general election Saklatvala was active in the electoral campaigns of

Harry Pollitt Harry Pollitt (22 November 1890 – 27 June 1960) was a British communist who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1929 to September 1939 and again from 1941 until his death in 1960. Pollitt spent ...

and Willie Gallacher.

Personal life

On 14 August 1907 Saklatvala married an English woman, Sarah Elizabeth Marsh (born 1888). She was working as a hotel waitress when he met her while staying at Matlock, Derbyshire. The couple had three sons; Dorab, Beram, and Kaikhoshro (also called Kaiko) and two daughters; Dhunbar and Jevanbai (also known as Candida or Candy and Sehri). He was once censured by the non-religious CPGB for holding a

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic on ...

navjote The Navjote ( fa, سدره‌پوشی, rtl=yes, ''sedreh pushi'') ceremony is the ritual through which an individual is inducted into the Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrian religion and begins to wear the sedreh and kushti. The term ''navjote'' is used ...

initiation ceremony for his children at Caxton Hall,

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, which he defended on the grounds it was to ensure benefit from a Tata family trust fund. His son Kaikhoshro served with the British

Air Transport Auxiliary The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up at the start of the Second World War with headquarters at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire. The ATA ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factori ...

organisation in

World War II 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 ...

as a pilot (Second Officer)."Indian/Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Pilots in ATA (from Brief Glory)"
RAF Commands. He flew most frontline aircraft, including Mosquitos, Spitfires and Lancasters.

Death and legacy

Shapurji Saklatvala died, from another heart attack, on 16 January 1936 at his London home, 2 St Albans Villas, St Albans Road. He was 61 years old at the time of his death and was cremated at

Golders Green Crematorium Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £135,987 in 2021), ...

."Shapurji Saklatvala"
at Find a Grave. His remains were later buried on 21 January in the tomb of his mother at the Parsi burial ground in

Brookwood Cemetery Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regist ...

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

.The ''ODNB'' does not mention the cremation. In January 1937, British, Irish and Dominion volunteers in the

International Brigades The International Brigades ( es, Brigadas Internacionales) were military units set up by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The organization existed f ...

were formed into an English-speaking battalion, that was formally named after Saklatvala. However, the name never caught on, and it was normally known as the "

British Battalion The British Battalion (1936–1938; officially the Saklatvala Battalion) was the 16th battalion of the XV International Brigade, one of the mixed brigades of the International Brigades, during the Spanish Civil War. It comprised British and ...

". The

Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist) The Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist), abbreviated CPGB-ML, is an anti-revisionist, Marxist–Leninist communist party in the United Kingdom, active in England, Scotland, and Wales. The CPGB-ML was created after a split ...

's hall is named after Shapurji Saklatvala. Saklatvala Hall is located 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 ...

, London. The hall is used for CPGB-ML's meetings and celebrations.

Footnotes

Works

* ''The Empire Labour.'' 1919. * ''For British Trade Unionists and British Indian Labour: Two Articles on British Capital and Indian Labour.'' Manchester: National Labour Press, n.d.

920 __NOTOC__ Year 920 ( CMXX) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * December 17 – Romanos I has himself crowned co-emperor of the Byza ...

* ''India in the Labour World.'' London: Labour Publishing Co. for the Workers' Welfare League of India, n.d. . 1921 * ''Saklatwala on India.'' Lahore: G.L. Puri, 1923. * ''The Class Struggle in Parliament: On Communism, Egyptian Indemnity, the Supplementary Reserve, the Prince's Tour, the Air Force.'' London: S. Saklatvala, n.d. . 1925 * ''British Imperialism in India: Speech Delivered in the House of Commons, 9 July 1925.'' Chicago: Daily Worker Publishing Co., n.d. 925 * ''Is India Different? The Class Struggle in India: Correspondence on the Indian Labour Movement and Modern Conditions.'' With Mahatma Gandhi. London: Communist Party of Great Britain, 1927. * ''Socialism and "Labouralism": A Speech in the House of Commons.'' London: Communist Party of Great Britain, 1928. * '' With the Communist Party in Parliament: Exposure of Parliamentary Hypocrisy: Saklatvala's Great Speech on King's Address, 7 November 1928.'' London: Communist Party of Great Britain, n.d. . 1928

External links

Asians in British politics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saklatvala, Shapurji 1874 births 1936 deaths British politicians of Indian descent Politicians from Mumbai British communists British people of Parsi descent British Zoroastrians Burials at Brookwood Cemetery Communist Party of Great Britain members Communist Party of Great Britain MPs English people of Parsi descent English people of Indian descent Indian communists British India emigrants to the United Kingdom Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Parsi people from Mumbai UK MPs 1924–1929 Parsi people