The League of Coloured Peoples was formed in 1931 by the Jamaican-born, London-based private doctor, Harold Moody. It was notable, in contrast with some earlier organizations, for its deliberate attempts to become a multi-racial organization. At the founding meeting Moody stated that he found himself in a position to ‘make representations to government authorities, hospital managements, medical faculties, commercial concerns, factory proprietors, hotel and boarding house keepers and a host of others, not only in his own name and on the basis of his own status and reputation, but in the name of all the coloured peoples in Britain’ (David Vaughan, p. 54). Moody corresponded and met with most of the Colonial Secretaries of the years of the LCP.

The position of Indians within the organization was a troubled one, given ideological differences of opinion about which nationalities ‘coloured peoples’ was meant to include. Moody and many other members felt that the phrase meant ‘the Negro Race, particularly those in Africa and the West Indies and under the rule of Great Britain.’ Others, including members of the executive, ‘claimed that the League should accept Indians as members and engage in conflict with the British Government on their behalf’ citing ‘the presence of Indians in Africa and that 43% of the population of British Guiana were Indians’ (Vaughan, pp. 65-7).

Indian members of the LCP’s executive included R. S. Nehra (1933-4). In The Keys 1.1 he is described as ‘an Indian solicitor practicing in England and ex-treasurer of the League, [and he] addressed the [1932] Conference on “The East African.”’ Nehra had lived in East Africa for many years. Although the 1932 conference focused mainly on questions of Africans and West Indians, ‘Mr. Robin Rutnam from Ceylon [Sri Lanka]’ spoke on 'The Indian Student'. Rutnam reported on the latest meeting of the Indo-British Student Conference, which had considered the inclusion of Indian students at British universities. The Executive Committee of 1936-7 included the treasurer Kamal Chunchie, who was born in Sri Lanka and who also founded the Coloured Men’s Institute. Furthermore, in The Keys VII.1 (July-September, 1939), Krishna Menon wrote on ‘The Role of Congress in India’. The position of Indians was given greater consideration by the Joint Council to Promote Understanding Between White and Coloured People in Great Britain, of which Moody was also a member. British sympathizers of the LCP included Sylvia Pankhurst.

In July 1944, the LCP convened a conference in London with the intention of drawing a 'charter for Coloured Peoples'. Moody’s final project was an envisaged colonial cultural centre. The unsuccessful fundraising and associated travel proved too exhausting for Moody, and he died shortly after returning to London from the West Indies and America.