Shapurji Saklatvala

[2]

Date of birth:

28 Mar 1874

City of birth:

Bombay

Country of birth:

India

Current name city of birth:

Mumbai

Current name country of birth:

India

Date of death:

16 Jan 1936

Location of death:

London, England

Dates of time spent in Britain:

1905-36

About:

The nephew of J. N. Tata, Shapurji Saklatvala travelled to England in 1905 to recuperate from malaria and to manage the Tata company office in Manchester. He married Sarah Marsh in 1907 (a waitress he had met at the hydro in Matlock where he had been treated). They moved to London in 1907 and Saklatvala joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1909. In 1921, Saklatvala was adopted as the Labour candidate for Battersea North, despite joining the Communist Party in the same year. In November 1922, he won the seat for Labour and was defeated in December 1923. He regained the seat in October 1924, when he stood as a Communist representative and held the seat until 1929. Saklatvala was the 3rd Asian to become an MP in Britain (all incidentally of Parsee background).

Saklatvala raised Indian issues in Parliament. He was a member of the Indian Home Rule League [3] (founded in 1916). He was also a founder member of the Workers' Welfare League in 1917. This League was initially concerned with the working conditions of Indian seamen in London, but soon widened its objectives to improve the position of all types of Indian workers. He was an influential figure to Indian students in London in the 1920s and 1930s, but was banned from returning to India because of his Communist affiliations. He died in his home in London in January 1936 and was buried in the Parsee burial ground in Brockwood, Surrey.

Connections:

Mulk Raj Anand [4], Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree [5] (previous Asian MP), Clemens Palme Dutt [6] (CPGB), Rajani Palme Dutt [7] (CPGB), Jomo Kenyatta [8], Harold Laski [9], Krishna Menon [10], Dadabhai Naoroji [11] (previous Asian MP), Walter Neubald, George Padmore [12], Sehri Saklatvala [13] (daughter), S. A. Wickremasinghe [14].

Member of Communist Party, Independent Labour Party, India Home Rule League, Social Democratic Foundation, Workers' Welfare League

Network:

Mulk Raj Anand [15]

Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree [16]

Clemens Palme Dutt [17]

Rajani Palme Dutt [18]

Jomo Kenyatta [19]

Harold Laski [20]

Krishna Menon [21]

Dadabhai Naoroji [22]

George Padmore [23]

Sehri Saklatvala [24]

Organizations:

East India Association [25]

Home Rule for India League [26]

India League [27]

League Against Imperialism [28]

National Liberal Club [29]

Relevance:

Hinnells, John R., Zoroastrians in Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)

Hinnells, John R., The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)

Squires, Mike, ‘Saklatvala, Shapurji (1874–1936)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35909]

Squires, Mike, Saklatvala: A Political Biography (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1990)

Saklatvala, Sehri, The Fifth Commandment: A Biography of Shapurji Saklatvala (Salford: Miranda Press, 1991)

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain (London: Pluto Press, 2002)

Wadsworth, Marc, Comrade Sak: Shapurji Saklatvala, A Political Biography (London: Peepal Tree, 1998)

Archive source:

L/PJ/12/406, Scotland Yard Report on Central Association of Indian Students, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras.

Communist Party Archive, People's History Museum, Manchester

Saklatvala Papers, Mss Eur D1173, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras.