lascars

Aftab Ali

About: 

Although Aftab Ali never settled in Britain he was important in organizing lascars there. Furthermore his work in the late 1940s and early 1950s made it possible for thousands of migrant workers to settle in Britain.

Ali worked as a sailor in the 1920s gaining valuable first-hand experiences of the inadequate working conditions of lascars. This motivated him to work tirelessly for better working rights for South Asian seamen. In 1925 he became involved with the Calcutta-based Indian Seamen’s Union, soon becoming its General Secretary. In order to make South Asian seamen’s campaigns for better conditions more effective, he proposed to unite the various unions under the banner of the All-India Seamen’s Federation. He became its President in 1937.

He visited London in 1939 en route to the International Labour Organization’s conference in Geneva. Ali also participated in the Indian Workers’ Conference, organized by Surat Alley. Apart from London he also visited Dundee. While in London he was embroiled in the power struggle between Surat Alley and Krishna Menon. Suspicious of Alley’s Communist connections, he briefly supported Krishna Menon’s efforts in the East End of London and was considering Menon as the official representation of the All-India Seamen’s Federation. However, Menon quickly lost support among the lascar community and Ali switched his support back to Alley.

The work of Surat Alley and Aftab Ali was instrumental in breaking the deadlock between British ship-owners and striking lascars at the outbreak of war in 1939. Ali became Vice-President of the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) in 1939 and was a member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly from 1937 to 1944. In 1941 he broke away from the AITUC. He was appointed Honorary Lieutenant Commander of the Royal Indian Naval Reserve in 1942.

After the partition of India, he moved to Pakistan and sat as an independent MP in the Legislative Assembly. He proposed that Pakistani seamen should leave their ships in British ports and settle there, adding to the small South Asian community already settled in Britain. In the early 1950s, he formed the Overseas Seamen’s Welfare Association to campaign for the granting of British passports to distressed seamen and their families.

Published works: 

Address to Bengal Cabinet (Calcutta: Indian Seamen’s Union, 1937)

Date of birth: 
01 Jan 1907
Connections: 

Ayub Ali, Nesar Ali, Surat Alley, Maulana Bashana, Dr Basu, Ben Bradley Hamidul Hoque Chowdury, Manfur Khan, Abdul Manan, Ayub Ali Master, Krishna Menon, Suruth Mia, Tahsil Miya, Abdul Mannan, Abdul Majid Qureshi, M. N. Roy, Reginald Sorensen.

Indian Seamen’s Union (Calcutta), International Labour Organization.

Precise DOB unknown: 
Y
Secondary works: 

Broeze, Frank, The Muscles of Empire: Indian Seamen and the Raj, 1919-1939 (Bucharest: International Commsion of Maritime History, 1980)

Tabili, Laura, 'We Ask for British Justice': Workers and Racial DIfference in Late Imperial Britain (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994)

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto, 2002)
 

Archive source: 

L/PJ/12/630, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

L/E/9/773, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

L/E/9/976, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Involved in events: 
City of birth: 
Katalkhair, Sylhet
Country of birth: 
India
Current name country of birth: 
Bangladesh
Precise date of death unknown: 
Y
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jul 1939
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

July - August 1939

Location: 

London; Dundee.

Surat Alley

About: 

Surat Alley was a trade unionist and political activist who campaigned tirelessly for the rights of Indians – and particularly Indian seamen – in Britain in the 1930s and 1940s. India Office surveillance files record the details of his passport, thus shedding light on his date and place of birth, but beyond this, little is known of his early life in India. Indeed, even his affiliations are disputed, with some describing him as a Bengali and former seamen and others doubting that he was a Muslim. It is likely that he arrived in Britain some time in the early or mid 1930s, and it is known that he married a white woman called Sarah (Sally) Reder, with whom he lived first in London’s East End and later in Glasgow.

While Alley was involved in an extraordinary range of activities and organizations, his struggle for equality for Indian seamen was perhaps his greatest political contribution when in Britain. He held a number of posts in different organizations all of which aimed for the betterment of the pay and employment conditions of lascars. He was Secretary of the Colonial Seamen’s Association, formed in 1935 by black, South Asian and Chinese seamen in reaction to the British Shipping (Assistance) Act. He was also the London representative of Aftab Ali’s All-India Seamen’s Federation. In this latter role, he gave much assistance to lascars striking against their unequal treatment at the beginning of the Second World War. He organized meetings and rallies, distributed leaflets, and listened to the seamen’s grievances. When Aftab Ali called off the strikes, having reached an agreement with the authorities, Alley cooperated with this decision but continued to campaign for the release of lascars from prison and their subsequent re-employment, lobbying the Home Secretary and calling on the TUC for support. Alley gained a reputation among government officials as an agitator and trouble-maker, in spite of their partial reliance on him to negotiate with lascars.

In the early 1940s, Alley wrote pamphlets and issued memos on the appalling conditions of Indian seamen’s hostels in Britain, their lack of compensation and pay when injured during the war, and the insufficiency of their wages. In 1941 he sent his memo titled 'Indian Seamen in the Merchant Navy' to the Shipping Federation, the Indian High Commissioner, the Ministry of Shipping and the Ministry of Labour and National Service, urging their intervention. But the authorities repeatedly stonewalled him, claiming intervention could only come from India. In September 1943, when the All-India Seamen’s Federation was starting to disintegrate, Alley launched the All-India Seamen’s Centre, which was soon merged with Aftab Ali’s India-based India Seamen’s Union. The inaugural meeting, held at British Council House, Liverpool, was attended by ninety seamen and other South Asians, as well as spokesmen from the National Union of Seamen, the International Transport Workers’ Federation, and several other organizations. By 1944 the AISC had branches in London, Glasgow and Liverpool. Alley worked hard for the organization, disseminating information in Urdu and Bengali as well as English, and urging seamen to join in order to better protect their rights and interests. His years of activism did see some small successes, although these were generally credited by the authorities to the ship-owners rather than to Alley himself.

Surat Alley’s political interests extended beyond the concerns of lascars. He was Honorary Secretary of the Hindustani Social Club, an organization committed to the social welfare of working-class Indians in Britain as well as to raising their consciousness of the struggle for Indian independence. In this capacity, he helped to organize a charity performance by Ram Gopal and his troupe at the Vaudeville Theatre in December 1939. Alley was also general secretary of the Oriental Film Artistes’ Union. He was involved with Swaraj House, and in 1943 he helped to set up the Federation of Indian Associations in Great Britain which brought together the middle-class members of Swaraj House with the working-class members of the Indian Workers’ Association. Surveillance reports suggest he was an associate of the revolutionary Udham Singh. Shortly after Singh’s arrest in 1940, Alley’s lodgings were searched. Not just confining himself to Indian organizations, Alley was also an active member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, helping them to gain access to the Indian working classes, and worked as an ARP warden in the Second World War.

Example: 

Note Misc. No. 17/I.P.I, L/PJ/12/384, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras, pp. 113-14

Date of birth: 
18 May 1905
Content: 

This is a surveillance file on the Communist Party of Great Britain. The extract is taken from an IPI report on ‘Indian Communist Activities in London’, dated 29 July 1940.

Connections: 

Aftab Ali, Ayub Ali, Mulk Raj Anand, Jyoti Basu, Tarapada Basu, Amiya Nath Bose, Ben Bradley, Reginald Bridgeman, Michael Carritt, B. B. Ray Chaudhuri, D. N. Dutt, May Dutt, Ram Gopal, Abdul Hamid, Kundal Lal Jalie, M. A. Jalil, Chris Jones (led Colonial Seamen’s Association), Balram Kaura, Abdulla Khan, Akbar Ali Khan, N. Datta Majumdar, V. K. Krishna Menon, Narayana Menon, Tahsil Miah, S. P. Mitra, R. S. Nimbkar, Shah Abdul Majid Qureshi, Sarah Reder (wife), V. S. Sastrya, Pulin Behari Seal, Said Amir Shah, John Kartar Singh, Iqbal Singh, Udham Singh, Sasadhar Sinha, D. J. Vaidya, C. B. Vakil.

All-India Seamen’s Centre, Bengal Indian Restaurant, Communist Party of Great Britain, International Transport Workers’ Federation, London Majlis, National Union of Seamen, Trades Union Council.

Extract: 

Surat Ali in recent months has continued his activities on behalf of Indian seamen and his Oriental Film Artistes’ Union, but is very seriously hampered in both respects by war conditions. Over the UDHAM SINGH case he has established many contacts with the Sikh community in England. He now attends on CARRITT for instructions and pay and appears to have been promoted to more difficult country in his Party activities; for instance, he was sent by CARRITT to speak at the opening of the ‘INDIA EXHIBITION’ when this moved from Cambridge to Oxford (incidentally it was very poorly attended there). He addressed the FEDIND in April, spoke at an Empire Day meeting, and one or two other major Party fixtures. Latterly he has been advised to do no open Party work lest he be arrested, and to burn his papers and remove his Communist books to safe addresses. He has been specially zealous in endeavouring to work up Poplar Communist activities to the same level already reached by Stepney, and by way of encouragement was recently made Propaganda Secretary for Poplar. He is also a regular attendant at meetings of the Colonial Committee of the CPGB.

Secondary works: 

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto, 2002)

Relevance: 

This passage emphasizes the range of political activities and organizations that Surat Alley was involved with in Britain. From actors, to students, to the Sikh supporters of the revolutionary Udham Singh, Alley interacted with a wide range of Indians, advising them of their rights and aiding them in their various campaigns for justice. The passage is also suggestive of the way that a figure like Alley bridged Indian and British organizations, working on behalf of the Communist Party of Great Britain in their struggle for equality – and probably encouraging Indians to join the Party – but also establishing and developing Indian groups to cater for their particular needs. This further implies a productive interaction and exchange between Britons and South Asians within the political sphere.

Archive source: 

L/E/9/976, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

L/PJ/12/384, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

L/PJ/12/630, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

L/PJ/12/646, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

MT 9/3150, National Archives, Kew

MT 9/3657, National Archives, Kew

Involved in events: 

British Shipping (Assistance) Act, 1935 (campaigned against)

Indian Workers’ Conference, United Ladies Tailors’ Union Hall, Whitechapel, July 1939 (organizer)

India League conference, Central Hall, Glasgow, September 1941 (gave speech on conditions of lascars)

Joint Maritime Commission of the International Labour Organization, London, June 1942 (presented Indian seamen’s case)

International Seafarers’ Conference, London, 13-14 December 1943

Empire Day meeting organized by CPGB, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, 24 May 1940 (gave speech)

City of birth: 
Cuttack, Orissa
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Surat Ali

Location

179 High Street Poplar
London, E14 0BH
United Kingdom
42° 57' 59.922" N, 81° 14' 15.0468" W
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1935-46?

Kamal Athon Chunchie

About: 

Kamal Athon Chunchie was a Methodist minister and the founder of ‘The Coloured Men’s Institute’ in Tidal Basin Road, Victoria Docks, Canning Town. He was the eldest of nine children born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to Muslim parents of Malay origin. His father was one of the leading Muslim figures in Ceylon. He was educated at Kingswood College, Kandy. In 1915 he enlisted in the public schools battalion, 3rd Middlesex regiment, joining around 28,500 other South Asian troops in the trenches. During the First World War, he saw active service on the Western Front, in Italy and Salonika. Chunchie converted to Christianity while convalescing in an Army hospital in Malta. He arrived in London on 6 March 1918. Towards the end of the war, while stationed in Chatham, he met Mable Tappen, who was stationed there as a member of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. They married in July 1920 and had one daughter, Muriel.

In December 1921, Chunchie began to work as a missionary for the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society among the Asian, Chinese, African and Caribbean sailor community in the Canning Town area of London. He initially took up a position at the Queen Victoria Seamen's Rest in Poplar, which was affiliated with the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. He would visit the local residents and the seamen population in ships, hospitals, and lodging-houses, preaching to them and providing material assistance. His missionary and philanthropic work also extended to the small ethnic minority community resident in the docklands, many married to white partners, and their children, as well as colonial and Indian students. Chunchie spoke out against racism and the plight of the dispossessed in the East End which he saw as incompatible with Britain's Christian values.

In 1923, in a rented hall in Swanscombe Street, Chunchie founded the Docklands' first black Wesleyan Methodist church, and a Sunday school. In his efforts to counter racist discrimination of the black and Asian population he lobbied for the establishment of an organization that catered for London’s East End’s black and Asian community, a plan that came to fruition in 1926 with the establishment of the Coloured Men’s Insitute (CMI) in Tidal Basin Road, Canning Town. It was a religious, social and welfare centre for sailors and local residents with Chunchie as the responsible pastor and warden. From 1926 until the centre's demolition as part of the West Ham Road widening scheme in 1930, Chunchie worked tirelessly as a fund-raiser to keep the centre open, addressing Methodist gatherings all over the UK. He was an accomplished speaker, invoking the Christian ideals of equality and brotherhood to combat racism, unmasking the hypocrisy of Christian England and its attitudes to race. Chunchie was well-respected and well-liked by the black community in East London; however he faced criticism from the East End Branch of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, who accused Chunchie of patronizing black people and fostering segregation. Chunchie was also criticized by the Methodist Mission House over his management of the CMI. After 1930, no plans were drawn up to reopen the CMI elsewhere and Chunchie worked as a missionary deputation in the home church from 1930 to 1932.

Chunchie, however, would continue to work tirelessly to relaunch the CMI as an independent organization. With the support of a multi-racial council that included Dr Harold Moody of the League of Coloured Peoples, Professor R. K. Sorabji, and Lady Lydia Anderson and dedicated volunteers, amongst them his wife, he worked hard to build a new CMI. However, due to a lack of funding this never came to fruition, which meant that Chunchie had to use the limited facilities of the Presbyterian church in Victoria Dock Road as the centre and his own home as a base to continue the numerous pastoral, charitable and religious activities of the CMI.

Chunchie played cricket for Essex, was a member of the Royal Empire Society (from 1935), and was vice-president of the League of Coloured Peoples (1935–7). During the Second World War he was a member of the voluntary firefighting party in Lewisham, South London. In 1943 he also attended meetings of Swaraj House. He died on 28 June 1953 after a heart attack. He is buried in Hither Green cemetery.

Date of birth: 
04 Jun 1886
Connections: 

Lydia Anderson, A. C. Bannerji, Tarapada Basu (Indian Seamen's Welfare League), Dr H. K. Handoo, Jabol Hoque, N. Datta Majumdar, S. P. Mitra, Harold Moody (League of Coloured  Peoples), Dr H. K. Orr-Ewing, Ajit Kumar M. Roy, Dr M. D. Rutnasuriya, Dr A. M. Shah, Martin Sasthri, Canon H. R. L. Sheppard, Shoran Singh (Christian Sikh and YMCA worker), Professor R. K. Sorabji, Lady Dr C. B. Vakil.

Ceylon Friends' League (patron), Royal Empire Society (member).

Secondary works: 

The Other Eastenders: Kamal Chunchie and West Ham's Early Black Community (London: Eastside Community Heritage, 2002)

Sadler, John, 'A Champion of London's Docklands', Contemporary Review (April 1991)

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto, 2002)

Visram, Rozina, 'Chunchie, Kamal Athon (1886–1953)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/71/101071629/]

Visram, Rozina,  ‘Kamal A. Chunchie of the Coloured Men's Institute: The Man and the Legend’, Immigrants and Minorities 18.1 (March 1999), pp. 29–48

Archive source: 

Box 672, FBN 18, WMMS Home and General, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London

L/PJ/12/658, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

City of birth: 
Kandy
Country of birth: 
Ceylon
Current name country of birth: 
Sri Lanka

Location

Coloured Men's Institute
13-15 Tidal Basin Street Canning Town
E16 1PH
United Kingdom
51° 30' 30.1644" N, 0° 0' 57.492" E
Date of death: 
03 Jul 1953
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
06 Mar 1918
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1918-53

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