Muslims

Inauguration of the East London Mosque

Date: 
01 Aug 1941
Precise date unknown: 
N
End date: 
01 Aug 1941
Precise end date unknown: 
N
Event location: 

446, 448, 450 Commercial Road, London E1

About: 

This event marked the culmination of decades of planning and organisation towards a London mosque to serve the needs of east London South Asian Muslim lascars and other workers. The event was organised by the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin and attended by approximately 300 people, including several soldiers from the Indian Company of the Pioneer corps in the charge of Lieutenant C. S. K. Pathy, and representatives from a range of Muslim countries. Sir Hassan Suhrawardy, Chairman of the Executive Committee, gave a welcome speech which was followed by the official opening ceremony performed by Hassan Nachat Pasha and prayers led by Sheikh Hafiz Wahba, Minister of Saudi Arabia. Sir Ernest Hotson, Honorary Secretary of the Executive Committee, spoke on the origin and development of the London Mosque Scheme, and Said Amir Shah and Ahmaddin Qureshi spoke on behalf of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin. Copies of a booklet entitled 'The Millat of Islam and the Menace of "Islamism"' written by C. Rahmat Ali of the Pakistan National Movement were distributed. There were also some non-Muslims from the South Asian community present, including C. L. Katial.

Organizer: 
Jamiat-ul-Muslimin
People involved: 

Sir Hassan Suhrawardy (Chairman of Executive Committee)

Sir Ernest Hotson (Honorary Secretary)

Sheikh Hafiz Wahba (Minister of Saudi Arabia)

Hassan Nachat Pasha

Said Amir Shah (on behalf of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin)

Ahmed Din Qureshi (on behalf of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin)

C. L. Katial

Published works: 

Pamphlet commemorating the opening ceremony of the East London Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre.

Secondary works: 

Ansari, Humayun, The Making of the East London Mosque: 1910-1951. Minutes of the London Mosque Fund and East London Mosque Trust Ltd (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011)

Archive source: 

File IOR: L/PJ/12/468, African and Asian Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Tags for Making Britain: 

Islamic Review

About: 

The Islamic Review was the organ of the Shah Jahan Mosque at Woking. It was inaugurated in 1913 by the then Imam of the mosque, Khwaja Kamaluddin, and ran until 1967. During its lifespan, the periodical had a series of editors who often also preached at the mosque or served as Imam there for a period of time. It had numerous regular contributors. It was widely distributed, free of charge.

There is much emphasis in the periodical on the misrepresentation of Islam in the British press and misconceptions about Islam on the part of the British people. Indeed, a key aim of the journal seems to be to challenge these by articulating the similarities between Islam and Christianity and the compatibility of Islam with British life. The journal suggests a progressive approach to Islam on the part of the mosque, with an emphasis on inter-faith dialogue and rational argument. Numerous pieces explain and defend Islam’s view on women, often in response to articles in the British press representing Muslim culture as polygamous and Muslim women as oppressed, as well as the religion’s attitude towards alcohol, fasting and prayer, for example. The similarity of their concerns to the concerns of British Muslims now is striking. The journal also includes several testimonials by English converts to Islam including Lord Headley whose conversion triggered numerous articles in the press. Further content includes articles on the celebration of Eid at the Woking mosque, as well as sermons and photographs, and reviews of books about Islam.

Example: 

Ahmed, K. S., ‘Islam in England’, Islamic Review 25.2 (February 1937), pp. 42-4

Other names: 

The Islamic Review and Muslim India

Secondary works: 

Ahmad, Nasir, Eid Sermons at the Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, England, 1931-1940 (Lahore, Aftab-ud-Din Memorial Benevolent Trust, 2002)

Ally, M. M., ‘History of Muslims in Britain, 1850-1980’, unpublished MA dissertation (University of Birmingham, 1981)

Ansari, Humayun, ‘The Infidel Within’: Muslims in Britain since 1800 (London: Hurst, 2004)

Salamat, Muslim P., A Miracle at Woking: A History of the Shahjahan Mosque (London: Phillimore, 2008)

Content: 

This article describes the celebration of the Eid festival at the Shah Jahan Mosque at Woking. It is accompanied by photographs.

Date began: 
01 Jan 1913
Extract: 

As usual, nearly every member of the Muslim community in England had been informed several days beforehand of the Eid day. This enabled Muslims from different parts of the British Isles, representing various classes, races and countries, to congregate at the Mosque at Woking on this auspicious occasion.

Here in England, during the previous four weeks, we had been passing through a period of most uncertain weather and, on the eve of the Eid, rain fell in torrents continuing far into the night. However, as the darkness of the night gave place to the first rosy streaks of the dawn, the sun, for the first time for a full month, shone brightly and clearly in the azure sky.

This was indeed a happy sign, although admirable arrangements had been made for the comfort of the guests, to enable them to be independent, to a certain extent, of the English climate.

Special trains from London soon began to bring the devotees, many picturesquely and colourfully dressed, to their destination, and the Faithful began to assemble in groups on the rich carpets spread in the large electrically-lit and well-heated Marquee on the lawn of the Mosque grounds.

Here were Fezes in shades of red, top-hats, soft hats, turbans, caps and astrakhan hats, gorgeously covered robes and graceful saris, lounge suits, frock-coats and even ‘plus fours.’ Here were English Muslim ladies and gentlemen from different counties of the British Isles, representatives from Turkey, Iran, Russia, Nigeria, Egypt and India. Here were they all, rich and poor, ready to unite in prayer to Allah, and to prostrate themselves as one before the Almighty, testifying to that vast and all-embracing spirit of brotherhood which is Islam’s unique and peculiar gift to mankind.

It was indeed a demonstration of the common fraternity of mankind, unique in this land where not only political and social differences but also religious and sectarian schisms are rife.

Precise date began unknown: 
Y
Key Individuals' Details: 

Editors: Aftab-ud-Din Ahmad, Khwaja Nazir Ahmed, Khwaja Kamaluddin, Muhammad Yakub Khan, Abdul Majid, Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall.

Relevance: 

This extract emphasizes the commitment of Muslims to practising their faith in Britain as early as the 1930s, and probably before then. By describing Eid celebrations in the context of rainy English weather, the passage locates Islam firmly within Britain. The description of bright coloured clothing adorning the grounds of the mosque further suggests the ways in which this minority religion transformed the geography of a small Surrey town. The passage conveys a sense of the mosque as a focal point for Muslims in Britain, where divisions of ‘race’, class and nationality are transgressed through faith.

Connections: 

Contributors: Aftab-ud-Din Ahmad, K. S. Ahmed, Saiyed Maqbool Ahmed, Begum Sultan Mir Amir-ud-Din, W. B. Bashyr-Pickard, Abdul Karim, Edith M. Chase, Maryam A. Ghani, M. Fathulla Khan, M. Wali Khan, Mushir Hosain Kidwai, B. M. K. Lodi, N. C. Mehta, Syed Muzaffar-ud-Din Nadvi, R. S. Nehra, Khalid Sheldrake, M. Z. Siddiqi, C. A. Soorma, T. L. Vaswani, A. C. A. Wadood, H. G. Wells, Kenneth Williams.

Date ended: 
01 Jan 1967
Archive source: 

Islamic Review, SV 503, British Library, St Pancras

Precise date ended unknown: 
Y

Location

149 Oriental Road
Woking, GU22 7AN
United Kingdom

Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah

About: 

Ikbal Ali Shah was the Son of the Nawab of Sardhana, and great grandson of the Afghan statesman Jan Fishan Khan. He came to Britain before the First World War and studied at Oxford and Edinburgh University, where he met his wife, the Scottish author Morag Murray. They had three children, the Sufi writers and translators Amina Shah (1918), Omar Ali-Shah (1922-2005) and Idries Shah (1924-96), with whom Doris Lessing later studied Sufism. He wrote collections of tales and adventure, like The Golden Caravan, as well as non-fiction like The Spirit of the East. He later taught Sufi "classes" in England, which were the precursors to the Sufi school established by his son, Idries Shah. Ikbal Ali Shah also wrote biographies, including on President Kemal Attaturk whom he claims to have known personally.

Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah was a prolific writer of articles, and books relating to South Asia, Sufism and the Muslim World. He published in The Bookman and other journals, but struggled to live by his writing. In 1939 he contacted the India Office for work as a writer in the Information Department, for whom he wrote articles useful for Muslim papers in India and he provided the Ministry with a regular service of news along these lines. In a letter dated 19 January 1939, A. H. Joyce (Secretary Political, External Department) stated that the India Office had known Ikbal Ali Shah ‘as a contributor of articles, principally to the provincial newspapers in this country, on matters affecting the Muslim world and particularly those affecting India and Afghanistan. He is also the author of quite a number of books of a popular type covering a similar field’ (L/I/1/1509). He was also a prolific speaker and addressed the Oxford Majlis in 1941 on the topic ‘Incompatibility of Islamic and Fascist Philosophies’, and lascars in the East End on ‘English, Their Country and Their Ways’. He also wrote a paper ‘Little Arabia in Britain', on Cardiff’s Muslim community.

Ikbal Ali Shah was linked to the controversy surrounding the 1967 publication of a new translation of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat, by his son Omar Ali-Shah and the English poet Robert Graves. The translation was based on an annotated "crib", supposedly derived from an old manuscript said to have been in the Shah family's possession for 800 years. L. P. Elwell-Sutton, an Orientalist at Edinburgh University, and others who reviewed the book, expressed their conviction that the story of the ancient family manuscript was false. Graves had been led to believe that Ikbal Ali Shah had access to the disputed manuscript. Shah was about to produce it at the time of his death from a car accident, to allay the growing controversy surrounding the translation. He and his wife are buried in the Muslim section of the cemetery at Brookwood, Woking, Surrey.

Published works: 

Afghanistan of the Afghans (1928)

Westward to Mecca (1928)

Eastward to Persia (1930)

The Golden East (1931)

Mohamed: The Prophet (1932)

Alone in Arabian Nights (1933)

Islamic Sufism (1933)

The Golden Pilgrimage (1933)

The Prince Aga Khan (1933)

Afridi Gold (1934)

Kemal: Maker of Modern Turkey (1934)

The Controlling Minds of Asia (1937)

(ed.) Coronation Book of Oriental Literature (1937)

(ed.) The Golden Treasury of Indian Literature (1938)

Nepal: Home of the Gods (1938)

Spirit of the East (1939)

Occultism: Its Theory and Practice (1952)

Date of birth: 
01 Jan 1894
Connections: 

Robert Graves, Morag Murray.

Contributions to periodicals: 
Precise DOB unknown: 
Y
Archive source: 

L/I/1/1509 Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

City of birth: 
Sardhana
Country of birth: 
India

Locations

University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, EH8 9AD
United Kingdom
55° 57' 7.956" N, 3° 10' 19.4196" W
Oxford University Oxford, OX2 6QD
United Kingdom
51° 47' 13.6464" N, 1° 17' 24.6012" W
Date of death: 
04 Nov 1969
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1914
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1914-69

Location: 

Edinburgh, London, Oxford.

The Shah Jahan Mosque, Woking

About: 

The Shah Jahan Mosque at Woking was Britain’s first purpose-built mosque. It was established in 1889 by the Jewish ex-Registrar of the University of Punjab, Gottlieb Leitner, with financial backing from the Begum Shah Jahan of Bhopal. It fell into disuse after Leitner’s death in 1899, but was later resurrected by the Indian lawyer Khwaja Kamuluddin, who established the Woking Muslim Mission in 1912.

The mosque flourished under Kamuluddin’s management and became a hub for Muslims who lived in and visited England. In 1913, Kamuluddin established the mosque’s organ, the Islamic Review, which provides a sense of the mosque and its mission’s activities and approach to Islam. Regular Eid celebrations were held at the Shah Jahan, and Muslim dignitaries from all over the world visited the mosque when in Britain. Photographs printed in the Islamic Review as well as accounts demonstrate the eclecticism of the congregation, which included women and men of a range of nationalities, while articles on numerous subjects suggest the mosque advocated a tolerant and non-sectarian brand of Islam, and sought to accommodate itself to its British context and represent Islam to the British public as compatible with and relevant to their lives. Its success in this respect is suggested by the string of conversions depicted in the Islamic Review. These include some elite British figures such as Lord Headley. Indeed, worshippers were largely from a professional middle-class background, and the mosque retained friendly links with the British establishment, despite its highly controversial allegiance to Turkey and the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.

The Shah Jahan had numerous Imams over the years, as well as frequently hosting visiting preachers. A cemetery nearby on Horsell Common provided burials for Muslims, especially for Muslim soldiers who were killed in the World Wars. After the Second World War, the Shah Jahan lost some of its influence, and other mosques were established, such as the East London Mosque and later the Central London Mosque in Regent’s Park. The mosque remains an active place of worship today.

Published works: 

Islamic Review

Example: 

‘Woking – Arrangements with Imam of Mosque at-’, Mss Eur F 143/80, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras, pp. 11-12

Other names: 

Shah Jehan Mosque

Woking Mosque

Woking Mosque and Muslim Mission

Secondary works: 

Ahmad, Nasir, Eid Sermons at the Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, England, 1931-1940 (Lahore: Aftab-ud-Din Memorial Benevolent Trust, 2002)

Ally, M. M., ‘History of Muslims in Britain, 1850-1980’ (unpublished MA dissertation, University of Birmingham, 1981)

Ansari, Humayun, ‘The Infidel Within’: Muslims in Britain since 1800 (London: Hurst, 2004)

Salamat, Muslim P., A Miracle at Woking: A History of the Shahjahan Mosque

Content: 

This is taken from a statement by Sadr-Ud-Din, Imam of the Woking Mosque, dated 27 August 1915, which was received by the India Office through Sir Walter Lawrence, Commissioner of the Indian Hospitals. In the statement, the Imam complains about the state of the burial ground at Woking and the manner in which the British Government treats dead soldiers. Much of this is disputed in correspondence by government officials and commanding officers at the Indian hospitals (in Brighton, Bournemouth, Brockenhurst) who claim that the Imam is ‘out for mischief’ and a difficult man.

Date began: 
01 Jan 1889
Extract: 

At first the Government blankly refused to do anything, and many months went past. I could not bury the dead soldiers in the marshy piece of unfenced ground over which people and dogs could stray: therefore I buried twenty-five of them in the Mahommedan burial ground at Brockwood at my own expense. This is now full, and I have already buried three in the new burial-place but, though it is fenced in, it is in such a disgraceful state that it would not be policy to allow the Indian soldiers to go and see the burial-place of their comrades. They have frequently asked, but I have had to put them off because – being a loyal subject of His Majesty – I did not desire to raise the resentment which must inevitably be felt when the truth becomes known of the manner in which the British Government have treated their dead heroes.

I have had bodies sent to me bearing the wrong names: bodies sent without any flowers: bodies sent to me at any hour of the day or night without previous notice, and no respect shown for them whatever – not even any military demonstration at their graves.

...

I desire to point out to the Government the very grave danger or allowing the impression to gain ground in India that England is not showing sufficient respect to the memories of her Indian heroes.

Precise date began unknown: 
Y
Key Individuals' Details: 

S. M. Abdullah (in charge of the mosque and mission from 1949), Aftab-ud-Din Ahmad (Imam and editor of Islamic Review), Khwaja Nazir Ahmed (Imam and manager/editor of Islamic Review), Syed Ameer Ali (chairman of the committee), Abdullah Yusuf Ali (involved in Woking Mission), Begum Shah Jahan of Bhopal (funded the original mosque), Khwaja Kamuluddin (established the Woking Muslim Mission and first Imam), Muhammad Yakub Khan (Imam and editor of Islamic Review), Mustafa Khan (Imam and editor of Islamic Review), Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner (established the original mosque), Abdul Majid (Imam), Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (edited Islamic Review, preached at the mosque), Sadr-ud-Din (Imam), Hafiz Shaikh Wahba (preached at the mosque).

Relevance: 

While the Imam’s complaints suggest the treatment of Indian Muslim soldiers as second-class British citizens, despite their sacrifice of life for ‘King and Country’, the assertive nature of his requests also implies a justified sense of entitlement on the part of South Asian Muslims in Britain to the right to have their most fundamental cultural and religious needs met by the British Government. The Imam’s declaration of his loyalty to the King points to his (and potentially other Muslims’) desire to accommodate his faith to Britishness.

Connections: 

Lord Headley (convert, worshipped there), Mohammed Ali Jinnah (attended Eid congregations), Abdul Karim (worshipped there), Syedi Mohamedi (trustee), Firoz Khan Noon (attended Eid congregations), William Bashyr Pickard (convert, worshipped there), Khalid Sheldrake, Hassan Suhrawardy (attended Eid congregations).

Archive source: 

Islamic Review, SV 503, British Library, St Pancras

‘Woking – Arrangements with Imam of Mosque at-’, Mss Eur F 143/80, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Location

149 Oriental Road
Woking, GU22 7AN
United Kingdom
Involved in events details: 

Eid celebrations

Second World War (burial of Indian Muslim soldiers at Brockwood Cemetery then Horsell Common)

Liverpool Mosque and Muslim Institute

About: 

The Liverpool Mosque and Muslim Institute of Brougham Terrace was officially established in 1891. Prior to this, however, from as early as 1887, its founder William Quilliam, an English convert to Islam, led a small congregation of Muslims in premises on Mount Vernon Street. The Institute expanded rapidly, encompassing, by the mid-1890s, a madrassa, a library, a printing press, a museum, schools for boys and girls, a hostel and a literary society, as well as the mosque itself, enabling Muslims not just to worship but to conduct their daily lives according to the requirements of their faith.

Quilliam was keen for the mosque to be integrated into Britain and to engage with the British public – no doubt in part in an attempt to fulfil his aim of converting the British nation to Islam. Its orphanage, the Medina Home for Children, was open to children of any faith (who would then be brought up as Muslims) and was established in response to the increase of illegitimate births in the city. Further, the Institute undertook social work beyond its congregation, within the local community. Quilliam encouraged open debate and dialogue about the mosque by writing articles in the local press, also founding and editing two journals, The Crescent and The Islamic World, both of which had an international circulation. According to Ansari, Quilliam ‘was attempting to found an indigenous tradition that would be able to connect with the religious practices of potential converts and so create a sense of receptive familiarity’ (p. 125). Perhaps as a result of this, his congregation, dominated by middle-class converts, grew, with an estimated 600 conversions taking place over twenty years. While the majority of worshippers were English converts, there is evidence that some South Asians resident in Liverpool also attended the mosque. 

Published works: 

The Crescent (1893–1908) [journal of the LMI]

The Islamic World [journal of the LMI]

Example: 

Liverpool Review, 28 November 1891, p. 14

Secondary works: 

Ansari, Humayun, ‘The Infidel Within’: Muslims in Britain since 1800 (London: Hurst, 2004)

Wolffe, John (ed.), Religion in Victorian Britain, Vol. V: Culture and Empire (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997)

Content: 

This article was written in response to an article in the Liverpool Post and is critical of the latter for being too tolerant of the LMI’s activities. The article makes reference to an incident involving a crowd throwing fireworks and other missiles at the mosque. It defends this attack, arguing that its perpetrators had a right to feel alienated and antagonized by the presence of the incongruous presence of the mosque and its practices in an English city.

Date began: 
01 Jan 1891
Extract: 

[I]t is not the private and inoffensive worship of Mohammed that is objectionable, but the public advertisement of him. Travellers in the East expect to hear the 'Muezzin' call the faithful to their devotions, for there is nothing unusual or incongruous in the custom there, but the warning voice that fitly sounds from the midst of Eastern minarets and mosque towers is ridiculous from the balcony of a three-storey house in Brougham Terrace. Here it is most incongruous, unusual, silly and unwelcome, and the man who stands howling on a first floor balcony in such a fashion is certain to collect a ribald crowd, anxious to offer him a copper to go into the next street, or even ready to respond to his invitation with something more forcible than jeers. Such things cannot be done with impunity, for they may be expected to interfere with the ways and beliefs of the vast majority, more than one can expect a Catholic band to go scatheless through an Orange district, or an Orange band through a Catholic neighbourhood. It is all very well to preach that the law upholds what people have a right to do, but we are governed by custom as well as by law, and if prevailing customs are not sensibly respected, hard knocks are the inevitable consequence, and should arouse little sympathy.

Precise date began unknown: 
Y
Key Individuals' Details: 

Moulvie Barakat-Ullah (Imam of the LMI), William Quilliam (founder of the LMI).

Relevance: 

This extract is evidence of the hostile response by the press and British public to the practice of Islam in Liverpool. It highlights the dominance of cultural racism (as opposed to colour racism), even in this early period, and resonates with contemporary demands that religion should be confined to the private sphere – demands that entrench the exclusion and marginalization of minorities within the public domain. The extract also suggests the role of space as a site of struggle. It is interesting to contrast this with the positive response on the part of government officials to plans to build a London mosque in Regent’s Park, a central location where the mosque would be highly visible.

Locations

8 Brougham Terrace
Liverpool, L6 1AE
United Kingdom
Mount Vernon Street
Liverpool, L7 8
United Kingdom

East London Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre

About: 

In November 1910, a fund for a mosque in London was established. By 1926, a deed of trust was executed and the fund became known as the London Mosque Fund. Trustees included distinguished Muslims such as Syed Ameer Ali, Firoz Khan Noon and the Aga Khan, as well as sympathetic British peers. Until 1928, the trustees arranged for prayers to be held at various addresses in west London. Poor attendance and the eventual realization that the majority of Muslims in London lived in its East End led to the relocation of prayer meetings to the King’s Hall on Commercial Road in 1935. At this point, the trustees handed over the organization of prayer meetings and religious functions to the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin, an east London based organization.

The desirability of a mosque to meet the needs of the many seamen and other working-class Indians who inhabited the East End and attended these meetings was keenly felt, and in 1940 three adjoining houses on Commercial Road were purchased and converted into the East London Mosque. The mosque was inaugurated by the Egyptian Ambassador, Hassan Nachat Pasha, at a ceremony that took place on 1 August 1941. The ceremony was attended by approximately 300, including representatives from the Indian Company of the Pioneer Corps, and speeches were made by Sir Hassan Suhrawardy (Muslim Advisor to the Secretary of State for India), Sir Ernest Hotson (on behalf of the London Mosque Fund Trust), and Said Amir Shah and Ahmed Din Qureshi as officials of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin.

Also located at the East London Mosque was the Indigent Moslems Burial Fund which raised money to provide for the burial of Muslims in Britain and the upkeep of their graves. The Islamic Cultural Centre, which was still in need of funds and at the planning stage in the mid-1940s, aimed to provide ‘secular education combined with facilities for vocational and technical training in an Islamiah Madrassah’.

Example: 

Extract from Metropolitan Police Report, 14 October 1943, L/PJ/12/468, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras, pp. 269, 271

Secondary works: 

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

Content: 

This Indian Political Intelligence file documents the activities of Muslims in Britain from the 1920s to the 1940s. It includes government reports and correspondence between key Muslim figures and British government officials relating in particular to the establishment of the East London Mosque and the Central Mosque (Regent's Park), and proposals for the establishment of the Nizamiah Mosque (West Kensington). It also includes a copy of the pamphlet produced for the inauguration of the mosque in 1941.

Date began: 
01 Aug 1941
Extract: 

The Jamiat…resolved to hold a public meeting at the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, W.C.1 on 10th October 1943, at which the Executive Committee of the Jamiat decided to state its case…

This meeting was attended by about 400 persons, the majority of whom were Punjabi and Bengali Muslims…While there was no disorder there was an atmosphere of suppressed excitement and little encouragement would have been needed to inflame the passions of those present…

Khan…gave a history of the LONDON MOSQUE FUND, making it quite plain that it was only through the agitation of the JAMIAT that the East London Mosque came into being. When the Jamiat came into being in 1934, no effort had been made to build a mosque and it was only after repeated representations to individual Trustees by members of the JAMIAT that any move was made to implement the objects for which the LONDON MOSQUE FUND was raised.

Referring to the ISLAMIC CULTURE CENTRE, he said the JAMIAT had never favoured the financial support given by the British Council. Muslim institutions were not in need of donations from un-Islamic organisations as there was enough money among Muslims to endow a purely Islamic scheme.

Said Amir SHAH repeated, in Urdu, the history of the LONDON MOSQUE FUND, but he struck a personal note, and he implied that the India Office ran the affairs of the Mosque through its representatives, the Trustees. He did not consider the Muslim Trustees as good Muslims, declaring that they put the interests of the British Government before their duty to Islam. He mentioned the name of Sir Hassan Suhrawardy whom he alleged never came to the Mosque merely to pray – there was always a sinister motive for his casual visits.

Key Individuals' Details: 

Abdullah Yusuf Ali (trustee), Syed Ameer Ali (original member of the Board of Trustees for the London Mosque Fund), Waris Ameer Ali (trustee), Munshi Ghulam Mohammed Buta (Arab who led prayers at the mosque), Sir Ernest Hotson, The Aga Khan (President of the Board of Trustees), Sahibdad Khan (Secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin), Firoz Khan Noon (High Commissioner of India in England, 1936-41, and trustee), Hassan Nachat Pasha, Said Amir Shah (Treasurer of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin), Hassan Suhrawardy (Muslim Advisor to Secretary of State for India, Chairman of the Board of Trustees).

Relevance: 

This is an extract from a police account of a meeting held by the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin, an organization integral to the inauguration and management of the East London Mosque, in protest at the notice served against them by the board of trustees as a result of a dispute regarding control of the mosque's affairs. Evident here is mobilization on the part of a group of working-class South Asian Muslims in Britain, suggesting a significant and perhaps surprising degree of agency on their part. Evident also in this dispute between members of the Jamiat (largely working class) and the Board of Trustees (largely elite and partly British) is a desire for cultural autonomy on the part of the Muslim protesters, as well as division and dissent along lines of class within the South Asian Muslim 'community' in London, which is in turn suggestive of the significant role played by class (as well as faith) in the experience and identity formation of South Asian migrants in Britain.

Connections: 

Ayub Ali (Treasurer of the East London branch of the India League, involved with Jamiat), Dr Mohammed Buksh (original President of the Jamiat), Allah Dad Khan (involved with Jamiat, Treasurer at some point), Ghulam Mohammed (Co-Secretary of the Jamiat), Ahmad Din Quereshi (silk merchant and Co-Secretary of the Jamiat).

Archive source: 

L/PJ/12/468, 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

Locations

446-450 Commercial Road
London, E1 2NE
United Kingdom
46-92 Whitechapel Road
London, E1 1DN
United Kingdom
Involved in events details: 

Inauguration ceremony, 1 August 1941

Dispute between the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin and the trustees of the East London Mosque regarding the management of religious ceremonies and other duties, October 1943

Jamiat-ul-Muslimin

About: 

The Jamiat-ul-Muslimin, based at the East London Mosque, was a charitable society for the promotion of Islam, founded in 1934. It membership consisted predominantly of working-class lascars, peddlers and other workers who inhabited the East End of London. The Jamiat’s stated objectives were: ‘To serve the cause of Islam truly and practically by creating facilities for the observance of its Principles: to produce a weekly paper…to collect funds for a Mosque in the East End of London: to provide for the training and education of Muslims generally; to succour poor and needy Muslims: to promote social intercourse between resident Muslims and visitors to this country and generally to adopt all practical and legitimate means to work for the moral, intellectual and economic advancement of Muslims throughout the world’ (L/PJ/12/468). Thus, its objectives combined faith with the social and political. The organization first came to notice by government authorities in 1938 when it staged a protest against H. G. WellsA Short History of the World. The Jamiat organized a march to India House, Aldwych, where a deputation presented a petition to the High Commissioner for India, Firoz Khan Noon.

Before the establishment of the East London Mosque in 1941, the organization’s members would gather and worship at King’s Hall in Commercial Road. The Jamiat played a key role in the establishment, inauguration and management of the mosque. In 1943 they were involved in a dispute with the trustees of the mosque, claiming that they should have ultimate control over its management and affairs. There were also active branches of the Jamiat in Glasgow, Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. 

Secondary works: 

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

Date began: 
01 Jan 1934
Precise date began unknown: 
Y
Key Individuals' Details: 

Dr Mohammed Buksh (original president), Allah Dad Khan (salesman and original treasurer), Sahibdur Khan (secretary of the Jamiat), K. Z. Lazhesar, Ghulam Mohammed (silk merchant and co-secretary), Mr Nakitullah, Ahmad Din Quereshi (silk merchant original co-secretary), Fazal Shah (leading figure in Jamiat, president of Hindustan Social Club and brother of Said Amir Shah), Said Amir Shah (treasurer of the Jamiat), Laj Mohamed Shank.

Connections: 
Archive source: 

File IOR: L/PJ/12/468, African and Asian Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

File IOR: L/PJ/12/646, African and Asian Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Locations

59 Canton Street Poplar
London, E14 6ES
United Kingdom
30 Church Lane Whitechapel
London, E1 7QR
United Kingdom
Involved in events details: 

Inauguration of the East London Mosque, 1 August 1941

Dispute with the trustees of the East London Mosque and bid for ultimate control over its management and affairs, October 1943

Strangers' Home for Asiatics, Africans and South Sea Islanders

About: 

The Strangers Home was built on the initiative of a number of missionary societies working in the East End of London, foremost among them Henry Venn, Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, who launched an appeal for funds. The first donation of £500.00 was made by Maharaja Duleep Singh. The foundation stone was laid by Prince Albert on 31 May 1856. The home would open one year later. Throughout its existence, it served a double purpose as a centre for government-subsidized shelter for lascars and a centre for religious instruction.

The Home provided temporary accommodation and food for foreign sailors. Furthermore, it served as a repatriation centre where sailors were recruited for ships returning East. It was also used as a missionary centre with Joseph Salter of the London City Mission as its resident missionary. Among the facilities provided by the home, were a library of Christian books in Asian and African languages, a depository for valuables, and remittance of their earnings to India. The dormitories could accommodate 220 people; the home provided store rooms, laundry rooms, bathrooms and sanitation as well as a dining hall. Attached to it was the Lascar Shipping Office, which registered unemployed sailors. From 1857 to 1877 according to the Home’s own figures, it cared for 5,709 people, of which 1,605 were destitute and gratuitously provided for. The Strangers’ Home was subsidised with £200.00 annually by the India Office for the temporary maintenance of lascars before their return to India.

In 1923 the Strangers Home was recommended by the India Office to ship owners as the only place for suitable accommodation in London. In the 1920s the union activist Nathalal Jagivan Upadhyaya attempted to recruit lascars at the Strangers’ Home for the Indian Seamen Union. He was banned from the Strangers Home in December 1926.

The Home closed down in 1937 due to a lack of funds and a dwindling number of occupants. Having run at a yearly loss of £2,000.00, the Indian High Commission made arrangements for destitute Indian sailors to be taken in by other organizations. The proposed closure caused concern among Poplar’s South Asian community. Syed Fazal Shah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin, expressed his concern about the disappearance of ‘a place of refuge for the people of Asia in London’ (L/E/9/967). 

Other names: 

Asiatic and Overseas Home

Secondary works: 

Miller, Robert, From Shore to Shore: A History of the Church and the Merchant Seafarer (R. Miller, 1989)

Salter, Joseph, The Asiatic in England (London: Seeley, Jackson & Halliday, 1873)

Visram, Rozina, Ayahs, Lascars and Princes (London: Pluto,1986)

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

Wainwright, A. Martin, ‘The better class’ of Indians: Social Rank, Imperial Identity, And South Asians in Britain 1858-1914 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008)
 

Date began: 
01 Jun 1857
Connections: 

J. Freeman, Colonel Hughes (Hon. Secretary for the Strangers Home), N. A. Lash, Maharaja Duleep Singh, Joseph Salter, E. C. Stephens, Nathalal Jagivan Upadhyaya.

Date ended: 
01 Jan 1937
Archive source: 

L/PJ/2/59, L/E/7/567, L/E/7/1152, L/PJ/12/233, L/E/9/967, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Precise date ended unknown: 
Y

Location

West India Dock Road Limehouse
London, E14 8HB
United Kingdom

Indian Workers' Association

About: 

The Indian Workers’ Association had a dual aim: to raise consciousness of the struggle for Indian independence among working-class Indians in Britain, and to protect and enhance their welfare. While there was some overlap between the IWA and the India League, the former was a working-class organization whose membership was composed almost uniquely of Indians. The founders and protagonists of the organization were mainly Sikh and Muslim Punjabis who had turned to peddling on their arrival in Britain, later finding factory work or construction work at the aerodromes and militia camps that had sprung up in the Midlands during the Second World War. Meetings were conducted predominantly in Hindustani, which often excluded Bengali seamen and ex-seamen from participation, although there were also bi-monthly ‘open meetings’ conducted in English and with invited British speakers.

In the Indian Political Intelligence files, many of the Sikh pioneers of the IWA are described as having ‘Ghadr sympathies’, their main concern being to raise money for Ghadr Party initiatives such as the Desh Bhagat Parwar Sahaik Committee, which helped the dependents in India of ‘Sikh martyrs’, or the Udham Singh Defence Fund. Generally, the political activity and mobilization of working-class Indians was a source of grave concern to the India Office. IPI records reveal discussion of ways in which the organization’s leaders could be dispersed to different parts of the country where there were few Indians and less opportunity to stir up anti-British feeling among their fellow countrymen. Indeed, the IPI kept lists of IWA men who they considered particularly seditious and who should be interned in the event of an invasion during the war.

In terms of welfare work, the IWA leadership helped working-class Indians to avoid army conscription if they wished. It also provided a forum for discussion of employment grievances. Records of speeches at IWA meetings reveal the link between the oppression of Indians in Britain and their subjugation to the British in India; for example, Indian machinists in British factories are described as being reallocated to unskilled labouring jobs because of the fear that if they acquire the same skills as Englishmen they will return to India and teach their fellow countrymen the trade, thereby undermining the rationale for British rule.

Although it began as early as 1937, the IWA gained real momentum when Vellala Srikantaya Sastrya, an educated Madrassi, became secretary of the Birmingham branch in 1942. He gave the organization leadership and coherence. By 1944, however, signs of discord among the main players were evident, with Akbar Ali Khan relocating from Coventry to East London to open a rival IWA in the capital.

Published works: 

Indian Worker (bulletin in English and Hindustani, edited by Mohammed Fazal Hussein, published irregularly)

Azad Hind (bulletin in Urdu and Punjabi, edited by Vidya Parkash Hansrani and Kartar Singh Nagra, launched in 1945)

Mazdoor (‘Worker’) (bulletin in Urdu, edited by Chowdry Akbar Khan and Said Amir Shah and managed by Abdul Ghani, launched in1945)

Example: 

Report on Indian Workers’ Union, 17 December 1942, L/PJ/12/645, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras, p. 65

Other names: 

Indian Workers’ Union

Hindustani Mazdur Sabha

Secondary works: 

Desai, Rashmi, Indian Immigrants in Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963)

Hiro, Dilip, Black British, White British (London: Paladin, 1992)

John, De Witt, Indian Workers’ Association in Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969)

Josephides, Sasha, Towards a History of the Indian Workers’ Association (Warwick University: ESCR, Research Paper in Ethnic Relations, No. 18, 1991)

Ram, Anant and Tatla, Darshan Singh, ‘This is our Home Now: Reminiscences of a Panjabi Migrant in Coventry’ (An interview with Anant Ram), Oral History, 21. 1 (Spring, 1993), pp.68-74.

Virdee, Pippa, Coming to Coventry: Stories from the South Asian Pioneers (Coventry: The Herbert, 2006)

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

Content: 

This Indian Political Intelligence file documents the activities of the Indian Workers’ Association in the early 1940s. It includes records of meetings and events held, with key post-holders named and the content of speeches described, as well as memos listing the names of members considered to be particularly threatening to national security.

Date began: 
01 Jan 1937
Extract: 

[The Indian rank and file] work long hours and have much less time for politics than their self-appointed leaders…If the latter could be removed from the scene of their activities by being compelled to take up employment in areas where few or no Indians congregate, not only would the movement collapse but the Indian worker would be relieved of the unwelcome necessity of subscribing under pressure sums of money for purposes which he often dimly comprehends. The attendance at meetings held at Birmingham and Coventry is never so large as to indicate that the Indian community is strongly influenced by political feeling, however much a particular audience may be worked up to temporary excitement by inflammatory speeches. There is, of course, always the possibility that some unbalanced person may be encouraged to emulate the example of Udham Singh and seek martyrdom by committing some isolated outrage.

Precise date began unknown: 
Y
Key Individuals' Details: 

Muhammad Amin Aziz (original secretary), Thakur Singh Basra (‘unofficial secretary’ and one of leaders), Charan Singh Chima (founding member, vice-president of Coventry branch in 1945), Vidya Parkash Hansrani (vice-president of Coventry branch, co-edited Azad Hind), Mohammed Tufail Hussain (elected chairman of the Bradford branch in 1942), Mohammed Fazal Hussein (secretary then president of Bradford branch, edited Indian Worker), Akbar Ali Khan (chairman of the central organization from 1942 at least, and president from 1944 at least; lived with Thakur Singh Basra in Coventry), Kartar Singh Nagra (founding member, one-time secretary, co-edited Azad Hind), Muhammad Hussain Noor (assistant secretary of Bradford branch), Ajit Singh Rai (treasurer of Bradford branch), G. D. Ramaswamy (editor of news-bulletin, student at Sheffield University), V. S. Sastrya (secretary from October 1941), Sardar Shah (treasurer of Birmingham branch), Gurbaksh Singh (key figure in Bradford branch), Karm Singh (member of central committee), Natha Singh (president of Bradford branch in 1945), Ujjagar Singh (first treasurer of Coventry branch).

Relevance: 

The above extract reveals the extent of the surveillance of key members of the IWA and that they were considered to be a potential source of threat to national stability. The attitude towards uneducated working-class Indians (the ‘Indian rank and file’), apparently coerced by their leaders into subversive activity whose purpose they ‘dimly comprehend’, is condescending, divesting them of agency by portraying them as manipulated pawns, and undermining the validity of the political position that they espouse. Generally, the file is of interest because it gives evidence that political activism on the part of South Asians in Britain was not confined to middle-class migrants and students and that the working classes often chose to mobilize independently of their more educated and privileged counterparts (who were more likely to be active in the India League), suggesting a considerable degree of agency on their part. Contrary to what is stated in the above extract and despite the economic and social hardship these peddlers and labourers experienced in Britain, many of them were in fact able to look beyond their immediate concerns to the struggle for Indian independence, as well as being pioneers in the struggle for minority rights in Britain.

Connections: 

Surat Alley, Amiya Nath Bose, Fenner Brockway, W. G. Cove, Dr Ganguly, Mrs Kallandar Khan, Fred Longden, V. K. Krishna Menon, Dr D. R. Prem, Pulin Behari Seal, Dr Diwan Singh, Udham Singh, Vic Yates.

Archive source: 

File IOR: L/PJ/12/645, African and Asian Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

File IOR: L/PJ/12/646, African and Asian Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Locations

Birmingham, B8 1EE
United Kingdom
Bradford, BD5 0DX
United Kingdom
Coventry, CV1 2LP
United Kingdom
Involved in events details: 

Numerous meetings held at different branches concentrated mainly in the Midlands but extending throughout Britain

Celebrations of Indian Independence Day, commemorations of the Amritsar Massacre, ‘Quit India’ demonstrations

William H. Quilliam

About: 

William Quilliam founded the Liverpool Mosque and Muslim Institute in 1891. He had converted to Islam in 1887. In 1894, the Ottoman Emperor declared Quilliam the Sheikh-ul-Islam of Britain.

Date of birth: 
10 Apr 1856
Secondary works: 

Guilford, John, ‘Quilliam, William Henry (1856–1932)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/73031]

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

City of birth: 
Liverpool
Country of birth: 
Britain
Other names: 

Sheikh Abdullah Quilliam, Haroon Mustapha Leon

Date of death: 
23 Apr 1932
Location of death: 
London
Location: 

Liverpool, Isle of Man, London.

Tags for Making Britain: 

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