Leicester
Old geezers by Alexander Boyle
Dusk is falling in the leafy suburb of Oadby in Leicester. Through the open door of a beautiful house the mellifluous sound of singing reaches my ears. It’s an old voice, deep and deliciously throaty reciting a line, that is being repeated by a child with a slight lisp. Before the old man ends, the child, who doesn’t sound older than four, sings, almost doing a vocal nip at his heels, taking the pace of the music faster with every verse. It takes me a few minutes to realize that they are reciting from the Koran. It is the last thing I would have expected in a city, known more for it’s space centre and world renowned university, than ethnic mix. Just one hour’s train ride from London. But then Leicester has many surprises up its sleeve, specially for people of Indian origin. And university employee Ather Mirza’s father teaching the Koran to his little grandson is just one little tip of the iceberg.
Samosas and chapatis
Within a week there I meet a fascinating array of British Indians. A Gujarati business man who is mid-way into a highly ambitious plan to market vegetarian Indian snacks like the samosa to the whole of Europe. A young and pretty married woman from Bangalore recently into an arranged marriage that has her living with her mother-in-law and husband. Who’s happy rolling out chapatis in the evenings. A sixty-year-old Gujarati lady who wears Sai Baba pendants and exercises in her easy-to-wash synthetic sari and snazzy sneakers, the only compromise she has made to a European climate.
Fascinating people like the ones above, along with many others like them -- who or their forefathers came from India and toiled hard and relentless to find a place in a foreign land -- have together created a unique island of Indian culture in the rain soaked city of Leicester which, amongst its other attractions, boasts a Jain temple carved in stone and white marble that was shipped all the way from Jaisalmer, a Gurudwara that dishes out hot and appetising prasad every Sunday, a shopping area called Belgrave Road that caters to everything Indian: from chole-tikki to sindoor, and a Bollywood cinema complex that is now showing the latest Hindi movies including Bunty aur Bubbly.
If you take a taxi from the Railway Station, chances are high that the driver will be wearing a colourful turban, even though clipped English tones will fall on your ears. And out in Belgrave, an Asian locality, don’t expect any soul stirring English music. Most likely you will be foot tapping to some robust bhangra beats with Sukhbir or Daler Mehndi crooning in your ears. Welcome to Leicester, where some people are a little worried because in the next five years the non-whites will be in majority. According to the last census, conducted in 2001, the city has 25.7 per cent population of Indian origin, ranking Leicester top for the largest Indian population of any local authority area in England and Wales.
Samosas and chapatis
Within a week there I meet a fascinating array of British Indians. A Gujarati business man who is mid-way into a highly ambitious plan to market vegetarian Indian snacks like the samosa to the whole of Europe. A young and pretty married woman from Bangalore recently into an arranged marriage that has her living with her mother-in-law and husband. Who’s happy rolling out chapatis in the evenings. A sixty-year-old Gujarati lady who wears Sai Baba pendants and exercises in her easy-to-wash synthetic sari and snazzy sneakers, the only compromise she has made to a European climate.
Fascinating people like the ones above, along with many others like them -- who or their forefathers came from India and toiled hard and relentless to find a place in a foreign land -- have together created a unique island of Indian culture in the rain soaked city of Leicester which, amongst its other attractions, boasts a Jain temple carved in stone and white marble that was shipped all the way from Jaisalmer, a Gurudwara that dishes out hot and appetising prasad every Sunday, a shopping area called Belgrave Road that caters to everything Indian: from chole-tikki to sindoor, and a Bollywood cinema complex that is now showing the latest Hindi movies including Bunty aur Bubbly.
If you take a taxi from the Railway Station, chances are high that the driver will be wearing a colourful turban, even though clipped English tones will fall on your ears. And out in Belgrave, an Asian locality, don’t expect any soul stirring English music. Most likely you will be foot tapping to some robust bhangra beats with Sukhbir or Daler Mehndi crooning in your ears. Welcome to Leicester, where some people are a little worried because in the next five years the non-whites will be in majority. According to the last census, conducted in 2001, the city has 25.7 per cent population of Indian origin, ranking Leicester top for the largest Indian population of any local authority area in England and Wales.
The Old Horse pub
Baisakhi celebrations
Leicester fish market
Flags
The independence of India was followed by the partition of the province of Punjab between India and Pakistan. This dislocated 10 million people. Punjab had had a history of outward migration since the nineteenth century, and given their central role in the Indian Army, many former soldiers who had been seen service overseas decided to start new lives in foreign countries.
The other key factor was the establishment of the right to settle in Great Britain. The Nationality Act (1948) technically gave every Commonwealth citizen the right to move to the mother country. Given the post war demand for workers, changes in Commonwealth countries and the dislocation brought about by the Second World War, there were significant incentives to migrate. The Indians and Pakistanis chose properties near Spinney Hill and Belgrave Road, where affordable private housing was available.
Then in 1972, General Idi Amin decided to expel the Asian population of Uganda. Many rich businessmen of Indian origin were thrown out with nothing more than a suitcase and 50 pounds in their pocket. Because many East Africans had already moved to Leicester, they also found their way here. By 1981, the New Commonwealth population of Leicester had seen an almost three-fold increase to 59,709.
City of Asian festivals
Many sections of the Asian community have been establishing clubs and organisations to promote sport. Hockey, cricket, football and, believe it or not, kabaddi are among the most popular. Nilima Devi, a leading exponent of Kathak dance, runs a school in the city and the Darpan Arts Group regularly holds performances of dandiya and garba. Leicester has come to be known as the city of Indian lights. Diwali is celebrated every year on Belgrave’s Golden Mile, which gets its name from the countless gold jewellery shops down the road. This is the largest celebration of Diwali outside India that attracts crowds of up to 60,000. Other religious occasions like Eid and Baisakhi are also celebrated in areas of majorly Muslim and Sikh settlements in Highfields and Evington Road.
Within a week in Leicester I meet young Bijal Shah, two years into an arranged marriage that has brought her to Leicester all the way from Bangalore. She lives with her mother-in-law and husband, speaks English with a pronounced British accent, wears salwar kameez occasionally and looks forward to the weekend when she can either catch the latest Shahrukh Khan movie at the Bollywood theatre or just chill out with friends. Next, I find Gujarati businessman Nainesh Patel, who is planning to export mouthwatering Indian snacks to the whole of Europe from Leicester. His interview in a Leicester newspaper is already creating headlines and inviting enquiries. Europeans are crazy about Indian food, he tells me, there’s a big market out there just waiting to be tapped
But the surprise package are the women who came to Leicester in the sixties and seventies, at the tender ages of sixteen or seventeen. Married to men they had never seen before, they have stayed there ever since without losing any of their Indian identity. Like cultural fossils, they are preserved slices of an India of the seventies. The smells of Indian spices waft out of their kitchen windows still, they are not very comfortable with English, their sarees are worn with the careless abandon of women who have worn them day and night, over decades.
The world has actually become a global village but what’s fascinating about Indians is that whereever they go they take with them a baggage of beliefs and culture, that refuses to be set aside. It soaks the place they inhabit and sinks into future generations. The legacy lives on.
Photographs by Alexander Boyle and Rosalind Broomhall
Copyright© 2010 Rachna Bisht-Rawat. All rights reserved. Reproduction, or re-transmission, in whole, or in part, or in any manner, without prior written consent of the author, is in violation of the copyright law
The other key factor was the establishment of the right to settle in Great Britain. The Nationality Act (1948) technically gave every Commonwealth citizen the right to move to the mother country. Given the post war demand for workers, changes in Commonwealth countries and the dislocation brought about by the Second World War, there were significant incentives to migrate. The Indians and Pakistanis chose properties near Spinney Hill and Belgrave Road, where affordable private housing was available.
Then in 1972, General Idi Amin decided to expel the Asian population of Uganda. Many rich businessmen of Indian origin were thrown out with nothing more than a suitcase and 50 pounds in their pocket. Because many East Africans had already moved to Leicester, they also found their way here. By 1981, the New Commonwealth population of Leicester had seen an almost three-fold increase to 59,709.
City of Asian festivals
Many sections of the Asian community have been establishing clubs and organisations to promote sport. Hockey, cricket, football and, believe it or not, kabaddi are among the most popular. Nilima Devi, a leading exponent of Kathak dance, runs a school in the city and the Darpan Arts Group regularly holds performances of dandiya and garba. Leicester has come to be known as the city of Indian lights. Diwali is celebrated every year on Belgrave’s Golden Mile, which gets its name from the countless gold jewellery shops down the road. This is the largest celebration of Diwali outside India that attracts crowds of up to 60,000. Other religious occasions like Eid and Baisakhi are also celebrated in areas of majorly Muslim and Sikh settlements in Highfields and Evington Road.
Within a week in Leicester I meet young Bijal Shah, two years into an arranged marriage that has brought her to Leicester all the way from Bangalore. She lives with her mother-in-law and husband, speaks English with a pronounced British accent, wears salwar kameez occasionally and looks forward to the weekend when she can either catch the latest Shahrukh Khan movie at the Bollywood theatre or just chill out with friends. Next, I find Gujarati businessman Nainesh Patel, who is planning to export mouthwatering Indian snacks to the whole of Europe from Leicester. His interview in a Leicester newspaper is already creating headlines and inviting enquiries. Europeans are crazy about Indian food, he tells me, there’s a big market out there just waiting to be tapped
But the surprise package are the women who came to Leicester in the sixties and seventies, at the tender ages of sixteen or seventeen. Married to men they had never seen before, they have stayed there ever since without losing any of their Indian identity. Like cultural fossils, they are preserved slices of an India of the seventies. The smells of Indian spices waft out of their kitchen windows still, they are not very comfortable with English, their sarees are worn with the careless abandon of women who have worn them day and night, over decades.
The world has actually become a global village but what’s fascinating about Indians is that whereever they go they take with them a baggage of beliefs and culture, that refuses to be set aside. It soaks the place they inhabit and sinks into future generations. The legacy lives on.
Photographs by Alexander Boyle and Rosalind Broomhall
Copyright© 2010 Rachna Bisht-Rawat. All rights reserved. Reproduction, or re-transmission, in whole, or in part, or in any manner, without prior written consent of the author, is in violation of the copyright law
