food

Shah Jolal Restaurant

About:

The Shah Jolal Restaurant was established by Ayub Ali, a former lascar, who arrived in London in 1920, having jumped ship at Tilbury Docks. Located in the heart of the East End, this café served as a hub for the Indian community there. It was frequented by ex-lascars who inhabited the area, and also served as a meeting place for the East End branch of V. K. Krishna Menon’s India League. In this last respect, its visitors included renowned cultural and political figures such as Mulk Raj Anand, Narayana Menon and Krishna Menon, as well as its more regular working-class clientele.

Example:

L/PJ/12/455, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras, p. 80

Secondary works:

Adams, Caroline (ed.), Across Seven Seas and Thirteen Rivers (London: THAP, 1987)

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

Content:

This file includes reports and correspondence relating to the East End branch of V. K. Krishna Menon’s India League. This extract is from a New Scotland Yard Report on the League and details the inaugural meeting of the branch which was held in the Shah Jolal Restaurant on 13 June 1943.

Extract:

The East London branch of the INDIA LEAGUE…has been opened at 76, Commercial Street, E.1., the office being situated over an Indian café owed by Ayub ALI, a Bengali ex-seamen…About 80 persons attended, of whom only three were Europeans; the remainder were mostly Indian seamen and factory workers. Kundan Lal JALIE presided, and with him on the platform were: V. K. Krishna MENON, Mrs. Asha BHATTACHARYYA, Ismail ALI, Mrs. J. K. HANDOO, Mrs. M. N. BOOMLA, Alexander SLOANE, MP and Dr K. C. BHATTACHARYYA. Others present among the audience were: Surat ALI, Said Amir SHAH, Dr. H. K. HANDOO, I. A. MALLIK, Moina MEAH alias S. A. Majid QURESHI, Abdul GHANI, Manek KAVRANA, Abdul HAMID, Mulk Raj ANAND, Narayana MENON and N. B. Ker (High Commissioner’s Office).

Key Individuals' Details:

Ayub Ali (founder and owner of the café; co-founder of the Indian Seamen’s Welfare League)

Relevance:

This short extract highlights the function served by the Shah Jolal as a focal point for the community of working-class ex-seamen that inhabited the East End of London. It also suggests that the working classes were concerned about colonial rule and politically active – which contradicts some representations of them as passive and absorbed solely in their own livelihoods. The attendance of many elite cultural and political figures, including Mulk Raj Anand and Narayana Menon, suggests that there was some interaction between working-class and privileged South Asians in Britain within the political sphere.

Connections:

Ismail Ali (attended India League meetings there), Surat Alley (attended IL meetings there), Mulk Raj Anand (attended IL meetings there), Asha Bhattacharyya (attended IL meetings there), Kundan Lal Jalie (attended IL meetings there), V. K. Krishna Menon (meetings of his India League were held there), Narayana Menon (attended IL meetings there), Shah Abdul Majid Qureshi (close links with Ayub Ali through the Indian Seamen’s Welfare League; attended IL meetings there), Said Amir Shah (attended IL meetings there).

Archive source:

L/PJ/12/455, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Location

76 Commercial Street

London, E1 6LY

United Kingdom

See map: Google Maps

Involved in events details:

Meetings of the East End branch of the India League

Tags for Making Britain:

Veeraswamy's

About:

The Veeraswamy Restaurant was established by Edward Palmer in 1926 in Regent Street. Palmer was a retired Indian Army officer and in 1924-5 had run the Indian section at the British Empire Exhibition, Wembley, where his company, E. P. Veeraswamy & Co., Indian Food Specialists, sold spices, chutneys and curry pastes at the café.

Palmer's grandfather, William Palmer, was married to an Indian woman (who may have been named Veeraswamy) and founded the banking house Palmer & Co. in Hyderabad in the late eighteenth century. Edward Palmer's great-grandfather also served in India and married the Indian princess Begum Fyze Baksh.

Veeraswamy's waiters were imported from India and the food was firmly Raj: duck vindaloo and Madras curry. One of its employees was Nawab Ali, who went on to found other Indian restaurants throughout the UK. It catered to Anglo-Indians, retired civil servants, fashionable Londoners, and royalty such as the Prince of Wales and the Prince of Denmark.

The British tradition of drinking beer with a curry is said to have originated at Veeraswamy's when the Prince of Denmark visited and decided to send a barrel of Carlsberg to the restaurant every Christmas thereafter.

In 1935, the restaurant was sold to Sir William Steward, who ran the place for forty years. Veeraswamy's is still in existence today.

Published works:

Veeraswamy, E. P., Indian Cookery: For Use in All Countries (London: Herbert Joseph, 1936)

Secondary works:

Adams, Caroline, Across Seven Seas and Thirteen Rivers: Life Stories of Pioneer Sylhetti Settlers in Britain (London: THAP, 1987)

Basu, Shrabani, Curry in the Crown (London: Indus, 1999)

Basu, Shrabani, Curry: The Story of the Nation's Favourite Dish (Stroud: Sutton, 2003)

Choudhury, Yousuf, The Roots and Tales of the Bangladeshi Settlers (Birmingham: Sylheti Social History Group, 1993)

Choudhury, Yousuf, Sons of the Empire: Oral History from the Bangladeshi Seamen who Served on British Ships during the 1939-45 War (Birmingham: Sylheti Social History Group, 1995)

Collingham, Elizabeth M., Curry: A Biography (London: Chatto & Windus, 2005)

Grove, Peter, and Grove, Colleen, Curry Culture (London: Collins & Brown, 2003)

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

Date began:

01 Jan 1926

Precise date began unknown:

Connections:

Dharm Sheel Chowdhary, Savitri Chowdhary, Shah Abdul Majid Qureshi, Jaipal Singh.

Location

101 Regent Street

London, W1B 4RS

United Kingdom

See map: Google Maps

Involved in events details:

British Empire Exhibition, 1924

Tags for Making Britain:

Ayub Ali

About:

Ayub Ali made his way to London via the US, having jumped ship there in 1919. He set up the Shah Jolal Restaurant at 76 Commercial Street, in the heart of the East End. The café served as a hub for the Indian community there. In their interviews recorded in Caroline Adams’ book, the early Sylhet migrants to Britain describe Ali in glowing terms. According to them, he took care of lascars who had jumped ship and were in breach of their contract and therefore wanted by the ship companies. He gave them free food and shelter and helped them register at India House and the local police station. When they got jobs, many would go on to rent rooms in his house in Sandys Row, known locally as ‘Number Thirteen’, where they would continue to receive support from Ali in the form of letter reading and writing, and help with remittances to India. He was known by them as ‘Master’.

Ali formalized his social welfare work among lascars when he founded the Indian Seamen’s Welfare League with Shah Abdul Majid Qureshi in 1943. The organization had its office in Christian Street and its stated aim was ‘to look after the economic, social and cultural interests of Indian seamen, to provide them with recreation in Great Britain and to communicate with their relatives in India in the event of any misfortunes befalling them’ (L/PJ/12/630, p. 140). Ali was also involved with the East End branch of the India League (serving as treasurer at one point) whose meetings were frequently held in his café, and is recorded as present at the 1943 protest meeting of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin at their dismissal from the East London Mosque by its trustees. He was also president of the UK Muslim League, reportedly mixing with Liaquat Ali Khan and Jinnah. He went on to start up a travel agency business, Orient Travels, at 13 Sandys Row, which later moved to 96 Brick Lane.

Example:

Letter from Ali on behalf of the Indian Seamen’s Welfare League to Clan Line, St Mary Axe, EC3, 22 June 1943, L/PJ/12/630, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras, p. 143

Date of birth:

01 Jan 1880

Content:

This Indian Political Intelligence file, titled 'Indian Seamen: Unrest and Welfare', includes numerous government surveillance and police reports on the activities of lascars in Britain in the 1930s and 1940s, focusing in particular on their strikes and other forms of activism against their pay and conditions.

Connections:

Aftab Ali, Surat Alley, Tarapada Basu, Haidri Bhattacharyya, Amiya Nath Bose, B. B. Ray Chaudhuri, Abdul Hamid, Kundan Lal Jalie, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan, N. Datta Majumdar, Ismail Jan Mohamed, M. A. Mullick, Shah Abdul Majid Qureshi, V. K. Krishna Menon, Said Amir Shah, John Kartar Singh, D. B. Vakil.

Precise DOB unknown:

Extract:

In order to remove the longfelt want of the Indian seamen in London to have a centre of friendly meeting and recreation of their own, a Club has been recently organised under the name of the 'Indian Seamen’s Welfare League'. The aim and object of this Club is purely to provide social amenities for the Indian seamen and their friends.

…

I am…directed to invite you to a memorial meeting in honour of the Indian seamen who have lost their lives in the course of their duties in this war. The meeting will be held under the auspices of the Indian Seamen’s Welfare League at 4pm on Sunday, 4th July 1943, at Kings Hall, Commercial Road, Aldgate, London, E.1.

Knowing your interest in the welfare of the Indian seamen, the Welfare League will highly appreciate your presence at such a meeting and will remain grateful for your encouragement and support.

Secondary works:

Adams, Caroline (ed.) Across Seven Seas and Thirteen Rivers (London: THAP, 1987)

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

Relevance:

The Indian Seamen's Welfare League changed its name from the Indian Seamen's Union because they did not want the organization to appear political - in part because they wanted recognition from ship-owners, and in part to avoid attention from the police. This letter from Ayub Ali to the Clan Line is further indication of the organization's attempts to build bridges between lascars and their bosses. In spite of this, however - and in spite of Ali's insistence in the letter of the purely social nature of the League - the inevitable politicization of an organization concerned with the welfare of lascars is evident in the very fact of a meeting 'in honour of the Indian seamen who have lost their lives in the course of their duties in this war' and who were no doubt labouring under particularly harsh and dangerous conditions in the employ of the ship companies. The organization's advisory committee, who worked in the background, included well known political activists in the India League and Swaraj House - such as D. B. Vakil, Surat Alley, Tarapada Basu, B. B. Ray Chaudhuri, Mrs Haidri Bhattacharji and Said Amir Shah - also casting doubt on its self-description as non-political.

Archive source:

L/PJ/12/455, 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

Involved in events:

Meetings of the East End branch of the India League

Meetings of the Indian Seamen's Welfare League

City of birth:

Sylhet district

Country of birth:

India

Current name city of birth:

Sylhet district

Current name country of birth:

Bangladesh

Location

13 Sandys Row

London, E1 7HW

United Kingdom

51° 31' 3.4248" N, 0° 4' 39.0864" W

See map: Google Maps

Date of death:

01 Apr 1980

Precise date of death unknown:

Location of death:

Bangladesh

Date of 1st arrival in Britain:

01 Jan 1920

Precise 1st arrival date unknown:

Dates of time spent in Britain:

1920-?

Tags for Making Britain:

Savitri Devi Chowdhary

About:

Having worked as a high school teacher in her native Punjab, Savitri Chowdhary arrived in Britain in 1932 after a four- or five-year separation from her husband, Dr Dharm Sheel Chowdhary, who had come to Britain for postgraduate medical studies and recently begun work at a practice in the small Essex town of Laindon. On arrival, she found her husband had, to a large extent, adapted to English life and encouraged her to do the same. Shedding her saris for dresses and cutting her hair short, Chowdhary sought to fulfil the role of a doctor’s wife in an English town and to immerse herself in community life.

However, she also remained in touch with her Indian self, wearing saris for evening engagements, cooking curry at home, and socializing with the middle-class Indian community in London. Not only did she and her husband help establish early British Hindu organizations such as the Hindu Association of Europe and the Hindu Centre, but Savitry Chowdhary, on the encouragement of an English friend, Miss Cresswell, also became involved with the India League, attending – and occasionally speaking at – political meetings in London.

In the early 1950s Savitri Chowdhary published one of the earliest Indian cookery books with Andre Deutsch, subsequently giving talks on Indian cooking and even making television appearances to demonstrate her skills.

Published works:

I Made My Home in England (Laindon: Grant-Best Ltd, nd)

Indian Cookery (London: Andre Deutsch, 1954)

In Memory of My Beloved Husband (Laindon: Grant-Best Ltd, nd)

Example:

Chowdhary, Savitri, I Made My Home in England (Laindon: Grant-Best Ltd, nd), pp. 7, 9, 65

Content:

In her memoir, Savitri Chowdhary recounts her experiences of migration to and settlement in Britain in the 1930s. She describes her adaptation to the role of a doctor’s wife, and then to that of a mother, in the rural Essex town of Laindon, and the ways in which she balanced Indian cultural practices with English provincial life. Her involvement with the Indian community in London, and participation in V. K. Krishna Menon’s India League, is also documented, as are the effects of the Second World War on the local community. Finally, she recounts her first return trip to India thirteen years after migration.

Connections:

Dharm Sheel Chowdhary, Sir Learie Constantine, Agatha Harrison (involvement with India League), Krishna Menon (involvement with India League, both visited India Club), Paul Robeson (visited India Club).

Extract:

[Sheel] had mostly mixed with the English people, got accustomed to their way of life…He liked the various styles of dresses worn by the British ladies and the bobbed hair seemed to have a great appeal to him…I kept my beautiful saris for wearing on our days off, when we went to London to see our Indian friends and for evening wear in Laindon. After I got over the initial strangeness of English dress, I found I could move about and work more freely in that than in a sari. After a little hesitation, I consented to have my hair cut short as well. So now I was all ready to get down to my duties’ (pp. 7, 9)

It wasn’t easy to belong to two countries…Was it possible, or even wise for a person like myself, who had been born and brought up in India, a country which had its own strong culture and traditions, to get completely absorbed in this country…? (p. 65)

Secondary works:

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

Relevance:

These extracts, and the memoir in general, are interesting for what they reveal about one early migrant’s response to issues of integration and assimilation. Savitri Chowdhary appears to balance a desire to adapt to normative British culture (and to please her husband who clearly wishes her to do this) with a keen recognition of the importance of maintaining Hindu Indian cultural practices and traditions. Ultimately, despite her self-conscious westernization, she doesn’t seem to perceive a contradiction in belonging to two countries or cultures.

Involved in events:

Celebration of Indian Independence at the Albert Hall, 1947

India League meetings

City of birth:

Multan

Country of birth:

India

Current name country of birth:

Pakistan