Harold Arundel Moody was born in 1882 in Kingston Jamaica to Charles Ernest Moody and his wife Christina Emmeline Ellis. From early on he was a devout Christian and was active in the Congregational Union, Colonial Missionary Society (chairman) and later the Christian Endeavour Union (1936).

In 1904, he moved to England to study medicine at King's College but was refused work because of his skin colour. He eventually set up his own practice in 1913 and slowly started to make a living. In the same year, he married Olive Mable Tranter, a white nurse. They had six children. In 1923, Moody spoke at the opening of the Indian Students' Hostel in Gower Street and lectured there again in early March 1930.

On 13 March 1931, he formed the League of Coloured Peoples (LCP) at a meeting at the YMCA, Tottenham Court Road, London, with the help of Charles Wesley, an African-American history professor visiting Britain. Other original members included Belfield Clark, George Roberts, Samson Morris, Robert Adams and Desmond Buckle. More prominent members included C. L. R. James, Jomo Kenyatta and Una Marson. The objects of the LCP was 1) to promote and protect the social, educational, economic and political interests of its members; 2) to interest members in the welfare of coloured peoples in all parts of the world; 3) to improve relations between the races and 4) to co-operate and affiliate with organizations sympathetic to coloured people. In an address delivered by Moody at Friends House on 18 October 1932, he emphasized that: 'For the practical purpose of the League [...] our work is mainly confined to people of African descent - at present mainly West Indian and West African - although we have some Indians in our ranks.' (Moody, 'Communications' (1933), p. 94) The LCP focused more on African rather than South Asian issues. However, in 1935, R. S. Nehra, who had come to Britain via East Africa served on the executive of the LCP, and the League hosted events for South Asians, for example for Gandhi when he visited London.

In 1933, Moody also became involved in the Coloured Men's Institute. The CMI was set up by Kamal Chunchie in 1926 as a religious, social and welfare centre for sailors. In 1930, the Institute folded but was re-established by Chunchie again in 1933. This time Moody was involved along with Shoran Singha, a Christian Sikh and YMCA worker, Canon H. L. R. Sheppard, R. K. Sorabji and Lady Lydia Anderson among them.

Pastor Kamal Chunchie was Vice-President from 1935 to 1937. In the early years, the LCP was largely a social club but as the 1930 progressed the organization campaigned on political issues such as the working-class struggles in the Caribbean, the campaign to restore British citizenship to 'coloured' seamen in Cardiff in 1936, and against the colour bar in Britain. The LCP gained influence during the Second World War and lobbied for the rights of black servicemen and women in the armed forces. In 1944, the LCP organized a conference in London and a 'Charter for Coloured Peoples' was drawn up. Many of the elements of that charter foreshadowed the resolutions of the Pan-African Congress held in Manchester the next year, though Moody did not attend that conference. Moody remained the president of the LCP until his death. In the winter of 1946, Moody went on a tour of the West Indies in order to raise money for a cultural centre in London. He fell ill and died shortly after his return to London in April 1947. The LCP continued for a few more years but closed in the early 1950s.

Jomo Kenyatta was born in Ngenda around 1895. After moving to Nairobi, he became involved in the political and cultural life. He became general secretary of the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA) in 1928. In March 1929 he travelled to Britain on behalf of the KCA with Isher Dass, an Indian lawyer living in Nairobi. He had hoped to meet the imperial authorities but only briefly met senior officials at the Colonial Office. However, he established contacts with other anti-colonial activists in London and the Communist Party like George Padmore and Shapurji Saklatvala.

Kenyatta returned to Africa in 1930 but was back in Britain in 1931. He stayed almost continuously until 1946, with the exception of a few trips to Europe. During this period he was admitted to the London School of Economics to study anthropology under Professor Malinowski. Here, he wrote a number of articles that were later published as Facing Mount Kenya (1938). During this time, he also met a small group of black activists and campaigners, including C. L. R. James, Kwame Nkrumah, Peter Abrahams, Eric Williams and Paul Robeson. He also associated with the India League and the League of Coloured Peoples and met Gandhi when he visited London in November 1931. Throughout the 1930s, Kenyatta attended India League meetings and would have come into contact with Krishna Menon. In September 1939, Makhan Singh, the General Secretary of the Labour Trade Union of East Africa, asked Kenyatta and Krishna Menon to represent his organization at a conference planned for the end of September in Brussels. However, because of the outbreak of the Second World War, the conference never took place.

Through his involvement in the Pan-African Federation, Kenyatta would possibly have met Jawaharlal Nehru. Kenyatta knew N. G. Ranga from early on. In 1945, Kenyatta attended the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester along with Amy Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Ras Makonnen, Surat Alley, and George Padmore among others. He participated in Fabian Society conferences on post-war colonial affairs. Kenyatta returned to Kenya in September 1946 where he assumed leadership of the Kenya African Union. After the Mau Mau uprising in 1952, he was arrested in 1953 and spent the next seven years in prison. In 1962, he returned to London to negotiate the terms of a Kenyan constitution on behalf of the Kenya African National Union before being elected prime minister in June 1963. Kenya became independent in December 1963 and Kenyatta became president the next year. He ruled Kenya until his death on 22 August 1978.

Atma S. Kamlani was a member of the Executive Committee of the Friends of India Society, a rival organization to Krishna Menon's India League. He also edited the society's organ India Bulletin.

Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru. As Nehru’s daughter, she became actively involved in the struggle for India’s independence. Indira Gandhi was educated at a number of schools and colleges in India and abroad. She first visited Europe in 1926, accompanying her parents to Switzerland for her mother’s convalescence. She visited Paris and London with her parents in 1927 and returned to India in December 1927. In April 1930 she formed the youth wing of the Indian National Congress, the ‘Vanar Sena’. She attended the Ecole de Bex in Switzerland, December 1927; St Mary’s Convent School in Allahabad, May 1931; and The Pupil’s Own School in Pune (Poona), May 1931 - April 1934. She passed her matriculation examination in April 1934 and in July 1934 was admitted to Rabindranath Tagore’s Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan, Bengal.

In April 1935 Indira moved to Europe with her mother. In 1936 she joined the Indian National Congress. In February 1936 she attended Badminton School near Bristol and then in 1938 she joined Somerville College, Oxford. In the same year she became a member of the India League and through the contacts of her father was introduced to many figures involved with the Indian struggle for independence in the UK. Krishna Menon persuaded Indira to give speeches at meetings. She was involved with the India League's campaigns especially in support of Spanish Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. While in England she met with her future husband Feroze Gandhi, who was also a member of the India League and studying in London. Plagued by ill-health, she was attended to by C. L. Katial and she made repeated trips to convalesce in Switzerland.

Indira returned to India in 1941 together with Feroze Gandhi, whom she married in 1942. She took an active part in the Quit India movement and was imprisoned in Naini Central Jail from September 1942 to March 1943. Indira Gandhi served twice as India's Prime Minister and was assassinated on 31 October 1984.

Chuni Lal Katial was a doctor and politician. He moved to England in 1927 after graduating with a medical degree from Lahore University and working for five years with the Indian Medical Service in Iraq. He resigned his position to continue his training in public health. He studied in Liverpool and gained a diploma in tropical medicine. He later became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine. On moving to London Katial established his own practice, first in Canning Town and later in Finsbury, attending mainly to working-class patients. He was a member of the Indian Social Club and the Indian Medical Association, and was involved with the Hindu Association of Europe.

He became heavily involved with the India League and was a supporter of Krishna Menon. During the second Round Table Conference in Autumn 1931, he put himself at the disposal of Gandhi, arranging meetings and effectively becoming his chauffeur. The meeting between Charlie Chaplin and Gandhi took place at his house.

He won a seat for Labour on Finsbury Borough Council in 1934 and served as Deputy Mayor from 1936 to 1938. He became the first South Asian mayor in 1938, a position he held until 1939. In 1946, he was elected to the London County Council to represent the borough. His work as Chairman of Finsbury’s public health committee had the most wide-reaching impact, with Katial being a driving force for the creation of a health centre for the borough, which opened in 1938. It concentrated under one roof a number of services and health provisions for the borough’s population, such as doctors’ surgeries, a TB clinic, a dentist and a women’s clinic. It was a trailblazer for similar provisions which formed an integral part of the National Heath Service, created in 1948.

During the Second World War, Katial worked as a civil defence medical officer and chaired the air raid precautions medical service and food control committee. He also provided training in first aid for the St John’s Ambulance Brigade. For his services to the borough he was made a freeman of Finsbury in 1948. The same year he returned to India and worked as Director-General of the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation of India until 1953. He returned to London in the 1970s and died in Putney in 1978.