resistance

Said Amir Shah

About: 

Said Amir Shah was a London-based silk merchant and warehouseman. He ran a business with his brother Fazal Shah on White Church Lane, and held a shop at 36 Montague Street. He also worked as a contractor for film companies, finding Indians (predominantly former lascars and hawkers) for crowd scenes, and in 1942 founded a company named Shah Film Corporation with John Kartar Singh and Herbert Bundy as his co-directors. A highly resourceful individual, during his time in Britain Shah was involved in a number of anti-colonial organizations and activities. Indeed, V. K. Krishna Menon reportedly cultivated Shah because of his connections, especially with working-class Indians in the East End of London.

Government officials first became aware of Shah through his involvement with the London branch of the Indian National Congress in the 1930s. After a brief period of involvement with the East End branch of Menon’s India League, he went on to become a prominent figure in the Committee of Indian Congressmen (led by Amiya Nath Bose and Pulin Behari Seal), under whose auspices he created an Indian National Muslim Committee which was strongly anti-Pakistan. He also aided lascars in their struggle for workers’ rights, acting as a court interpreter for those involved in criminal cases, and was an active member of the Hindustani Social Club.

In addition, Shah was a leading figure in the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin; in the 1940s he held the post of treasurer, and, according to government reports, he was responsible for opening various provincial branches of the organization in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. Shah campaigned for a mosque to serve the Muslim community in the East End of London, and was instrumental in the foundation of the East London Mosque in 1941. He made a speech at its inauguration ceremony, and played a leading role in its management and affairs subsquently. He was the main agitator on behalf of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin in its struggle against the trustees for control over the mosque in 1943.

Example: 

L/PJ/12/468, India Office Records, African and Asian Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras, pp. 278-80

Content: 

This Indian Political Intelligence file comprises documentation and correspondence relating to Indian Muslim organizations and activity in Britain during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. It includes reports on the activities and establishment of mosques in London, including the Shah Jahan Mosque, the East London Mosque, and the Regent’s Park Mosque.

Connections: 

Ayub Ali (through East London Mosque), Surat Alley (through Hindustani Social Club), Mulk Raj Anand (through Hindustani Social Club), Tarapadu Basu (attended Jamiat protest meeting against ELM trustees), Amiya Nath Bose (through Committee of Indian Congressmen), G. S. Dara (accountant for Shah Bros), Dr Dutt (through India League), Sir Ernest Hotson (through East London Mosque), Kundan Lal Jalie (through East End connections), C. L. Katial (through India League), Kalundar Amirullah Khan (through Committee of Indian Congressmen), Sahibdad Khan (through East London Mosque, Jamiat-ul-Muslimin and Hindustani Social Club), V. K. Krishna Menon (through India League), Firoz Khan Noon (through East London Mosque), Hassan Nachat Pasha (Egyptian Ambassador – through East London Mosque), Ahmed Din Qureshi (through Hindustani Social Club), S. M. Sayeedulla (through East London Mosque), Pulin Behari Seal (through Committee of Indian Congressmen, Krishnarao Shelvankar (through Jamiat and ELM dispute), I. G. P. Singh (attended Jamiat protest meeting against ELM trustees), John Kartar Singh (formed Shah Film Corporation with Shah, and through Hindustani Social Club), Hassan Suhrawardy (through the East London Mosque), Sir Frederick Sykes (through East London Mosque), C. B. Vakil (through India League).

Shah Film Corporation

Precise DOB unknown: 
Y
Extract: 

It is now clear that from 1941 onwards, SHAH has been trying to work himself up to a position of leadership in Moslem circles in this country. It is highly improbable that he has any religious motives in the matter, but desires to strengthen his hand as uncrowned king amongst Indian merchants, peddlers and seamen in the East End and in Provincial towns. In October 1941, when the East London Mosque was opened, he commented to the effect that it was not the Mosque he wanted, but it would have its uses. Shortly afterwards he was one of two members of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin co-opted onto the Board of Trustees of the Mosque and the Mosque Fund, and thereafter campaigned strenuously to obtain control, through the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin, of the Mosque and the Fund.

Relevance: 

First, this extract points to the fact that Muslim South Asians in Britain during the early twentieth century identified in terms of their religious faith as well as in terms of a broader Indian identity. Further, it suggests the presence of a burgeoning Muslim working-class community in the East End of London – a precursor to the significant Bangladeshi community that inhabits the area today. Finally, Shah’s connections with and leadership of ‘Indian merchants, peddlers and seamen’ coupled with his involvement with the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin and the East London Mosque suggest an intersection of the political and religious spheres for Muslims in 1940s Britain – and an attempt on Shah’s part to mobilize this community for the right to practise their faith within the public sphere.

Archive source: 

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

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

Involved in events: 

Inauguration of the East London Mosque, 1941

Dispute between the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin and the Board of Trustees of the East London Mosque, 1943

Opening of the East End branch of the India League, 1943

City of birth: 
Amritsar, Punjab
Country of birth: 
India

Locations

Montague Street
London, EC2Y 8BB
United Kingdom
51° 31' 3.3312" N, 0° 5' 52.818" W
White Church Lane
London, E1 7QR
United Kingdom
51° 30' 55.7388" N, 0° 4' 8.1732" W
Precise date of death unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1930s - 1940s

British Shipping (Assistance) Act (1935)

Date: 
01 Jan 1935
Precise date unknown: 
Y
About: 

The British Shipping (Assistance) Act of 1935 aimed to subsidize the British shipping industry in the context of the economic depression of the 1930s. While one of its purposes was to safeguard seamen’s jobs, it did so only for white British seamen, thus discriminating on the grounds of race. One of the requirements for payment of the subsidy was that the ship employed only ‘British seamen’. Thus, in the wake of the Act, many ship-owners sacked all but their white employees, and numerous Indian lascars found themselves suddenly without employment.

This discriminatory Act was met with considerable resistance. The Colonial Seamen’s Association, which brought South Asian seamen together with their black, Arab and Chinese counterparts, was formed in reaction to the Act, in order to better mobilize against it. They held numerous meetings in which the Act was denounced. In May 1935, Shapurji Saklatvala gave a speech decrying the Act at the Coloured National Mutual Social Club in South Shields. Opposition to the Act was also voiced in India where there were even threats of retaliation against white workers there. With protest against the Act coming from the India Office and Colonial Office as well as the CSA and other organizations, the discrimination was removed in March 1936.

People involved: 

Surat Alley (secretary of the Colonial Seamen’s Association), Aftab Ali Chris Jones (Braithewaite) (led the Colonial Seamen’s Association), George PadmoreShapurji Saklatvala (spoke out against Act),  Rowland Sawyer.

Secondary works: 

Tabili, Laura, ‘We Ask for British Justice’: Workers and Racial Difference in Late Imperial Britain (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1994)

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

Archive source: 

MT 9/2737, National Archives, Kew

L/E/9/955, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Special Restriction (Coloured Alien Seamen) Order (1925)

Date: 
18 Mar 1925
Event location: 

The Order was originally carried into effect in the port areas of Glamorgan, Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Liverpool, Salford, Newcastle-on-Tyne, South Shields, Middlesbrough and Hull. In January 1926, it was extended throughout Britain.

About: 

The Special Restriction (Coloured Alien Seamen's) Order is described by Laura Tabili as 'the first instance of state-sanctioned race discrimination inside Britain to come to widespread notice' (p. 56). The work of the Home Office Aliens Department, the Order was issued under Article II of the Aliens Order of 1920 and stated that 'coloured' seamen who did not possess documentary proof of their status as British must register as 'aliens' in Britain 'whether or not they have been in the United Kingdom for more than two months'. Police were to apprehend 'coloured' men disembarking from ships and report them to the police if they failed to show their documentation. In practice, it was not easy for 'coloured' seamen to prove that they were British subjects because sailors were not required to carry passports and, unlike those of their white counterparts, 'coloured' seamen's discharge certificates were not considered proof of their nationality because of allegations of trafficking in these papers.

Reasons for the issue of the Order are various and debated. In a letter dated 14 August 1926, the Under-Secretary of State cites the demands made at the end of the First World War by the National Sailor and Fireman's Union that 'steps should be taken to restrict the admission to this country of coloured seamen who could not establish that they were British subjects, since they competed in the overstocked labour market for seamen and were a source of grave discontent among British sailors', and claims that the accumulation of 'coloured seamen' in certain ports 'was a continual source of irritation and...likely to lead to a breach of the peace' (HO 45/12314). However, by the mid-1920s, employment in the shipping industry was beginning to pick up, which calls these reasons into question. Further, historians have recently questioned the role of the Union in pushing forward this piece of legislation, arguing that it was the state that played a more significant role.

State officials, determined to deport 'coloured' seamen, interpreted and enforced the rules rigidly, depriving these men of their citizenship. The India Office and Colonial Office received numerous protests from seamen who claimed that police were using the order to target men who were obviously British subjects. Further, officials erroneously applied the rules to non-seamen, for example registering 63 Glasgow-based Indians, most of whom worked as peddlers and labourers, as 'aliens'. Indians in Liverpool protested in the form of a public rally and through founding the Indian Seamen's Union, led by N. J. Upadhyaya. The India Office, fearful of the public outcry triggered by the Order in India, reprimanded the Home Office, even suggesting that all Indians should be issued with passports - a suggestion that was not received favourably by the Home Office. Finally, it was agreed that Indian seamen registered as 'aliens' could apply to the Home Office to have their British nationality verified. They would then be issued with a Special Certificate of Identity and Nationality which would enable their registration to be cancelled. The Order was finally revoked in 1942.

People involved: 

P. S. R. Chowdhury (Secretary of the Glasgow Indian Union which contested the registration of the 63 Glasgow-based Indians), Home Secretary Joynson-Hicks (passed the Order), N. J. Upadhyaya (founded the Indian Seamen's Union as a result of the Order).

Secondary works: 

Lane, Tony, 'The Political Imperatives of Bureaucracy and Empire: The Case of the Coloured Alien Seamen Order, 1925', Immigrants and Minorities 13.2-3 (July/November 1994), pp. 104-29

Little, Kenneth, Negroes in Britain: A Study of Racial Relations in English Society (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, [1948] 1972)

Rich, Paul B., Race and Empire in British Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 122–30

Sherwood, Marika, ‘Race, Nationality and Employment among Lascar Seamen, 1660–1945’, New Community 17.2 (January 1991), pp. 234–5

Tabili, Laura, ‘The Construction of Racial Difference in Twentieth-Century Britain: The Special Restriction (Coloured Alien Seamen) Order, 1925’, Journal of British Studies 33 (January 1994), pp. 54–98

Tabili, Laura, ‘We Ask for British Justice’: Workers and Racial Difference in Late Imperial Britain (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1994)

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

Example: 

Letter from the Under-Secretary of State to the Chief Constables of scheduled areas, 23 March 1925, HO 45/12314, National Archives, Kew

Content: 

The file contains correspondence and reports by state and police officials relating to the Special Restriction (Coloured Alien Seamen's) Order, 1925.

Extract: 

I am directed by the Secretary of State to inform you that he has recently had under consideration measures to facilitate the control of coloured alien seamen at present in this country and to prevent more effectively the entry of others into the United Kingdom without proper authority; and he has come to the conclusion that in order to deal with the problem presented by these aliens – particularly those of them who are ‘Arabs’ – it is necessary that they should be required to register in all cases, including those where the alien has hitherto been exempt under Article 6(5) of the Aliens Order, 1920, by reason of the fact that less than two months has elapsed since his last arrival in the United Kingdom or that he is not resident in the United Kingdom.

…The difficulties [of the present situation] arise mainly from the fact that the racial resemblance between many coloured seamen is such that there is no satisfactory means of identifying individuals; and the primary object which the Secretary of State has in view is to remedy this deficiency by requiring every coloured seamen…unless he is able to show that he is a British subject, to provide himself immediately with a document by which he can be readily identified and on which his entry into the United Kingdom (if duly authorised by grant of leave to land) can be recorded.

Relevance: 

The language used in this passage - in particular the words 'control' and 'aliens' - is indicative of the perceived threat posed by 'coloured' seamen to the nation. The vagueness of the words 'problem' and 'difficulties' is suggestive of the concealment of some of the unmentionable reasons for the entrenchment of barriers to these sailors' entry into Britain (i. e., racism) - which are however hinted at with the mention of the 'racial resemblance' of the seamen. In general, the passage is illustrative of the strategies of control used in an attempt to maintain the racial and cultural homogeneity of Britain - and also of the failure of this.

Archive source: 

HO 45/12314, National Archives, Kew

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

Indian Seamen's Welfare League

About: 

The Indian Seamen’s Welfare League offered membership to all Indian seamen resident in Britain on the payment of an annual subscription of one shilling. Its main 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). Inaugurated by the former seamen Ayub Ali and Shah Abdul Majid Qureshi, it held its first meeting on Commercial Road in July 1943. This attracted approximately 100 people, including a dozen Europeans among the Bengali seamen who made up the bulk of the audience.

The organization described itself as social rather than political. Indeed it changed its name from the Indian Seamen’s Union precisely because it feared the political connotations of the word ‘union’ would alienate ship owners and attract the attention of the police. However, records of meetings suggest that there were tensions between those who espoused this non-political position and those who considered the concerns of the organization to be inextricable from an anti-colonial politics. Further, surveillance reports warn that the organization attempted to dissuade Indian seamen from risking their lives bringing food to Britain when the Government was responsible for famine in India, and that its ‘extreme elements’ wished thereby to sabotage the war effort.

Example: 

L/PJ/12/630, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras, pp. 141-2

Other names: 

Indian Seamen’s Union

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, 2002)

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.

Date began: 
09 May 1943
Extract: 

These four speakers made it plain that Indians joined the Merchant Navy, not from any desire to assist this country’s war effort, but were driven to it for economic reasons – empty stomachs and hungry relatives made them undertake this dangerous work. According to them, so long as India remained under foreign domination, any organisation set up for the protection of the rights of Indian seamen had to be prepared to fight against the deliberate attempt to exploit them.

N. Datta MAJUMDAR…complained bitterly that there was no complete list of Indian seamen lost at sea and of the utter disregard for their dependents and relatives. The crux of the whole problem was that India was under foreign domination and while this continued, the British Government would treat its subject Indian seamen and their dependents with such callousness. This state of affairs had to be remedied, and it devolved on the Welfare League to probe the Government and demand immediate redress.

Homi BODE complained that the position of the average Indian seamen was disgraceful, and it was hypocracy (stet.) to say that an organisation aiming to remedy their grievances could be non-political.

Key Individuals' Details: 

Ajman Ali (assistant secretary), Ayub Ali (co-founder, secretary and treasurer), Masharaf Ali (vice-president), Rashid Ali (assistant secretary), Surat Alley (on executive committee), Tarapada Basu (on executive committee), Mrs Haidri Bhattacharji (on executive committee), B. B. Ray Chaudhuri (on executive committee), Abdul Hamid (participated in inaugural meeting), N. Datta Majumdar (on executive committee), M. A. Mullick (on executive committee), Shah Abdul Majid Qureshi (co-founder and president), Said Amir Shah (on executive committee) C. B. Vakil (on executive committee).

Relevance: 

This extract is from a report on the inaugural meeting of the Indian Seamen’s Welfare League held on 7 July 1943. The four speakers referred to here are C. B. Vakil and B. B. Ray Chaudhuri in addition to Majumdar and Bose. All served on the executive committee of the organization. The extract underlines the plight of working-class Indians in Britain and the way they were silently sacrificed in the ‘war effort’, as well as the impossibility of extricating concerns with the welfare of Indians in Britain from a wider anti-colonial politics and the links between a local (i.e., East End) and transnational politics. The League is further evidence of the strong sense of community developing among East End Indians in the 1940s, as well as their ability to mobilize for their rights as minority workers in Britain. Further, the presence of the middle-class Chaudhuri and Vakil on the executive committee of a workers’ organization suggest that South Asian activity and activism in Britain did transgress boundaries of class to some extent.

Connections: 

Homi Bode (attended inaugural meeting), Kundan Lal Jalie (claimed he was the originator of the organization), V. K. Krishna Menon (disapproved of the organization because he believed it would clash with the India-based Indian Seamen’s Union), John Kartar Singh (attended inaugural meeting). 

Archive source: 

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

Location

66 Christian Street
London, E1 1RT
United Kingdom
Involved in events details: 

Inaugural meeting, King’s Hall, Commercial Road, E1, 14 July 1943

Udham Singh

About: 

Udham Singh was a political activist from the Punjab. He was closely linked to communist activists and parties associated with the independence movement. During the early 1920s, after a brief three-month stay in Dover in 1921, he spent some time in the US, working in Detroit for the Ford Motor Company as a tool maker, before relocating to California. While in California, he established contacts with the Ghadar Party, which was dedicated to Indian freedom and independence. It had strong communist tendencies and was founded by South Asians living in America and Canada. He returned to India in 1927.

Back in the Punjab, Udham Singh was arrested for the illegal possession of firearms and sentenced to five years imprisonment. Singh was released from prison in October 1931. He managed to acquire a passport and made his way to London in 1934. In his application for his passport endorsement, he claimed to have been working as a sports outfitter in India, but since his arrival, living in Canterbury, Kent, he was unable to secure employment. There are suggestions that in this period he worked as a pedlar. During 1937, he worked as an extra in crowd scenes for Alexander Korda’s London Studios at Denham. During 1938, he worked as a carpenter at the RAF Station at Great Chessington, Gloucestershire, before becoming unemployed.

Udham Singh was well known in the Indian community at the time and also had contacts with Sikh pedlars living in Coventry, and Southampton. The objective of his stay in London was to find an opportunity to assassinate Michael O’Dwyer, the Governor of the Punjab in 1919, whom Singh held responsible for the Amritsar massacre, which had left a lasting impression on Singh after his brother and sister were killed there. Subsequently he had sworn to avenge the massacre. Singh had had a few opportunities to assassinate O’Dwyer but he was waiting for an occasion when his actions would have the most public impact.

On 13 March 1940, Singh shot O’Dwyer at a meeting of the East India Association and the Royal Central Asian Society at Caxton Hall. O’Dwyer was killed instantly and Lord Zetland, Lord Lamington and Louis Dane were also hit and wounded by the shots. Singh was immediately arrested and held in Brixton prison. There he staged a thirty-six day hunger strike, which resulted in him being forcibly fed through a tube. The assassination of O’Dwyer was reported widely in the press. In police statements and at court Singh gave his name as Mohamed Singh Azad as a symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity in the fight for Indian freedom. He was tried at the Old Bailey on 4 June 1940. Krishna Menon was part of his defence team. After a trial in which the prosecution presented a simple case and the defence of Singh was often sketchy and chaotic he was sentenced to death by hanging on 5 June and executed on 31 July at Pentonville Prison, where he was also buried. In 1974, his body was repatriated to India and cremated in his home village of Sunam.

Example: 

Statement of Witness, Cannon Row, Station ‘A Division’ 13 March 1940, L/PJ/12/500, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Date of birth: 
26 Dec 1899
Content: 

This extract from Udham Singh’s witness statement details his motivation to assassinate Michael O’Dwyer at Caxton Hall.

Connections: 

Surat Alley, Krishna Menon, Michael O'Dwyer, Marquess of Zetland.

Ghadar Party

Extract: 

I went back home again, then I thought it was time to go to this afternoon meeting to protest. I take my revolver from home with me to protest.

In the beginning of the meeting I was standing up. I did not take the revolver to kill but just to protest. Well then when the meeting was already finished I took the revolver from my pocket and I shot like I think at the wall. I just shot to make the protest.
 
I have seen people starving in India under British Imperialism. I done it, the pistol went off three or four times. I am not sorry for protesting. It was my duty to do so. Put some more. Just for the sake of my country to protest.

I do not mind what sentence. Ten, twenty or fifty years, or to be hanged. I done my duty. Actually I did not mean to take a person’s life, do you understand. I just mean protesting you know.

Secondary works: 

Grewal, H. S. and Puri, H. K. (eds), Letters of Udham Singh (Amritsar: Guru Nanak University, 1974)

Maighowalia, B. S., Sardar Udham Singh : A Prince Amongst Patriots of India, the avenger of the massacre of Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, foreword by Krishna Menon (Hoshiarpur : Chhabra Printing Press, 1969)

Singh, H. (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, 2nd ed. (Patiala, 1998)

Singh, Navtej, Challenge to Imperial Hegemony: The life story of a great Indian patriot, Udham Singh (Patiala: Publication Bureau, Punjabi University, 1998)

Singh, Navtej and Jouhl, Avtar Singh (eds), Emergence of the Image: Redact Documents of Udham Singh (New Delhi: National Book Organization, 2002)

Singh, Sikander, Udham Singh alias Ram Mohammed Singh Azad: A great patriot and martyr who challenged the British Imperialism: a saga of the freedom movement and Jallianwala Bagh (Amritsar: B. Chattar Singh Jiwan Singh, 1998)

Archive source: 

L/PJ/12/500, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

L/PJ/12/637, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

L/PJ/7/1715, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Mss Eur C826 1940 Copy of transcript of proceedings in the trial, on 4 Jun 1940, of Udham Singh for the murder of Sir Michael Francis O'Dwyer (1864-1940), Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab 1913-19, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

MEPO 3/1743 Murder of Sir Michael Francis O'Dwyer by Udham Singh at Caxton Hall, Westminster, on 13 March, 1940, National Archives, Kew, UK

PCOM 9/872, National Archives, Kew, UK

P&J (s) 466/36, National Archives, Kew, UK

Involved in events: 

Assassination of Michael O’Dwyer

City of birth: 
Sunam, Patiala, Punjab
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Sher Singh, Udhan Singh, Ude Singh, Frank Brazil, Mohamed Singh Azad

Locations

Canterbury CT1 2PR
United Kingdom
51° 15' 57.888" N, 1° 4' 43.3056" E
8 Mornington Terrace
London, NW1 7RS
United Kingdom
51° 32' 2.9436" N, 0° 8' 32.9856" W
Date of death: 
31 Jul 1940
Location of death: 
Pentonville Prison, North London
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1934
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1934-40

Location: 

London, Canterbury, Gloucestershire, Kent.

Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan

About: 

Noor Inayat Khan was the daughter of the Sufi preacher Hazrat Inayat Khan and Ora Ray Baker, an American of British origin (her father was half-English and half-Irish, her mother Scottish).

In 1914, Noor and her family moved from Paris to London, where they would remain until 1920. The family moved back to France in 1920, setting up home in Suresnes. In 1932 she enrolled at the Sorbonne, University of Paris, for a degree in child psychology. After leaving university, she began writing children’s stories. She published Jataka Tales, an English translation of stories and fables on the Buddha in 1939, and also wrote for the children’s pages of the Sunday edition of the newspaper Le Figaro. After the outbreak of the Second World War she trained as a nurse with the Red Cross in France.

With the imminent Fall of France in the summer of 1940, she fled to England with her brother Vilayat and her mother and she decided to join the war effort. Having previously trained with the Red Cross in France, she briefly worked at the Fulmer Chase maternity home for Officers’ Wives near Slough, before joining the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) under the name ‘Nora Inayat Khan’ in November 1940. Together with 40 other women she was chosen to train in wireless operation.  She trained as a wireless telegraphist at RAF Balloon Command, Edinburgh in December 1940, before being posted with RAF Bomber Command at Abingdon in June 1941. She was called for an interview by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) on 19 November 1942. Her language skills in French and English and her outstanding aptitude as a radio operator were of particular interest to the SOE. Despite controversies about her suitability for the job, she was recruited by Selwyn Jepson, who was responsible for recruitment for the SOE French Section, after just one interview. Her motivation was a great sense of justice and freedom and wanting to contribute to the liberation of France. During her time in London, Noor also had become increasingly aware of the Indian independence movement. Her brother Vilayat Khan was of the opinion that if Noor had survived the war the next cause she would have committed herself to would probably have been Indian independence.

Noor Inayat Khan joined SOE, F section on 8 February 1943 and was seconded to FANY (Women’s Transport Service First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) as a cover story for family and friends. There she trained in the use of firearms. On 16/17 June, after 4 months of training, she was flown to France under the code name ‘Madeleine’ and her cover name Jeanne-Marie Renier, one of the first female wireless operators to be infiltrated into France. However the team she was attached headed by ‘Prosper’ had  been betrayed, and by 24 June, only a week after her arrival, mass arrests had already begun. Nevertheless, she joined the ‘Prosper’ team, narrowly escaping from the Gestapo on a number of occasions. Within ten days of her arrival, the network was in complete disarray and Noor was lying low, moving between a number of safe houses. She re-emerged when matters had calmed down to inform London of the destruction of the Prosper circuit. Despite the dangers, she stayed and was the SOE’s last wireless operator in Paris. She continued transmitting messages to London under considerable personal risk to her own safety for arms and arms drops to be collected. By that time the Gestapo were already on her trail. She was arrested on 13 October 1943, a day before she was due to return to England, after someone, probably the sister of her first contact in Paris, had tipped off the Gestapo for 100,000 Francs. Despite hours of torture, Noor Inayat Khan did not reveal any information. However, because she had meticulously filed all her messages between her and London in cipher and clear, having interpreted too literally an order from SOE headquarters, the Gestapo could take over her station, and her arrest remained undetected by SOE.

Being deemed a difficult and uncooperative prisoner and after two unsuccessful attemps to escape, she was transferred to the Gestapo prison in Pforzheim, Germany, where she spent a lot of time in solitary confinement and in chains. On 11 September 1944 she was transported to Dachau concentration camp where she was executed on 13 September 1944. She was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre with Gold Star by the French Republic and in 1949 the George Cross by the British Government.

Published works: 

Twenty Jataka Tales Retold (London: G. G. Harrap & Co., 1939)

Children's Stories in the French newspaper Le Figaro (Aug. 1939), also broadcast on Radio Paris

Date of birth: 
02 Jan 1914
Connections: 

Jean Overton Fuller, Selwyn Jepson, Jean Marais (WAAF metereologist of Indian origin).

Secondary works: 

Basu, Shrabani, Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan (Stroud: The History Press, 2008)

Binney, Marcus, The Women who lived for Danger: The Women Agents of SOE in the Second World War (London: Coronet, 2002)

Buckmaster, Maurice, They Fought Alone (London: Popular Book Club, 1958)

Cookridge, E.H., Inside SOE (London: Heinemann, 1966)

Cunningham, Cyril, Beaulieu: The Finishing School for Secret Agents (Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2005)

Escot, Beryl E., The WAAF: A History of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force in the Second World War (Princes Risborough: Shire, 2003)

Escot, Beryl E.,  Mission Improbable: A Salute to Air Women of the SOE in Wartime France (Wellingborough: Stephens, 1991)

Foot, M. R. D., SOE in France: an Account of the work of the British Special Operations Executive in France, 1940-1944 (London: Frank Cass, 2004)

Frayn Turner, John, VCs of the Second World War (Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2004)

Hayes-Fisher, John, Timewatch: The Princess Spy (BBC/The Open University,  2006) (documentary film for BBC2): [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/timewatch/gallery_spy.shtml]

Helm, Sarah, A Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE (London: Little Brown, 2005)

Howarth, Patrick, Undercover: The Men and Women of the Special Operations Executive (London: Phoenix, 2000)

Lahiri, Shompa, ‘Clandestine Mobilities and Shifting Embodiments: Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan and the Special Operatives Executive, 1940–44’, Gender and History 19.2 (2007), pp. 305–23

Lukes, Sue, The Real Charlotte Grays (Darlow Smithson Productions, 2004) (documentary film first broadcast on Channel 4, February 2004)

Mackenzie, William, The Secret History of SOE: The Special Operations Executive, 1940-1945 (London: St Ermins, 2002)

Marks, Leo, Between Silk and Cyanide: a codemaker's story, 1941-1945 (London: Harper Collins, 2000)

Overton Fuller, Jean,  The German Penetration of SOE, revised edition (Maidstone: Mann, 1996)

Overton Fuller, Jean, Madeleine: The Story of Noor Inayat Khan (London: Gollancz, 1952)

Overton Fuller, Jean,  Born for Sacrifice: the Sory of Noor Inayat Khan, revised edition (London: Pan Books, 1957)

West, Nigel, Secret War: The Story of SOE, Britain's Wartie Sabotage Organisation (London: Hodder & Staughton, 1992)

Archive source: 

HS9/836/5, National Archives, Kew, UK

Sound Archive, Imperial War Museum, London

Involved in events: 

SOE operations in Paris, Second World War, 1943

City of birth: 
Moscow
Country of birth: 
Russia
Other names: 

Noor Inayat Khan, Madeleine, Jeanne-Marie Renier

Location

RAF AbingdonOX13 6HW
United Kingdom
51° 39' 36.2808" N, 1° 19' 57.846" W
Date of death: 
13 Sep 1944
Location of death: 
Dachau Concentration Camp, Germany
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Aug 1914
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

August 1914 - Spring 1920, June 1940 - June 1943

Location: 

Abingdon, Edinburgh, London, Oxford.

Basanta Kumar Mallik

About: 

Basanta Mallik was a significant twentieth-century Indian philosopher who followed his studies in philosophy at the University of Calcutta (BA, 1902; MA, 1903) with a period as a student then academic at the University of Oxford. Mallik began his time at Oxford as a law student, gaining a BA in Jurisprudence in 1916; he went on to complete a Certificate in Physical and Cultural Anthropology (1918) and a Diploma in Anthropology (1919). His studies at Oxford were sponsored by the Prime Minister of Nepal (Mallik worked initially as a tutor for his sons but later took up many government roles, especially in foreign affairs). Unable to return home after the First World War broke out, he resumed his first love, philosophy, getting agreement from his patrons to begin a BLitt (PhD).

Able to remain in Oxford, he became part of closely knit group of friends and frequently visited Robert Bridges at Boar’s Hill. He met Robert Graves at a Lotus Club dinner in 1922 and significantly influenced the poet’s early work. Graves treated him as a mentor and was fascinated with his metaphysical and philosophical meditations on breaking down conflict, violence and the clash of civilizations. Traces of this influence are evident in Graves’s early work, in collections such as Mock Beggar Hall, appealing to the pacifist interests of the Hogarth Press and Leonard Woolf. Mallik also established close friendships with T. E. Lawrence, Sydney Lewis and Sam Harries who met up at Boar’s Hill or in Mallik’s Oxford rooms. He was active in the Lotus Club and was friends with many other Indians in Oxford. His ideas attempted to bridge philosophical debates drawn from ‘East’ and ‘West’; Mallick, like others of his generation, was widely read in both traditions. His belief that the effect of British rule in India had made untenable the concepts of equality and freedom on which humanist ideals were based made him an anti-imperialist, although he did not believe in violent resistance. Mallik went back to Nepal in 1923 and then to Calcutta. He returned to Oxford in 1938 where he continued to write, lecture and publish until his death in 1958.

The friendship with Graves is recorded in the first edition of Robert Graves’s autobiography, published in 1929, Goodbye to All That. Graves and his family cut off the close relations with Mallik soon after he returned to Nepal in 1923 and once Graves had decided not to follow him there with others of the group. Graves deletes all references to Mallik in later editions of his autobiography (see Sondhi and Walker on the complexities of this relationship).

Published works: 

The Individual and the Group: An Indian Study in Conflict (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1939)

The Real and the Negative (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1940)

Gandhi - A Prophecy (Oxford: Hall the Publisher, 1948)

Related Multiplicity (Oxford: Hall the Publisher, 1952)

The Towering Wave (London: Vincent Stuart Publishers Ltd, 1953)

Non Absolutes (London: Vincent Stuart Publishers Ltd, 1956)

Mythology and Possibility (London: Vincent Stuart Publishers Ltd, 1960)

Date of birth: 
01 Jan 1879
Connections: 

F. W. Bateson, Robert Bridges, R. G. Collingwood, Alfred Graves, Robert Graves, Sam Harries, E. B. Havell, T. E. Lawrence, Sydney Lewis, Winifred Lewis, Wyndham Lewis, A. D. Lindsay, Lady Ottoline Morell, King of Nepal, Harold Nicholson, Nancy Nicholson, K. M. Panikkar, H. J. Paton, Shuaib Qureshi, S. Radakrishnan, Edgell Rickward, Lady Cecilia Roberts, Wilfred Roberts, W. D. Ross, Siegfried Sassoon, Hasan Shahid Suhrawardy, Rabindranath Tagore, W. B. Yeats.

Basanta Kumar Mallik Trust, Exeter College, University of Oxford.

Contributions to periodicals: 

The Winter Owl (‘Interchange of Selves’, 3, 1923)

Precise DOB unknown: 
Y
Secondary works: 

Lewis, Wyndham (ed.) Basanta Kumar Mallik: A Garland of Homage (London, 1961)

Sondhi, Madhuri, The Making of Peace: A Logical and Societal Framework according to Basanta Kumar Mallik (New Delhi, 1985)

Sondhi, Madhuri and Sondhi, M. L., ‘Remembering Basanta Kumar Mallik (1879-1958)’, The Round Table 301 (1987), pp. 64-73

Sondhi, Madhuri and Walker, Mary M., ‘Basanta Kumar Mallik and Robert Graves: Personal Encounters and Processes in Socio-Cultural Thought’, Gravesiana: The Journal of the Robert Graves Society 1.11 (December 1996), pp. 109-46

Involved in events: 

Development of several Majlis meetings in Oxford

Lotus Club dinner for Tagore, Randolph Hotel, Oxford, 1913

City of birth: 
Calcutta?
Country of birth: 
India
Current name city of birth: 
Kolkata

Location

Exeter College
University of Oxford
Oxford, OX1 3DP
United Kingdom
51° 45' 32.652" N, 1° 15' 24.0048" W
Date of death: 
01 Dec 1958
Precise date of death unknown: 
Y
Location of death: 
Oxford
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1912
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1912-23, 1938-

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