The transformation of Southall into a key site for anti-racist resistance is not a historical observation but a crucial argument in understanding the dynamics of politics in contemporary Britain.
Chris Steele-Perkins (1981)
This article argues that a collective historical consciousness directly informed Southall’s emergence as a significant centre of anti-racist activism. I will argue that this consciousness comes not from a passive resistance but from a determined struggle against entrenched racial violence and prejudice by the post-War Commonwealth migrant community of Southall, who brought with them not only their cultural heritage but also a legacy of political activism. The late 1970s and early 1980s events, particularly the tragic incidents involving Gurdip Singh Chaggar and Blair Peach, were critical in mobilising the Southall community. However, this story begins much earlier.
The burning down of the Hambrough Tavern in 1981 is a symbolic climax of this history of resistance. Far from being a mere protest, it was a deliberate and significant assertion of the community's collective power and unity against racism. This act was not just about responding to a singular event; it was a representation of years of accumulated frustration and a determined stand against the systemic racial injustices that the Southall community had endured. Southall's transformation into a key site for anti-racist resistance is not just a chapter in British history but a powerful narrative of empowerment, resilience, and a testament to the enduring struggle for racial equality and justice.
Migration to Southall
Although migration into Southall was predominantly from the Commonwealth from the post-war period to the late 1970s (Nasser, 2004), Southall has historically been a site for waves of immigration with Welsh and Irish relocation in the early twentieth century (Qureshi, 2014). To understand immigration in Southall, it is important to begin with the disbandment of the British Empire (Brah, 1999). During the Second World War, 2.5 million Indians fought for Britain during the World War (Marston, 2014). In post-1945, Britain could not afford the cost of maintaining its empire, and the Indian sub-continent (India, Pakistan and later Bangladesh) was given independence (Darwin, 1988). This partly arose because India had a strong independence movement (Bipan Chandra et al., 2016), consisting of the Congress Movement, Gandhi’s nonviolent movement and the Indian Communist Party, among other parties (Woodcock, 1974).
However, since Britain did not want to cut its ties with the Empire, particularly economically, it allowed people from the former colony the same access to Britain as before Independence through the British Nationality Act of 1948 (Purewal, 2016). People did not rush to enter Britain(Sobolewska and Ford, 2020), and in reality, many campaigns were carried out to scout migrants to fill voids of labour in Britain (Kotin, 2006). By 1951, only 330 people in Southallwere recorded as arrivals from the Commonwealth, with a large majority coming from India alongside a smaller Caribbean community (Nasser, 2004).
Settlement to Southall
Given that colonialism has impoverished India, ’migrants are here because our rulers created the conditions in their homelands which made migration necessary’ (Moore, 1975). The migration into Southall was to fill voids in factories such as Woolf’s Rubber Co., the Quaker Oats Company, Nestles and Batchelors Canning, which relied on cheap labour sources (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981). These factories employed migrants from the Caribbean and the Punjab region (in both India and Pakistan). The majority of Southall’s early settlers were displaced young Sikhs from the Jullundur and Hoshiarpur regions (Purewal, 2016), many with links to the Indian Communist Party. The initial settlers in Southall formed tight-knit communities, replicating microcosms of their villages back home (DeWitt, 1969). The communal and Communist Party ties helped to create a solid foundation for progressive politics and a strong anti-racist resistance movement. Friends or relatives often joined the new arrivals, fostering a sense of community and shared identity. A leading political organiser, Vishnu Sharma, who immigrated to Southall states:
“When I came, I brought only two addresses and one of the sons of my friends used to live in Southall…in two days, I found forty people who knew me here in Southall, so I felt at home” (Punja, 2016).
By the early 1960s, more relatives and friends had arrived, significantly increasing the Indian community, and transforming Southall into 'Little India' (Qureshi, 2014). This early settlement period was crucial in establishing a village-like space to build cohesion (DeWitt, 1969). The 1970s brought new waves of migration. This was triggered by the Africanisation policies of Kenya and Uganda, which resulted in the expulsion of many Indian workers (Grover and Patel, 2017). Britain became a refuge for these displaced individuals, and many chose Southall due to its already-established Indian community. By 1981, the number of people in Southall from the Commonwealth grew to 25,960, a huge increase from the 1951 figure (Nasser, 2004). The growing diversity and size of the immigrant community in Southall played a pivotal role in its development as a multicultural community to unify in resistance.
Radicals arrival to Southall
The early arrivals were mistreated, almost as disposable labourers and unequal to the white British. Prejudice and dehumanisation were commonplace (Punja, 2016). A political organiser, Ajit Rai states “Everyone was a worker: whether someone was a doctor in India, here they did labour” (Purewal, 2016). Despite this, these immigrants brought with them diverse skills and knowledge, contributing significantly to the cultural and economic fabric of Southall. As noted by John La Rose, their arrival marked the beginning of a rich cultural exchange, contradicting the notion that immigrants “came alive" only after reaching Britain (Elliott-Cooper, 2021). As La Rose explained, he became political in Trinidad after watching the Trinidad Labour movement. Similarly, DeWitt (1969), argues that the contested nature of the Punjab region created the conditions for radical politics to foster and educate young leaders who were already political before they arrived in Britain. One example is previously mentioned Vishnu Sharma, a political organiser in the trade union movements in India. He later became a key figure within the Indian Workers Association (IWA), which was formulated in Britain to fight for Indian workers' rights (Punja, 2016). It is, therefore, important to recognise that Southall’s ability to become a key site for anti-racist resistance did not come out of a vacuum. The generations before had already been politicised by fighting imperialism in India (Ramamurthy, 2006).
According to Vishnu Sharma, the Southall branch of the IWA was established in 1956 with three primary objectives. Firstly, it aimed to shift the mindset of its members from seeing themselves as farmers to recognising their new roles as workers. This was part of a broader effort to integrate them into the workforce, emphasising union membership to protect their rights. The IWA philosophy was very much grounded in socialism. Secondly, it recognised its members' challenges in accessing healthcare, legal services, and housing; the IWA offered complimentary assistance, including interpretation services, to those in need. Lastly, the organisation was at the forefront of fighting against the pervasive racial prejudice and discrimination of its members. Consequently, this led to campaigns to address these issues (Punja, 2016).
Struggles in the workplace
The first strike organised by Asians in Southall was in 1962 at Rockware Glass after Indian workers were subjected to a 70-hour working week as the British workers refused to work at weekends (Purewal, 2016). Vishnu Sharma organised a workers' walkout, leading to 165 people being sacked. It is seen as a seminal moment in Southall’s anti-racist history as unionised Asians opposed exploitation and demanded their right to work as equals within Britain (Punja, 2016). Another significant campaign for Southall’s IWA was orchestrating a significant strike campaign at Woolf's Rubber factory. This was due to White British workers occupying most of the white-collar jobs (Purewal, 2016). In contrast, Indian workers were concentrated on production and allocated the most dangerous jobs and, therefore, forced to accept unsafe working conditions (Punja, 2016). These jobs were often ‘piece work’, which meant they were vastly underpaid compared to British workers and displayed racialised economic inequalities (Purewal, 2016). Six hundred Asian workers went on strike for seven weeks to demand equality. Factory management attempted to divide Asians by hiring Pakistani workers, taking advantage on the Indian Pakistani religious divides. However, this idea failed, and the factory closed a year later (Purewal, 2016). Southall’s Indian Workers Association were successful in their campaigning and showed that capitalism was interlinked with the racism that many South Asians were facing in the community (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981).
In 1957 Southall's IWA’s was the first to develop a Welfare Service to aid newly arrived immigrants who often lacked English language skills and were unfamiliar with British public services and institutions (DeWitt, 1969). It expanded services in 1962, including institutional guidance, a reading room, and adult education initiatives. Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights (1981), states that 40% of the commonwealth migration could not speak English, meaning that the interventions of the provisions were vital. Over subsequent decades, the IWA’s welfare service, especially its advisory and legal assistance in immigration matters, gained national recognition for its exemplary contributions. These initiatives transformed Southall into a symbol of multicultural resistance and a beacon for anti-racist movements, highlighting the community's role in advocating for social justice and equality in a broader national context.
Immigration campaigns
The first explicit legalisation of racial discrimination was the Immigration Act of 1962, which prevented coloured commonwealth citizens from freely entering the UK, but not white commonwealth citizens. It was a racialising concept of Britishness despite Commonwealth citizens living with British citizenship for most of their lives (Messina, 2001). It politicised the immigrant community, and Southall’s IWA organised a huge meeting attended by significant MPs and the renowned Black USA activist Claudia Jones (Punja, 2016). This response was a defining moment for Southall, highlighting its role as a hub in the fight for racial equality and justice in the United Kingdom (Purewal, 2016).
A few years later, after the threat of expulsion of Indian immigrants in Kenya, the Labour Government enacted the Commonwealth Act of 1968 to prevent Asian British Passport holders from entering the UK (Hepple, 1968). This act went further in racialising immigration legislation by exclusively gatekeeping Britishness to those who were white, not coloured (Messina, 2001). This was further made explicit in the 1971 Immigration Act, which went further and used the word ‘patrial’ to identify white and coloured heritage (Evans, 1972). When the act came into force in 1973 Southall’s IWA and other black organisations withdrew all their representations from all statutory bodies including Ealing Council (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981). These acts demonstrate how governmental legislation can entrench racial biases and exclusion (Ashcroft and Bevir, 2019). Also, Southall's prominent role in resisting these racist policies illustrates how communities can organise and fight against institutional racism.
Struggles in education
If discrimination was explicit in immigration laws, then it was more overt in the everyday lived experiences of the immigrants (Brah, 1999). For example, on the 15th of October 1963, Edward Boyle, then Education Secretary, visited Beaconsfield Primary School in Southall. He was met by a crowd of British National Party members who demanded there was segregation in schooling (Bebber, 2015). In 1964, around 15% of children in Southall had immigrant parents, and therefore, the school classes embodied this representation (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981). But Boyle connected the numbers to a failure of immigration and began the "bussing" policy of no school should have more than 33% children of immigrants in any one class. By 1975, it was estimated that 3,000 children had been bussed out. The focus on maintaining a certain percentage of immigrant children in schools was a clear manifestation of racial discrimination based on the assumption that the presence of immigrant children was inherently problematic (Purewal, 2016).
Discrimination in housing
Racial discrimination by landlords meant that the immigrants found it extremely challenging to find rented accommodation in Southall, meaning often three or four families shared one house (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981). Council attempted to establish a 15-year residency requirement for Council housing, a move essentially restricting Asians from accessing housing opportunities (Punja, 2016). In 1963, Southall’s Resident’s Association was formed due to the falling house prices as the White British were being reluctant to live next to Commonwealth citizens (Purewal, 2016). The group argued Southall had become too overcrowded, overwhelming public services and stated they felt ‘threatened and endangered’ by ‘dirty and completely unsuited and not used to our [British] way of life.’ (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981). However, as DeWitt (1969), argued that the challenges in Southall stem not from the reluctance of Asian newcomers to adapt, but from the British side’s lack of effort in this process. The housing crisis in Southall became more than just a struggle for accommodation; it highlighted the resilience of the community and symbolises the fight against racial discrimination.
Racial violence and policing
If there was discrimination was present in the education system, it was more violent on the streets. In 1966, community leaders led a protest after the police lacked any action against far-right attacks on Asian-owned businesses. In 1970, a gang of skinheads attacked Asian youths in the street and smashed windows of Asian-owned shops; again, the police still took no action. The unwillingness of the police to be proactive in racialised attacks shows how the law was not functioning to protect immigrants in Southall. But there were also examples of the police’s proactiveness to prosecute Asians of false criminal activity. By 1973, an independent enquiry explored the allegations of police brutality and concluded that there was impartiality shown by the police in Southall towards Asians (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981). The institutional bias in law enforcement was aptly summarised by Sivanandan (1983), that “Racism is about power, not about prejudice”.
The early method for police to stop an“ search the migrants was through the 1824 Vagrancy Act, which became understood as the ‘Sus Law’. This gave powers to officers to either stop and search or arrest anybody looking ‘suspicious’ in the public domain (Elliott-Cooper, 2021). Given that the migrants lived in cramped accommodations and colour bars prevented them from going to many public places, they often congregated on the streets. Police officers then harassed them as potential vagrants. A report made by the Commission for Racial Equality found that Black people constitution 44% of arrests in 1977 (Commission for Racial Equality, 1980). Alongside this, many face racial violence, and there was a consistent failure of the police to protect Asian residents from racially motivated attacks. These two factors created a sense of injustice and vulnerability among the Southall community.
Rise of the far-right in Southall
This sense of widespread racism and racial violence was further exacerbated by presence of the far right in Southall. In the 1964 election, The British National Party selected a candidate, John Bean, who ran on the slogan ’Stop Southall becoming a Black Slum - Vote Bean’. Despite not winning, Joe Bean put pressure electorally on Labour and made the party move towards an anti-immigrant position to please white voters (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981). The far-right grew electorally, and by the 1970 election, the National Front party had ten candidates nationally. By the 1979 election, they had 303 candidates; in Southall, they won 11.8% of the vote (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981).
This growth was fuelled by the immigration debates, and in 1968, Enoch Powell delivered the infamous 'Rivers of Blood' speech; the context of the speech marked a pivotal moment that altered the landscape of racial attitudes and violence in the country (Brooke, 2007). This speech significantly fuelled widespread racist sentiments, severely impacting the lives of immigrants, and removed the stigma previously associated with racism among the middle class (Hirsch, 2018). Two days after the speech, members of Southall’s Resident Association led a march and organised a meeting at a famous white-British-centred pub, the White Hart, to show support for Powell (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981). The link between Powell’s speech and the rise of the far right in Southall is critical, as rhetoric provided a form of validation for racist attitudes, contributing to a heightened atmosphere of racial tension and hostility (Hirsch, 2018). This period marked a flashpoint, setting the stage for the community's subsequent struggles and resistance against racism.
Systematic racism in Southall
All these factors highlight the presence of systematic racism in Southall, and this was widely understood, and strategies to tackle its impact therefore came out of this analysis. As Hirsch (2018), argues ‘their skin marked them out as internal Others within the nation; they were in Britain but not of Britain’. Suresh Grover (2021), argues that overlooking the historical and political dynamics of racism reduces it merely to a matter of personal biases among different groups since it was evident that Asians within Southall faced systemic injustices (Nijjar, 2021). Many in the community understood these factors within the context of the legacies of British Colonialism (Hirsch, 2018). Paul Gilroy’s (2005), concept of 'Post-Colonial Melancholia' highlights the British public's difficulty in fully acknowledging the racial dimensions of their history. This idea argues that post-World War II Britain has avoided confronting the negative aspects of its imperial era, instead choosing to highlight its wartime victories to create a sense of hope and national unity. This selective historical narrative has consequently resulted in a partial erasure of significant elements of British history, particularly the nation's role in enslaving people across its Empire and colonies, crucial in establishing its global dominance (Wellings, 2019) and reinforcing a racial hierarchy that prioritises white British identity and history (Gilroy, 2005).
Like Gilroy, many local campaigns argued that the insufficient acknowledgement of Britain's imperial history enables the continuation of colonial-era racist attitudes and structures. Contemporary British society, by not fully confronting its imperial legacy and associated racial injustices, may inadvertently maintain certain colonial attitudes toward people of colour, perceiving them as outsiders or less central to the national story (Gilroy 2005). This meant that the local community already had an outlook developed through their histories of politics in India and their lived experience in Southall that the ongoing racial inequalities and discrimination were an extension of colonial-era beliefs and structures.
Murder of Gurdip Singh Chagger in 1976
On Friday 4th June 1976, 18-year-old Gurdip Singh Chaggar went to watch a film at Dominion Cinema in Southall, and within minutes of leaving the cinema, he was found dead. He had been stabbed a group of racists. (Grover and Patel, 2017). The Metropolitan Police Commissioner underplayed the racism, stating that it was not ‘necessarily racism’ (Ramamurthy, 2006). Suresh Grover (2017) walked past the scene a day later and saw the pool of blood; when questioning the police nearby about why the body was not covered, the officer responded, ‘It was just an Asian’. By late afternoon, Asian youths were collecting in the area, and the lack of policing action created frustration, and violence broke out. The police were outnumbered and were attacked, but reinforcement came and arrested many of the participants, highlighting to the community that they were more interested in policing Asians than investigating when they are murdered.
The IWA organised a meeting on fascism a few days later, and a march was organised at Southall Police Station to ‘demand protection from racial attacks’. White passers-by abused the youths, a police van window got smashed in frustration, and one Asian was arrested with the police barricading the police station. But the Asian youths deployed a sit down outside the station and for thirty minutes chanted, ‘We shall fight like lions.’ A few days later the youths formed the Southall Youth Movement (SYM). The Southall Youth Movement was not only a stand against the police but also their elders who had refused to take direct action on the streets against the racists. The youths had become tired of the lack of defiance displayed by their elders; they wanted a self-defence group to challenge institutionalised racism (Nijjar, 2019). The militant tactics were sympathised by the youth's parents as a young boy was stabbed by racists. IWAs began out of the struggle to attain rights when arriving in the country, whereas SYM began with a different set of challenges of the violence of every racial violence. The SYM adopted the philosophies of the Black Panthers and other anti-imperialist Black movements (Ramamurthy, 2006).
Birth of the Southall Youth Movement
Many of the people involved in the Southall Youth Movement had been raised in Britain and experienced daily racism from a young age, experiences of being bussed through the school systems and experiencing ‘Paki-bashing’ and racial harassment throughout their youths, there was a sense of ‘we have had enough; and this resulted in a more assertive and radicalised generation, advocating for equality and fairer treatment (Grover and Patel, 2017). The murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar vented their anger and gave rise to a more militant youth movement. SYM gained traction in schools and youth clubs as they tried to improve local youth provisions, and within a relatively short period, there were youth movements across the country. A major achievement of the Youth Movement was its ability to build an alliance across different ethnic communities. Although they called themselves the Southall Youth Movement, it was not just Asian but incorporated people from a diverse range of backgrounds, taking the idea of political Blackness to a new level in this country.
In Southall this is best shown through the People’s Unite centre. This centre was a youth club, music venue, and gathering place for both Asian and African Caribbean communities (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981). Incorporating ideas around political Blackness by a broad alliance of youth helps explain how Southall became a site of anti-racist resistance rather than just a Sikh identity (Modood, 1994). They did this through their lived experience, and it was this lived experience which framed the necessity to foster solidarity among Asians and African Caribbeans, allowing a collective resistance and challenge to the racism they both faced (Ramamurthy, 2006).
The collaborations with SYM and People’s Unite also went into the realm of music. Musicians began using a space to facilitate an alternative community centre, and many later, notably Misty in Roots, got involved in the newly formulated Rock Against Racism (RAR) (Goodyer, 2003). RAR forged an exciting fusion between radical politics and music and enabled a route to politicise youth against racism on a huge scale (Huq, 2008). The personal and cultural links were supported by, and sometimes hindered by, the political links between the local Socialist Worker Party and the Anti-Nazi League (Grover and Patel, 2017). The importance of these alliances was tested within Southall during the Blair Peach Campaign from 1979 onwards.
23 April 1979 and the death of Blair Peach
On 23rd April 1979, St George’s Day, the National Front called a ‘public’ election meeting within Southall’s Town Hall, despite having no candidates in the ward since 1970 (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981). It is important to recognise the significance of the far-right trying to organise an event within one of the largest population Asian areas in the UK (Purewal, 2016). The community was expected to be scared, but the meeting antagonised a tense situation. The community lobbied the Ealing Council around bids ‘for Unity and Peace’ requesting the cancellation of the meeting. However, the Council pushed for the meeting to go ahead, with even the Prime Minister of the time, James Callaghan, stating the meeting could not be banned (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981).
On the actual day, April 23rd the IWA called for a political strike, leading all Indian workers to walk out of work to protest the meeting. Further, with the collaboration of The Anti-Nazi League, they organised a mass peaceful sit-in at the Town Hall at 5pm. (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981). Demonstrators congregated along Southall main high street. However, police used a roadblock along Southall Broadway and forced a path for the National Front members into the hall (Grover and Patel, 2017). Despite the meeting being passed under the Representation of the People Act and therefore public, the meeting was held behind closed doors, and none of the local community was allowed to attend the actual NF meeting (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981). Once the meeting began, the police started to attack demonstrators as 2,756 officers with shields, vans, helicopters, dogs, and horses drove into crowds, hitting them with truncheons (Nijjar, 2019). The police raided 6 Park View, the headquarters of People’s Unity, destroying the property and viciously attacking anybody inside, leaving its leader unconscious (Nijjar, 2019). Later at 7:30 pm, Blair Peach, a 33-year-old teacher who was a member of the Anti-Nazi League and the Socialist Workers Party, was hit on the head by an officer from the Met’s Special Patrol Group and was killed immediately. Peach had been an avid campaigner and was attacked by National Front Members twice, several just before his death (Grover and Patel, 2017).
The Metropolitan Police (2010), published the Blair Peach report that discloses that Peach was ‘almost certainly killed by one of six police officers from the Special Patrol Squad, despite 14 witnesses, there was no concrete evidence to identify which officer (Lewis, 2010). Further, officers within the squad covered up the actions of colleagues who were ‘deliberately attempting to conceal the presence of the carrier at the scene at that time’. Still to this day, nobody has been charged (Grover and Patel, 2017). This murder represents both the protection of racists whilst deploying military policing on a community and the ability of the police to commit murder and not be prosecuted (Nijjar, 2019).
In 2015, Home Sectary Teresa May commissioned the Undercover Policing Inquiry; the first section was published in 2023, covering the period 1968-1982. This report explores the unjust use of policing powers to covertly infiltrate organisations that the government deemed to be a threat to the public. The Inquiry found at least two officers from the Special Demonstration Squad were undercover, gathering intel on Southall’s anti-racist movement. The officers were used to spy just before the protests against the National Front, and this informed the tactics employed on the day. The report publicly released policing documents related to the unjust use of power and can display how the policing was used in an unlawful way (Undercover Policing Inquiry, 2023). The 2023 report provides us access to the police notes; a media briefing dated 12th May 1979, which was after the events, states, “At the early stages police were patient and indeed tolerant in the face of disorder and abuse” (Undercover Policing Inquiry, 2023a). However, an extract from some briefing notes made about a meeting held a week prior to the protests of 23rd April states, “We must act firmly and actively from the start” (Undercover Policing Inquiry, 2023b). This contradiction shows the policing intention was not to protect the public within the protest but to aggravate instead the peace, something that could not be publicly admitted (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981).
Further, the 2023 report provides us with the notes written by Chief Superintendent A. Dickinson on 23rd April, state “Asians can be extremely emotionally volatile and violent; no valid explanation can be offered for the unprecedented level of physical attacks made against the police today” (Undercover Policing Inquiry, 2023c). The clear biological determination of the characteristics of people of Asian descent as people who are naturally unhinged and need control displays inherent racist beliefs by Dickinson, which seems to justify the misconduct that led to Asians being brutally attacked by the police and can be understood as the driver for institutional discrimination. The events of 1979 provide some insight into how the policing arm of the State racialised a local community, and its resistance can be seen as a pushback against this racism. The importance of Southall as a site of anti-racist resistance comes from this communal resistance over many decades.
After these events the community understood the authorities would not help (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981). In May 1981, a disturbing incident occurred in Southall involving Satvinder Sondh, who was assaulted by three skinheads inscribed "NF" and swastikas onto his skin. Following the attack, the police told the press that the injuries were self-inflicted and charged him for allegedly wasting police time (Loney, 1987).
After this, SYM made it a mission to make Southall a no-go area for skinheads, and if they entered the area, they would attack them to display racists were not welcome (Grover and Patel, 2017). A few months later, on July 3rd, 1981, a music concert was organised by the 4-Skins, an Oi Punk band, the soundtrack of the far-right at the time (Huq, 2008). Skinheads on route to the venue, walked past a shop and shouted racist abuse at an Asian woman, smashed several Asian-owned shops along the high street and tagged National Front on doorways. Deeply frustrated Asian youths converged on the pub, with the intent on driving the skinheads out of the area. The confrontation intensified with both sides engaging in physical altercations (Grover and Patel, 2017). However, once the skinheads were out the pub. Asian Youths through bricks and petrol bombs through the windows of The Hambrough Tavern, setting the building alight. The aftermath of the riots saw significant injuries and arrests: 61 police officers and a comparable number of civilians were injured, and there were 70 arrests. The following day, a crowd of about 6,000 Southall residents gathered around the pub's remains to show solidarity with the actions of the night before (Grover and Patel, 2017). Southall therefore became a site and a symbolic location for the Asian community, it was a display of reparation after years of discrimination (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Southall Rights, 1981).
In this essay, I have explained how Southall became a site and a symbolic location for the Asian community and a symbol of anti-racism. I began by discussing migration into Southall by citizens of the former British colonies, predominantly from the Indian diaspora from the Punjab region. I explained how their knowledge of and involvement in the independence struggles before they arrived in Britain meant that they arrived as fully formed political subjects and, therefore, could participate in Britain's social and political life. They arrived with a left political analysis, a term we would use in the present is decolonial.
Here it is worth highlighting that the struggles for racial equality in Southall were not only anti-hegemonic but also anti-capitalist, in the sense that they were an attempt to present a different vision of the world from that of everyday one of struggle and exploitation and, therefore its importance rests in the different vision of London it comes to represent. I then explained how the presence of racial violence, exclusion and prejudices in the fields of education, housing, politics and the criminal justice system formed a further consciousness of racism in Britain. Cedric Robinson (1983), in his book "Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition," defines the radical black tradition as a collective consciousness rooted in historical liberation struggles and a commitment to preserve collective identity. He traces the evolution of political Blackness, shaped by global historical contexts, over two centuries. In Southall's decades-long campaigns and struggles, one can observe the formation of this radical black consciousness.
The site of struggle in one sense is about showing how a town of different ethnicities and classes can live communally together, and these struggles were also about opening the social sphere (Habermas, Lennox and Lennox, 1974). As the town moved into the 1980s and beyond, several local activists formed organisations that have played an important role nationally, for example, the Southall Black Sisters and the Southall Monitoring Group (now the Monitoring Group). We can read this as the ongoing struggle for democratic rights, social justice and equality, which started in pre-independence India and has now moved onto the streets of Britain. Here, the issue of why sites of resistance are important and how the memory of struggle on these sites is recounted for a modern audience. These struggles are stories of collective pasts, traumatic experiences, identities and claims for belonging. Here, we could argue that there are similarities of themes in some white working-class communities, but the difference is that these struggles were also about pluralism and belonging and led in time to the form of cosmopolitan London that is now widely celebrated.
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