Bangladesh is one of the largest immigrant communities in the UK. A large number of ethnic Bengali and Sylheti ethnic groups came in the early seventeenth century, mostly as sailors working on ships. After the founding of Bangladesh in 1971, a major immigration to Britain occurred during the 1970s, leading to the establishment of the Bangladeshi community of England. Bangladeshis were encouraged to move to Britain during the decade due to changes in immigration laws, natural disasters such as the Bhola hurricane, the Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan, and the desire to escape poverty, and the perception of a better life brought the Sylhetiese men their families. During the 1970s and 1980s, they experienced institutionalized racism and racial attacks by right-wing organized groups such as the National Front and the British National Party.
Video History of Bangladeshis in the United Kingdom
Early history of Bangladesh in England
Throughout the 17th century to early 20th century, the British East India Company employed more than thousands of South Asian lascars and workers, many of whom were Sylheti Muslims and Punjabi Sikhs, to work on ships English. Since the majority of early Sylheti settlers were sailors of the laskar, the earliest Muslim community was found in port cities. The cooks and naval servants also came. One of the most famous early Bengali Muslim immigrants to England was Sake Dean Mahomet, a captain of the British East India Company. In 1810, he founded the first Indian restaurant in London, Hindoostane Coffee House. She is also famous for introducing shampoo and therapeutic massage to the UK. There are other notes from Sylhetis who worked in London restaurants since at least 1873. At the beginning of World War I, there were 51,616 South Asians of lascars working on British ships, most of them Bengali descendants.
Due to the lack of Sylheti women in Britain at the time, some early Bengali sailors settled and took British white local wives. Partly due to ill-treatment and neglect due to South Asian seafarers restrictions on British ships such as the Navigation Act. As a result, most of the early Bengali-born British people were usually 'mixed race' ('Anglo-Indian' or 'Eurasian'), notable examples including Albert Mahomet and Frederick Akbar Mahomed. Most of these 'mixed-race' descendants were also assimilated into British society through marriage with local white residents, so that there was never a permanent British Bengali community until Bangladeshi women began to arrive in large numbers from the 1970s, after which the majority of Bangladeshis choose to marry amongst each other, leading to the establishment of a permanent UK Bangladesh community.
Maps History of Bangladeshis in the United Kingdom
Immigration causes
The reason why Bangladeshis immigrate to the UK includes the need to find work and earn a better life. A large number of Bangladeshi men emigrated to England to work during the 1950s and 1960s and they were regarded as the first generation of Bangladeshi settlers, who, upon arrival, settled in industrial cities and towns such as Birmingham, Luton, Bedford, Oldham, Haslingden , Rochdale, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Liverpool, Scunthorpe, Kidderminster, Sunderland and London Borough from Camden, Westminster, Hackney, Newham, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets, especially around Spitalfields and Brick Lane for job security and better payouts. The majority of Bangladeshi people in Britain come from the Surma Valley and Barak, the Sylhet region, which is located in the northeast of Bangladesh.
The 1971 Immigration Act came into force in 1972 and imposed many restrictions on immigration flows from Bangladesh to the United Kingdom; it only allows family members, wives and children under the age of sixteen to join their husbands and fathers, who have settled in England. As a result, most family members emigrated following the passing of emigrating laws. From the mid-1970s, the economic downturn in Britain made men reluctant to bring their families to join them in Britain. In the latter part of the 1970s, mass scale redundancy hit the Sylheti community, because many people work in heavy industry, either privatized or disabled. This led to the Sylheti people opening their own restaurants and takeaways throughout the country. This trend is followed by the people of Pakistan and India in the UK. From this point onwards, the curry houses known as Indian restaurants spread to every corner and corner of the country. The Sylheti community has several celebrity chefs and millionaires curries, who work their way from below. Brick Lane and the surrounding area at Tower Hamlets became famous for curry houses.
Bangladesh Liberation War
During 1971, East Pakistan (now known as Bangladesh) went to war against West Pakistan (Pakistan) for independence, in what is known as the Bangladesh Liberation War. The Pakistani infantry then began to occupy the Sylhet region where many Bangladeshis originated; this led some to join the Mukti Bahini in their defense and the battle against the Pakistanis. For example, Muhammad Ataul Gani Osmani of Sylheti, who led the Teliapara Tea Plantation in Sylhet, then commander-in-chief of the Bangladesh Armed Forces in April 1971, was one of many people who became part of the success of the war. He died in 1984 in London where he spent his time being diagnosed with cancer, living with his family in England. However, despite the many heroic efforts by Sylhetis during the war, this also caused a large number of Sylhetis to flee, arriving in England during the 1970s.
Bengali in Britain also took part in the War of Independence. In August 1969, Bangladeshi settlers in Birmingham formed the East Pakistan Liberation Front. Its president is Abdus Sabur Choudhury and Secretary Azizul Hoque Bhuia. There are two weeks called Bidrohi Bangla published by Mr. Mustafizur Rahman. Getting news about Pakistan's military action on 25 March 1971 there was a movement at Birmingham Smallheath Park. More than 10 thousand Bangali are present there. During the meeting, the East Pakistan Liberation Front was abolished and the Bangladesh Action Committee was formed. Judge Abu Saeed Chowdhury is his President and Azizul Hoque Bhuia is the Secretary. Action and Movement: - March 5, 1971 - Demonstration before the Pakistan High Commission in London. Turning arson and handover of memorandum to high commissioner for liberation - March 7, 1971 all Party Meetings in Birmingham Smallheath Park cancel the Independence slowdown, - March 28 lifted the Bangladesh Flag at Smallheath Park Birmingham. - 3 May 1971 300 MP British Parliament agrees to support Bangladesh movement - June 21, 1971 120 Bengali goes to Paris to demonstrate against Pakistan Aid Consortium from 12 developed countries. Pakistan does not get help. - June 30, 1971 Pakistani ship Padma is full of weapons and ammunition at the port of Montreal Montreal Canada. The Bangladesh Action Committee demonstrated before the Canadian High Commission and finally the Canadian government stopped it.
After all the movements and demonstrations of western media, activists and government went against Pakistan and helped liberate Bangladesh. Bengalis in England play an important role in Bangladesh's independence.
First Bangladeshi settlers
Bangladeshi citizens first began arriving in Great Britain in the 1970s and mostly settled in and around the Brick Lane area in East London. However, some Bengalis had been present in the country in the early 1920s, although very small. Author Caroline Adams notes one example in 1925 when a lost Bengali search for another Bengali settler in London was told by a policeman: 'You better leave until you kiss the curry'. At this time, there are more Jews in London than Bengali. Some of them are Sylhetis who came to England by sea after working as lascars on board. One of the earliest Bengali immigrants to Britain was Sake Dean Mahomed, a captain of the British East India Company. In 1810, he founded the first Indian restaurant in London, Hindoostane Coffee House. She is also famous for introducing shampoo and therapeutic massage in the UK.
Bangladeshi citizens who come to England anticipate they will find good opportunities there. However, many experienced various problems. They live and work in a narrow basement and attic in Tower Hamlets. Centuries before, these same properties have housed the Huguenot immigrants who weave silk and work for hours in very hot and unlit workshops. The Bengali people found that they could not interact with the English-speaking population, and therefore could not enter higher education. There has been a downturn in business across East London, which has caused unemployment among Bangladeshi workers. The garment manufacturing industry is part of this decline. Bangladeshi people instead become cooks, waiters, and mechanics, but their progress on the social and economic ladder is slow. The people are often illiterate, lowly educated, and speak little English. They became easy targets for some of their cruel colleagues who controlled their housing in Whitechapel in the 1970s and sold the property to other Sylhetis, many of whom had no legal claim to the building.
In 1970, Brick Lane, and many nearby roads, had become Bengali. Jewish bakeries were converted into curry houses, jewelry shops converted into sari shops, and synagogues into clothing factories. In 1976, the synagogue at the corner of Fournier Street and Brick Lane became the Jamme Mosque (community mosque). The building that now houses Jamme Masjid represents the history of the consecutive immigrant community in this part of London. In 1743, this same building was built as a French Protestant Church. In 1819, it became the Methodist Chapel, and later in 1898, it was used by the Jews as the Spitalfields Great Synagogue. Following the increase in the number of Bengali people in the area, Jews migrated to the outskirts of London, as they integrated with the majority of the population of Britain. They sold the synagogue, which later became the Jamme Mosque or the 'Greater London Mosque', which continues to serve the Bangladeshi community to this day. The film, released in 2007, named on Brick Lane street itself, is based on the novel by author Monica Ali.
Racial violence
1970 and Altab Ali
In the 1970s, there was a large increase in the number of attacks against Bangladeshis. The racial tensions in the area have been heating up for 40 years, since Oswald Mosley incited an attack on older Jewish communities in the 1930s. White skinhead gangs began to roam the Brick Lane area, where they ravaged the property and spat on the Bengali children. At Bethnal Green, members of the National Front handed out flyers on the streets and gathered people at a pub in Cheshire Street. Bengali children were allowed to leave school early, with their mothers walking to work in groups to protect them from potential violence. Parents begin to start imposing a curfew on their children for their own safety. Later, Tower Hamlets board installed their flats with fireproof mailboxes to protect Bangladeshi tenants from racially motivated burning.
Residents began to retaliate by creating committees and youth groups such as the Bangladesh Youth Movement, formed by young activists led by Shajahan Lutfur. On May 4, 1978, Altab Ali, a 25-year-old was killed in a racist attack, when he returned home from work. The murder took place near the corner of Adler Street and Whitechapel Road by St Mary's Churchyard. The killer was three teenage boys, Roy Arnold (17 years from Limehouse), Carl Ludlow (17 years from Bow) and an unnamed 16-year-old unknown who killed him, and they left a message on a nearby wall that said, We're back ". This then led to over 7,000 Bangladeshis including others to take part in demonstrations against racist violence and march behind Altab Ali's trunk to No. 10 Downing Street. Then in September 1978, the National Front moved its headquarters from Teddington in West London to Great Eastern Street, a few minutes' walk from Brick Lane.
The name Altab Ali became associated with the resistance movement against racist attacks, and remains tied to human rights struggles to this day. His assassination was the trigger for the first significant political organization against racism by the local Bangladeshi. Today's phenomenal identification and association of the Bangladeshi Britons with Tower Hamlets is still heavily dependent on this campaign. A park on Whitechapel Road is named after Altab Ali. The park is the ultimate destination for demonstrations for local people starting today. At the park entrance there is an arch made by David Peterson, developed as a memorial to Altab Ali and the victims of other racist attacks. This arch incorporates a complex pattern of Bengali style, intended to show the incorporation of different cultures in East London.
1990s
Incidents of racial violence began in 1993 as a result of the British National Party (BNP). Some Bangladeshi students were seriously injured in violent incidents. Racial violence began to happen again to Bangladesh and other ethnic groups, when in 1993 the BNP won seats in the Isle of Dogs, Tower Hamlets. The party began selling their newspaper in Brick Lane, and later that year, some party members attacked young Bangladeshi students. Both were badly injured and in a coma. Demonstrations then began to happen against the party, called for closure, and led the party to abandon their normal paper sales process. One of the two Bangladeshi men who were attacked was Quaddas Ali in September 1993, a 17-year-old boy who was a student at Tower Hamlets College. In February 1994, 19-year-old Muktar Ahmed was brutally beaten by a group of 20 white youths at Bethnal Green. This was followed by an attack by white youth the next day armed with iron bars and dogs, attacking students from Tower Hamlets College who took their lunch break in the nearby park. The next day, another 14-year-old Bengali boy was stabbed by four men on Bethnal Green Road.
Official recognition
In April 2001, the London Borough Tower Hamlets council was officially renamed the 'Spitalfields' election ward for Spitalfields and Banglatown . The surrounding streets are redecorated, with lampposts painted green and red, which are the colors of the Bangladeshi flag.
In 2004 Channel S, a free-to-air television channel targeting the Bangladesh community in Britain, was established.
See also
- English Bangladesh
- English Bangladesh Who's Who
- The Bangladeshi Women's Business Chamber of England
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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