When he opened for business in 1954, Pritam Singh Sangha could never have envisaged that he was kickstarting a consumer revolution that would establish the Asian corner shop in the British landscape, nor that Southall would become the country’s premier Asian town, dubbed Chota Punjab – Little Punjab.
A gregarious man, Sangha (pictured below) was a well-known and popular figure. Not only did he own the only Indian shop in Southall, west London – and probably the country at the time – but he was also one of the first Punjabis to make the area his home, in 1951.
When a shipment of provisions arrived from India, Sangha would dispatch his daughter Guddi to spread the good news. Scurrying from house to house, her arrival was always greeted with delight because it meant that larders could be replenished with food staples that doubled as a reminder of home.
c1958: Pritam Singh Sangha’s daughter, Guddi (left), and mother outside the family shop. Below: Pritam Singh Sangha. All photographs courtesy of Panjabis of Southall project
The shelves emptied as rapidly as they had been stocked with spices, chapatti flour, lentils and other products not available anywhere else: Britain’s love affair with curry was still several years away.
Sangha’s story forms part of Panjabis of Southall, a Heritage Lottery Fund project. It tells the history of the largest Punjabi (or Panjabi, the more traditional spelling) community outside India and the pivotal role it played in shaping the destiny of millions of other Asians who came to Britain. Researchers have gathered rare photographs and oral testimonies, and are working on a film.
Left: Punjabi families arrive in Southall in the late 60s. Right: The opening of one of the area’s first textile stores, c1970
Balraj Purewal, project director and lifelong resident who knew the Sangha family, said: “When Southall sneezed, the rest of the British Asian community caught a cold. We were at the forefront of the fight against racism and led the way in many other areas. This project is about documenting and commemorating an iconic, trailblazing community which influenced British Asian life.”
1967: Members of the National Front march through Southall
By the time my own father arrived in 1960, local authority records show that there were approximately 1,000 Punjabis living in Southall, nearly all men. He would joke that one of the reasons why they settled here was because of its proximity to Heathrow airport, only three miles away, and “if the gooras [whites] ever kicked us out, it would be easy to get on a plane and return home”. It was a light-hearted reference to the uncertainty that was generated by the chronic racism of the time.
1979: Southall Youth Movement march
It was the R Woolf rubber factory in neighbouring Hayes that attracted Punjabis to Southall – the general manager had served with Sikh soldiers during the second world war and was only too happy to recruit them. The initial arrivals settled around Aldgate, east London, but began renting rooms closer to work – and Southall was the most affordable nearby area.
Punjab was partitioned by the British in 1947; part of it fell within Pakistan with the remainder in India. Punjabis can be Sikh, Hindu or Muslim, and while all three demographics settled in this outpost of west London, it was the Sikhs who came in the largest numbers and gave Southall its distinct identity.
Left: Residents protest against bussing children to schools out of their local area. Right: Children waiting for the school bus, c1977
Faced with discrimination and unable to secure accommodation easily, they lived in cramped, squalid conditions with anything up to 20 men sharing a terraced home. Meals were prepared and eaten communally, and beds sharing rotated between those who worked day and night shifts. Women and children arrived several years later.
The response to racism came quickly, with the formation of the Indian Workers Association (IWA) in 1956 by a cadre of locals affiliated to the Communist party of India.
Top: An early meeting of the Indian Workers Association in 1958. Bottom: The IWA leadership meeting the Indian PM Indira Gandhi (left) and Labour politician Dennis Healey (right)
The IWA soon established itself as Britain’s most powerful Asian political organisation, running campaigns for workers’ rights and other equality issues, such as the bussing of mainly Asian and Afro-Caribbean children to schools out of their local areas.
High-profile politicians from both Britain and India regularly met with its leadership, and at its peak it had a membership of more than 20,000.
1976: Southall residents riot following the murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar. Photograph: Peter Arkell/reportdigital.co.uk
The summer of 1976 saw a major schism develop as the younger generation became increasingly frustrated with the IWA’s “old guard” and their perceived reluctance to confront racism head on. There was widespread rioting in Southall in response to the racist murder of local youth Gurdip Singh Chaggar. Many still refer to it is as the “first uprising”.
It led to the formation of the Southall Youth Movement (SYM), by Purewal and others, which took to the streets to fight racist gangs. The SYM played a pivotal role in subsequent “uprisings” – in 1979, when hundreds were arrested while protesting against the National Front, and in 1981, in retaliation to an attack by skinheads. It also inspired other Asian youth movements across the rest of the country to organise along similar lines in the fight against racism.
1981: Hambrough Tavern, Southall, ablaze following rioting against skinhead attacks
For those making new lives in west London, however, it was not all about overcoming adversity. In 1968, Britain’s first all-Asian football team was formed in Southall by Kessar Singh Bhatti, who had played the game at state level for Punjab. It prompted the birth of Asian football and other sports tournaments across the rest of the country, which remain popular today.
Britain’s first all-Asian football team, formed by Kessar Singh Bhatti (back row, third from left)
The IWA-owned Dominion Cinema, which showed Bollywood films, was a mainstay of the British Asian community in its heyday, attracting leading actors from India and more than 8,000 cinemagoers each week. There were also packed houses for its boxing, wrestling and cultural nights.
The IWA-owned Dominion Cinema, which attracted more than 8,000 cinemagoers a week for its Bollywood film screenings
At Little Punjab’s peak, Punjabis made up almost 70% of Southall’s population of 70,000; that figure is now estimated to be just over half. Many of their descendants have prospered and moved to wealthier pastures, replaced by new communities from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Somalia. At its heart, though, this corner of west London remains an indelibly Punjabi town.
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