Coming of Age : 1976 and the Road to Anti-Racism

Coming to England marked a changing point, because it was here that I was called a
‘Paki’ for the first time. Although I was involved in anti -racist politics in America, it was quite
different to be called a ‘Paki’ yourself, it affects you personally, and at the level of the subjective
experience it is a question of the difference between expressing solidarity with another
group as opposed to facing racial abuse directly yourself. I was quite shocked and taken
aback. This event set me on the path of anti- racist work here in Britain, and also socialist politics
as well. My family wasn’t particularly political, I was the only one, but nor were my family
right wing or anything like that so it wasn’t a big problem that I was political. I think they just
saw me as rather eccentric. Although my father wasn’t involved in politics, I think he might
have been a political person in a different era. He supported my desire for education though
he wasn’t very happy about my going to America but when one of my teachers talked to him
in my support he was fine about it. I found my father to be a supportive influence in my life.
How did you end up in Southall in 1976, and what were the political dynamics?
I came to Britain in 1971 and lived in London for a while and then went to work in Bristol.
I was doing my PhD and working part time, undertaking research in the area of what was
then described as ‘ethnic relations’, and came to Southall in 1976 to do field work for my PhD
thesis. What I remember particularly about that year was that it was a very hot summer. In
Southall, I was doing comparative research interviews with Asians and White people about
intergenerational change. My focus was on the similarities and differences between what
young people and their parents thought across ethnicity boundaries. I was talking to young
people about their educational experiences and their experiences at home in Southall, and
through our conversations I began to recognise that racism was a critical issue affecting
the lives of these young people. So although my thesis was about intergenerational change
rather than about racism per se, nevertheless racism emerged as an important factor. When
Gurdip Chaggar was killed in Southall that summer, I was shocked and began to realise how
critical the situation was. My job contract in Bristol came to an end before I could finish the
PhD so that a year later in 1977 I moved to Southall to take up a new post with the National
Association of Asian Youth.
From 1977 onwards, as I started working at the National Association of Asian Youth I
came to meet politically conscious young people and other activists in Southall. Two organisations
were particularly active: the Southall Youth Movement and the Indian Workers Association.
There were some tensions between the leadership of these two organisations. The
IWA had been a left leaning organisation in relation to working- class politics in factories etc;
and whilst these concerns were still around in 1976 they did not hold the same significance
for young people. SYM seemed to feel the IWA had changed and it was not so radical anymore.
SYM was more concerned with street level everyday racist conflict and questions of
policing and so on. I should say that the membership of SYM was mostly young men, there
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