When Indians walked the streets of London or went to their work places, everything to them was so British. Super stores stocked everything that was British and European. Indian goods were frowned upon by English shopkeepers.

The earliest wave of Indians had arrived from the sub-continent during the British rule there. They were largely students who settled here. At that time migration was difficult and not many Indians could settle here.

They struck a compromise – outside they lived life as the rest of Britons. The only Indian touch they enjoyed was at home. They ate Indian food cooked in their kitchen, and within

their four walls, listened to Hindustani music with records and tapes bought while visiting India on holiday.. The weekends were spent enjoying the best of Indian life in the privacy of their homes.

Racism was rife in the UK in those years. The natives of England looked down upon Indian food and culture and considered Indians a species from another world. Winston Churchill’s famous uncharitable remarks describing Mahatma Gandhi, as the “naked fakir” added fuel to fire stocking racism to its zenith.

Even when educated Indians wore English suits and bowler hats in the public, they were put down as foreigners who had no right to be in the UK.

There were fewer cinema halls offering a fare of Indian movies. Those that catered for Hindustani films showed them on the weekends under special arrangements with cinema owners who normally screened Hollywood films. It was a rare treat for Indian film fans that flocked cinema halls not only to watch Bollywood films but also to socialise because they missed India.

The only entertainment slot was a few minutes of Indian music and singers at the end of the programmes. The programmes, beamed from Birmingham, used to be a treat for Indian households on Sunday mornings who would watch these while leisurely tucking into paranthas and puris for breakfast.

It had suddenly become fashionable to emigrate to the UK. With the settling of so many Indians, London suddenly lacked infrastructure to meet the needs of the new-arrivals, some of whom were not educated.

Indians were well-trained businessmen and started taking over corner shops from the English owners. They stocked groceries and newspapers, the daily needs of their local communities. They offered their customers a quality service which snooty British owners had not cared to give. Woe betide if you were to go and ask for a pint of milk at their closing time – they would say ‘we are closed! Come back tomorrow’. Not so with the Indians, even if they were about to put a padlock on their front door and somebody dropped in to buy a bread, they would happily open their store and serve them with a smile.

Indian-owned corner shops were an institution as they were open all hours and attracted mainly Indian customers and also some English.

The major top name super-stores were watching them in awe as they attracted business. Even they decided to join in the competition by keeping theirs open all hours. Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, paid a tribute to the Indian-owned corner shops by saying they had revolutionised Britain’s shopping system.

By using their clout for bulk-buying and lower prices to their customers the super stores succeeded in routing the small corner shops which have been closing in the current economic downturn. But history is a witness to how these small Indian shopkeepers taught the giants that quality service attracts customers.

Today Indian shops stock virtually everything produced in India complete with labels in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati and other Indian languages. While shopping in these stores sometimes one virtually forgets that they are shopping in a store on British soil and not in Mumbai. Every summer mangoes imported from India and Pakistan are in popular demand as are other fruits and vegetables flown from there.

 

 

As the community settled, their social needs also grew. London lacked a radio station offering Indian music.

It was a great day when London Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) teamed up with Indian broadcasters to launch Geetmala, a weekly entertainment programme. It was presented by Chaman Lal Chaman, a well known Indian broadcaster from Kenya and produced by Suresh Joshi. LBC’s Keith Belcher was credited with allowing Geetmala to come to fruition. That programme became a firm fixture with thousands of Indian listeners.

Geetmala ended its run a few years later, but this proved there was a need for radio stations offering Indian programmes. Other radio stations followed.

There were several pirate radio stations run by various ethnic communities, which were raided and closed down by the Home Office, the Government authority. They rose again until the authorities realised they had to cater for Britain’s ethnic minority communities and the best way to regulate them was to licence them.

Sunrise Radio was born out of such a creation. It has prospered with the creation of several radio stations and a small slice of satellite broadcasting.

It is now very easy to set up a commercial Asian radio station. All you need is money and a set of very sound reasons to convince the Home office to grant a broadcasting licence.

The arrival of Zee TV and Sony TV revolutionised the entire Indian media scene. Now, viewers in the UK enjoy whatever is being shown on these channels in India. With a wide array of programmes to choose from, these TV networks have actually brought India into the living rooms of British Asians. Apart from these two networks, Star TV, Star Plus, BFU, Zee Music and a wide array of other channels such as Vectrone, Alpha Punjabi, Zee Gujarati, have set the media scene ablaze in Britain.

In many Asian households, terrestrial TV channels such as the BBC and ITV have long been ignored as there is great enthusiasm to watch Indian soaps and films every day.

Added to this is the plethora cinema houses such as Cineworld, Himalaya and various other theatres offering latest Indian film releases.

So, far away from home, people still feel at home in Britain with a wide variety of choice.

Source - Shamlal Puri 

 

Do you agree with the article above. Lets discuss- http://thenritoday.com/forums/Thread-LONDON-A-Home-Away-From-Home-For-Indians-In-The-UK 

 

 ( an awesome iPhone app from NrisWorldWide.net )