Asians In Britain: 400 Years of History

'Rozina Visram's excellent book does for Asians what Peter Fryer achieved for African Caribbeans in his groundbreaking book, Staying Power.' Socialist Review 'An exceptional introduction to Asian legacy and heritage in Britian' Muslim News Praise for Rozina Visram's previous pioneering study, Ayahs, Lascars and Princes: 'A lively- and timely- survey of British Indian history.' Salman Rushdie 'Rozina Visram's excellent book does a great deal to explain how the idea of white supremacy lingers.' Hanif Kureishi 'Scholarly, succinct and gripping to read.' Dilip Hiro, TLS In this new, groundbreaking book, Rozina Visram offers an extensively researched, comprehensive study of Asians from the Indian subcontinent in Britain. Spanning four centuries, it tells the history of the Indian community in Britain from the servants, ayahs and sailors of the seventeenth century, to the students, princes, soldiers, professionals and entrepreneurs of the 19th and 20th centuries. Drawing on primary resources and recently declassified government documents, Visram examines the nature and pattern of Asian migration; official attitudes to Asian settlement; the reactions and perceptions of the British people; the responses of the Asians themselves and their social, cultural and political lives in Britain. This imaginative and detailed investigation asks what it would have been like for Asians to live in Britain, in the heart of an imperial metropolis, and documents the anti-colonial struggle by Asians and their allies in the UK. It is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the origins of the many different communities that make up contemporary Britain.