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{{infobox ethnic group|group = British Asian|image=
Top row: George Edalji, Konnie Huq, Lakshmi Mittal.Bottom row: Monty Panesar and George Alagiah], Greater Manchester, West Midlands (region),
East Midlands,
Yorkshire and Humber, Lancashire,
Glasgow.], Indo-Aryan languages, Iranian languages,
Dravidian languages,[Sikhism,
Islam,
Christianity,
Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Judaism-->The term
British Asian is used to denote a person of South Asian ancestry or origin, who was born in or was an immigrant to the United Kingdom.
UK has a large Southern Asian population due to British India once being the most populous portion of the former British Empire. Note: this term, in British English, does not include
East Asians, who are known by their respective national origins (e.g. Han Chinese, Japanese) or under the
umbrella term "
British Oriental".
Usage
In
British English, the word "
Asian people" usually refers to those of South Asian origin, particularly Indians,
Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis, and also the less numerous
Sri Lankans, Nepalis, and
Maldives.British Sociological Association. Equality and Diversity. Language and the BSA: Ethnicity & Race. 2005. October 26. Additionally, British who marked the "Other Asian" category on the UK census were of Afghanistan,
Iranian,
Iraqi,
Turkish people and
Yemeni ancestries.Gardener, David. Who are the Other Ethnic Groups. 2005. October 27, 2006. It may also refer to people from other parts of Asia,Color Q World. Clarifying the Definition of Asian. 2005. October 1, 2006. . but those of East Asian (such as
China or Japanese) or
Southeast Asian origin are usually not included in the term; they may instead be called "
oriental", which is a term no longer used in
American English (in which the term "Asian" commonly refers to peoples from East Asia). This is reflected in the "ethnic group" section of UK census forms and other government paperwork, which treat "Asian" and "Chinese" as separate. Most
Central Asians are generally not included in the British categorisation of 'Asian' either.
The terms "Asian" or "British Asian" are contested. According to Rashmee Roshan Lall, Britain's Hindu community considers the term somewhat vague given the religious and national origin difference between Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. Britain's Hindu community is debating whether to adopt a specific label based on nationality (e.g. "British Indian") or religion (e.g. "British Hindu"). Some British Indians do not feel they want to be in the same ethnic group as British Pakistanis.Lall, Rashmee Roshan. Times of India. UK 'Indian' wants to shed 'Asian' tag. 2006. September 4, 2006.. Others see a certain degree of unity in the South Asian diaspora; the term
desi is also sometimes used to name a South Asian person, pointing to a common identity, but is more often a word used within the Asian community.
Demographics
According to the 2001 UK Census there are 2.33 million British Asians, making up 4% of the population of the United Kingdom. This further subdivides to 1.05 million of Indian origin (1.8% of the population), 747,000 of Pakistani origin (1.3%), 283,000 of Bangladeshi origin (0.5%), and 247,000 from other Asian origins (0.4%) (largely of Sri Lankan origin). British Asians make up 50.2% of the UK's non-European population. British Indians tend to be religiously diverse, with 45% Hindu, 29% Sikh, and 13% per cent Muslim, while their counterparts of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin are much more religiously homogeneous, with Muslims accounting for 92% of each group.National Statistics. Religion. 2005.
August 14, 2006. . 2004 estimates show that the British Asian community is 2,799,700 including people of mixed White British and Asian descent.
British Asians who marked "Other Asian" as an ethnic group and then wrote in their specific ethnic group were mostly (23%) of Sri Lankan origin. This was followed by fill-ins of Middle Eastern (9%) origin. Due to a growing sense of affiliation with Britain, many third generation Asians chose to not mark "Asian or British Asian" and instead marked "British Asian" in the "Other Asian" write in section.Gardener, David. Who are the Other Ethnic Groups. 2005. October 27, 2006.
In terms of key demographic measures, the two Asian groups, Indians and Pakistani/Bangladeshis have developed significant differences. The unemployment rate in Indians in UK is about 7%, comparable to that of the White British. On the other hand Bangladeshis have among the highest unemployment rates of 13-14%National Statistics. Labour Market. 2006. August 14,
2006. . with Pakistanis having around 11%National Statistics. Labour Market. 2006.
August 14, 2006. . Indian pupils are likely to achieve among the highest grades in schools where as Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are likely to score lower.National Statistics. Ethnicity and Identity. 2005. August 14,
2006. . Persons of Indian or mixed Indian origin are more likely than
White British to have university degrees, whereas Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are less likely.National Statistics. Ethnicity and Identity. 2005. August 14, 2006. .
British Asian ethnic groups mostly originate from a few select places in South Asia. British Indians tend to originate mainly from two Indian States, Punjab (India) and Gujarat. However, in recent years, there has been significant Hindu-Tamil immigration from
Sri Lanka. British Pakistanis originate largely from Pakistani administered
Kashmir, particularly from the Mirpur area, with the remainder originating from cities and villages in Punjab (Pakistan) and North-West Frontier Province along with some from Karachi. British Bangladeshis largely originate from the Sylhet region of the country.
According to the
United Kingdom Census 2001, British Asian men from all British Asian ethnic groups Intermarriage with another ethnic group more than British Asian women. Among British Asians, British Indians intermarried with a different ethnic group the most both absolutely and proportionately, followed by British Pakistanis and British Bangladeshis.
History in Great Britain
(Farrokh Bulsara) was one of the first British Asian celebrities. He was the lead singer of the popular rock band Queen (band).
No one actually knows the earliest origins of settlement of South Asians in the British Isles for certain; if the
Roma people (Gypsies) are included, then the earliest arrivals may have been in the Middle Ages — although not normally included as South Asian, the
Roma people and Sinti (most in the UK have been Sinti) are both believed to have originated in parts of what is now North India and Pakistan and to have begun travelling westward around 1000
Common Era, though they have mixed with
Southwest Asians and Europeans over the centuries. Romani began arriving in sizeable numbers in parts of
Western Europe in the 16th century.
People from South Asia have settled in Great Britain since the
British East India Company (EIC) recruited
lascars to replace vacancies in their crews on East Indiaman whilst on voyages in India. Many were then refused passage back, and were marooned in
London. There were also some
ayahs, domestic servants and nanny of wealthy British families, who accompanied their employers back to "
Blighty" when their stay in Asia came to an end.
The
Navigation Act of 1660 restricted the employment of non-English sailors to a quarter of the crew on returning East India Company ships. Baptism records in
East Greenwich suggest that young Indians from the Malabar Coast were being recruited as servants at the end of the seventeenth century., and records of the EIC also suggest that Indo-Portuguese cooks from Goa were retained by captains from voyage to voyage. Lascars in The East End In 1797, 13 were buried in the parish of St Nicholas at Deptford.
Following the Second World War and the break up of the
British Empire, Asian migration to the UK increased through the 1950s and 1960s from
Commonwealth of Nations countries such as India,
Pakistan and Bangladesh, at the same time as immigrants from former Caribbean colonies were also moving to Britain.
Although this immigration was continuous, several distinct phases can be identified:
- Manual workers, mainly from Pakistan, were recruited to fulfill the labour shortage that resulted from World War II. These included Anglo-Indians who were recruited to work on the railways as they had done in India.
- Workers mainly from the Punjab region of India and Pakistan arrived in the 1950s and 1960s. Many worked in the foundries of the English Midlands and a large number worked at Heathrow Airport in West London
- During the same time, medical staff from the Indian subcontinent were recruited for the newly formed National Health Service. These people were targeted as the British had established medical schools in the Indian subcontinent which conformed to the British standards of medical training.
- During the 1960s and 1970s, large numbers of East African Asians, who already held British passports, entered the UK after they were expelled from Kenya, Uganda and Zanzibar. Many of these people had been store-keepers in Africa and opened shops when they arrived in the UK, thereby reviving the traditional British corner-shop which until that point had been in decline.
The
Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 and
Immigration Act 1971 largely restricted any further primary immigration, although family members of already-settled migrants were still allowed. In addition, much of the subsequent growth in the British Asian community has come from the births of second- and third-generation Asian Britons.
Influence on popular culture
The biggest influence of British Asians on popular culture has probably been the so-called Indian restaurant, though in fact most of these are run by people of Bangladeshi origin. A recent poll found that chicken tikka masala has surpassed
fish and chips in terms of popularity as the national dish.Sur, Indraneel. The Hartford Courant. In Britain, Favorite Dish Is Chicken Tikka Masala. 2001. August 14, 2006. . Chicken tikka masala, like the popular
balti (food), is itself a British Asian invention. British Asian have also played a pivotal role in rejuvenating a number of UK street markets. According to the New Economics Foundation, Queen's Market, Upton Park is officially the most ethnically diverse.
Bhangra music has in addition become popular among many in the general British public (especially younger people)Dixon, Martha. British Broadcast Corporation News. Bhangra fusion gathers support. 2003. August 14,
2006. . not only from the works of British Asian musicians such as Panjabi MC,
Swami (band) and
Rishi Rich but also incorporated into the works of a number of non-Asian musicians not only British but including North American artists such as Canadian Shania Twain, who created a whole alternate version of her multi-platinum album Up! with full Indian instrumentation, produced by legendary British Asian producers Simon & Diamond. Diamond, better known as DJ Swami has also collaborated with superstar rapper
Pras, of
The Fugees, and his band Swami (band) have become one of the most renowned acts in British Asian music history, having had songs in major Hollywood movies and best-selling video games.
The films
East is East, Chicken Tikka Masala and
Bend It Like Beckham and the
Television program Goodness Gracious Me and
The Kumars have managed to attract large, multi-ethnic audiences. The success and popularity of British Pakistani boxer Amir Khan (boxer) influenced the revival of boxing on ITV Sport. In 2006,
Time (magazine) magazine voted the late British Asian musician
Freddie Mercury, the lead singer and writer of the rock band Queen (band), as one of the most influential Asian people in the past 60 years.Liam Fitzpatrick. " Farrokh Bulsara".
Time Asia.
Lakshmi Mittal is currently Britain's richest man and the fifth richest man in the world. He owns Arcelor-Mittal, the world's largest steel manufacturer, which was known as Mittal Steel Company before the merger with Arcelor. He was listed in the
Forbes List of Billionaires (2006) as the richest Indian and the fifth richest man in the world with an estimated fortune of $55.0 billion and, according to the
Sunday Times Rich List 2006, is the richest in the UK, with a net worth of £29 billion. The
Financial Times named Mittal its 2006 Person of the Year. In 2005, he was the third richest man in the world according to
Forbes List of billionaires (2005).
Literature
This refers to the growing body of literature that refers to and documents aspects of the British Asian experience.
Well-known British Asian writers include:
Salman Rushdie, Gurinder Chadha,
Hanif Kureshi,
Monica Ali, Meera Syal and
Raman Mundair.
Celebrities in popular culture
is a popular British comedian.
Early British Asian stars include
Sabu Dastagir, who had been famous for playing non-specific foreigners in British and Hollywood films, fondly remembered for his lead roles in
The Thief of Bagdad (1940 film) and
Jungle Book (1942 film).
Since the 1970s, British Asian performers and writers have achieved significant mainstream cultural success. The first British Asian to gain wide popularity in the UK and worldwide fame was the late
Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara), who led the rock band
Queen (band), although most people may be unaware of his ethnicity. Famous British Asian actors in the 1980s included Ben Kingsley, who won an Academy Award for his performance in
Gandhi (film), as well as Art Malik for his roles in
The Jewel in the Crown and
The Living Daylights.
The comedians
Sanjeev Bhaskar,
Meera Syal and Shazia Mirza are all well-recognised figures in British
popular culture. The
actress Parminder Nagra has a prominent role in the US TV series
ER (TV series), and played the lead role in the successful British film
Bend It Like Beckham. The actor
Naveen Andrews plays the role of
Sayid Jarrah in the popular US TV series
Lost (TV series), and also had a prominent role in the award-winning film
The English Patient (film). Hardeep Singh Kohli is a presenter, reporter and comedian on British television. British Pakistani boxer
Amir Khan (boxer) represents Britain in boxing and is the current International Boxing Federation inter-continental
light welterweight champion. British Kashmiri, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian contestants have appeared on
The Apprentice (UK) including Tre Azam, Syed Ahmed, Lohit Kalburgi,
Ghazal Asif and most notably Saira Khan, who is now a British TV presenter. The broadcaster Krishnan Guru-Murthy and
Sameera Ahmed, meanwhile, present the
Channel 4 News. There are also the Cricketers
Sajid Mahmood and
Monty Panesar,
Owais Shah,
Ravi Bopara who play for England.
In the disability arena Ivan and Charika Corea founded the
Autism Awareness Campaign UK.
Communities
Although there are Asian communities all over the UK, towns and cities with particularly significant Asian populations include:
- Batley 30% S. Asian. 40.72% in Batley Easthttp://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=3&b=5940952&c=batley&d=14&e=15&g=380759&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1190840196281&enc=1 and 21.43% in Batley Westhttp://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=3&b=5940951&c=batley&d=14&e=15&g=380815&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1190840886531&enc=1
- Bedford (Queen's Park, Bedfordshire, Cauldwell) 7.7% S. Asian
- Birmingham (especially Sparkhill, Sparkbrook, Small Heath, Balsall Heath, Washwood Heath, Saltley, Handsworth, West Midlands, Handsworth Wood)19.5% S. Asian
- Blackburn 20.6% S. Asian
- Bolton 9.1% S. Asian
- Bradford (Manningham, Bradford, Great Horton) 18.9% S. Asian
- Cardiff (Butetown, Grangetown, Cardiff, Riverside, Cardiff) 3.96% S. Asian
- Coventry 11.3% S. Asian
- Derby 8.4% S. Asian
- Dewsbury (Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury, Thornhill Lees, Savile Town) around 30% Asian. Savile Town is "97-100% Muslim"http://www.kirklees-pct.nhs.uk/fileadmin/documents/meetings/march_07/KPCT-07-42%20Report%20estate%20strategy.doc paragraph 4.3
- Edinburgh
- Glasgow (especially Pollokshields, Pollokshaws, Govanhill and Woodlands, Glasgow) Scotland0.9% S. Asian
- Halifax, West Yorkshire 10% S.Asian
- High Wycombe 7.5% S. Asian
- Keighley 15% S. Asian
- Leeds (Beeston, West Yorkshire, Harehills, Chapeltown, West Yorkshire) 4.5% S. Asian
- Leicester (especially Belgrave, Rushey Mead, Highfields, Leicestershire, Spinney Hills, Evington) 29.9% S. Asian
- Luton 18.3% S. Asian
- Manchester (especially Longsight, Rusholme, Whalley Range and Cheetham Hill) 9.1% S. Asian
- Newcastle upon Tyne (especially Arthurs Hill and Elswick) 3.8% S. Asian
- Newport (especially Maindee and Pillgwenlly) 2.6% S. Asian
- Oldham (especially Glodwick, Westwood, Greater Manchester and Werneth) 11.9% S. Asian
- Oxford (especially Cowley Road) 5.8% S. Asian
- Pendle (especially Nelson) 14.1% S. Asian
- Peterborough 7.0% South Asian
- Preston 11.6% S. Asian
- Reading, Berkshire borough 5.2% S. Asian
- Rochdale 9.8% S. Asian
- Burnley (borough) 7.2% S. Asian
- Rugby, Warwickshire (especially New Bilton, Benn and Brownsover) 5.3% S. Asian
- Sheffield (especially Burngreave, Sharrow and Darnall) 4.6% S. Asian
- Slough 27.9% S. Asian
- Sandwell 14% S. Asian
- Southampton 3.8% S. Asian
- Sunderland (especially Eden Vale, Hendon and Thornhill) 1.2% South Asian
- Wakefield 5% Asian. The College Grove area is estimated at 36.49% Asianhttp://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=3&b=296281&c=wakefield+017c&d=141&e=15&g=385316&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1190839653875&enc=1
- Walsall 10.4% S. Asian
- Wolverhampton 14.3% S. Asian
- Note: Some local authorities contain large areas of countryside surrounding the actual towns, e.g. Bedford, Bradford, Leeds, Newport, Sunderland and High Wycombe. This may lead to the local Asian and ethnic minority populations being underestimated in these places.
Counties with a high population of British Asians include -
- Lancashire 5.3% S. Asian
- Greater Manchester 5.6% S. Asian
- West Yorkshire 8.7% S. Asian
- West Midlands (county) 13.4% S. Asian
- Greater London 12.09% S. Asian
- Berkshire 6.8% S. Asian
- Buckinghamshire 4.3% S. Asian
- Bedfordshire 8.3% S. Asian
- Leicestershire 11.9% S. Asian
London Boroughs with high a population of British Asians include -
See also
External links
- All in Online - Building Community Leading South Asian Community Portal
- UK Asian UK's Longest Running Asian Community Portal - Started by a student in 1996
- Hindu Cultural Association of Wales UK
- SL2UK.com is a website dedicated to the Sri Lankan and South Indian communities living in the UK, including Interviews with prominent South Asians including A R Rahman, M.I.A, Jay Sean, Rishi Rich, etc.
- Paki.fm Is a web based radio station that reafirms Young British Asian Identities
- History Talking.com is a source of oral history of the Asian community in the UK
- paki.tv is a web project from the East India Dock of Former British Empire
- BBC Radio Player discussion on the dissatisfaction over the term Asian
- Black Youth Empowerment
- hWeb - An outline of the immigration pattern of the Pakistani community in Britain
- Dr Desi - Desi Lifestyle Magazine
- Weaver v NATFHE In the Weaver v NATFHE (now part of the UCU) race discrimination case an Industrial Tribunal upheld a union’s decision not to assist a British Asian woman lecturer, at Bournville College, Birmingham, who brought a case of racial harassment against a fellow worker at Bournville College of Further Education, Birmingham, because he could lose his job. The Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld the decision.
- British Council Arts - Contemporary Writers information on British Asian writer Raman Mundair.
- The British Asian who changed the Face of English Justice a non-fictional account of the conviction of George Edalji, solicitor son of a Parsee convert to Christianity, falsely imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. The outcome of this case was mainly responsible for the creation of the English Criminal Court of Appeal.
- BBC News Many Asians 'do not feel British' 30/07/07 based on ICM Research poll conducted 4 - 12th July 2007
- Reassessing what we collect website - The Asian Community in London History of Asian London with objects and images
References
The British Asian Network
If you are not redirected in 5 seconds, please go to http://www.britishasian.co.uk/blog/
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