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Written by the Remaking Britain team. First published December 2025.

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Since the 19th century, South Asians have played an important role in British politics. Notably, this has included roles as elected officials and as leaders of political associations, influencing public opinion on matters including Indian independence alongside representing local constituents and communities. Moreover, South Asians have agitated for equality and social justice by leading and engaging with local, national and transnational activist campaigns, from the suffrage movement to anti-racism. These key political struggles frame the history of modern Britain.

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The first MPs of South Asian descent: parliamentary representation in the 19th and early 20th century

In 1841, David Dyce Sombre (1808–1851) – a Liberal MP of European and Indian heritage from the princely state of Sardhana – likely became the first MP of South Asian descent to be elected to Parliament. Other South Asians subsequently entered Parliament, including Dadabhai Naoroji (1825–1917), a Parsee businessman and lecturer who was elected as a Liberal MP for Central Finsbury in 1892. His standing for election received mixed reactions. Lord Salisbury, for example, stated that the British people would not ‘elect a black man’ as an MP. Public figures including Labour politician Keir Hardie and Florence Nightingale endorsed him.

Naoroji was committed to free education, public housing and Home Rule for Ireland. He was also a champion for women’s suffrage and campaigned for ‘justice for India’, informing public opinion of the nature of British rule. In his book Poverty of India (1876) he argued that British policy ‘drained’ India of £30–40 million every year, causing widespread poverty in India. With this argument, Naoroji questioned the claim that British rule was beneficial to India. Naoroji and other early nationalists campaigned to reform the system of British governance in India, and drew attention to the country’s 250 million people who they believed had no representation in the British parliament.

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Held by British Library. Shelfmark: 14119.f.37. Public Domain.

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Photograph of Dadabhai Naoroji, printed on the page of a magazine

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Held by British Library. Shelfmark: SV 576. Public Domain

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Cartoon responding to Dadabhai Naoroji's 1892 election, from Hindi Punch

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Cartoon responding to Dadabhai Naoroji's 1892 election, from Hindi Punch

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Similarly, Shapurji Saklatvala (1874–1936) – who was elected as a Labour MP for the working-class constituency of Battersea in 1922 – raised issues related to India and Indian self-rule in Parliament. Saklatvala saw the interests of the British and Indian working classes to be interdependent. An active trade unionist and powerful speaker, he addressed meetings all over Britain, championing workers’ rights during the depression years. Moreover, as a founder member of the Workers' Welfare League in 1917, he was committed to improving the welfare and position of Indian workers in London and Britain. Following his election as Labour MP for Battersea in 1922, Saklatvala was defeated in December 1923. He regained the seat in October 1924, when he stood as a Communist representative, and held the seat until 1929.

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Held by British Library. Shelfmark: Mss Eur D1173/2. Public Domain

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Advertisement for Shapurji Saklatvala's political campaign in 1931

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Advertisement for Shapurji Saklatvala's political campaign in 1931

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Women’s suffrage movement and Sophia Duleep Singh

The history of political representation in 19th and early 20th century Britain is inextricably linked to the campaign for women’s right to vote. South Asian women were involved in the British suffrage movement, including the Indian princess Sophia Duleep Singh (1876–1948), lawyer Mithan Lam (1898–1981) and social activist Lolita Roy (1865–?). For example, on 18 November 1910, known as ‘Black Friday’, Sophia led a 400-strong demonstration to Parliament, together with Emmeline Pankhurst. As protesters tried to enter the House of Commons, clashes broke out and the police responded violently. An estimated 150 to 200 women were assaulted, including acts of physical and sexual assault.

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Held by British Library. Shelfmark: L/PS/11/51. Public Domain

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Photograph of Sophia Duleep Singh selling The Suffragette outside Hampton Court Palace, 1913

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Photograph of Sophia Duleep Singh selling The Suffragette outside Hampton Court Palace, 1913

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Sophia was a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union and also belonged to the Women’s Tax Resistance League, whose slogan was ‘No Vote, No Tax’. Her refusal to pay taxes led to her prosecution several times. Sophia's political activities raised concerns in some quarters. In a letter sent to Lord Crewe in April 1913, a civil servant asks ‘if anything could be done to stop her’ and whether the King should consider evicting her from her lodging. She and her sisters were given free use of Faraday House on the grounds of Hampton Court Palace. This grace-and-favour house was part of the settlement and pension presented to Sophia’s father Duleep Singh who, at the age of 10, had his title and power as Maharaja of the kingdom of Punjab removed and was exiled to Britain.

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Held by The Women's Library, LSE. Shelfmark: TWL 2002 638. Public Domain.

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Women's Tax Resistance League: Sophia Duleep Singh's sale of goods in lieu of tax

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Women's Tax Resistance League: Sophia Duleep Singh's sale of goods in lieu of tax

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Held by British Library. Shelfmark: IOR/L/PS/11/52.

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Transcript of telegram to Lord Crewe about Sophia Duleep Singh, 21 April 1913

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Transcript of telegram to Lord Crewe about Sophia Duleep Singh, 21 April 1913

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Crown Copyright: This material has been published under an Open Government Licence.

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As well as mobilising support for suffrage in Britain, women including Lam and Roy campaigned in Parliament for women’s right to vote in India.

Independence campaigns, the India League and Indian Workers’ Association

In the First World War some 1.5 million South Asian men fought for Britain and its empire, raising one of the largest armies. There were hopes among some colonised subjects that their contribution would lead to greater autonomy for India, but this was disappointed when Britain failed to respond. The end of the First World War thus began a new phase in the anti-colonial struggle. The 1919 Amritsar massacre (also known as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre) and the repression that followed irreparably damaged British-Indian relations. The Indian campaign for freedom was, in turn, transformed into a mass movement. Indians abandoned cooperation, and large-scale civil disobedience campaigns took place. Examples include non-violent protests such as the 240-mile-long Salt March led by lawyer and leading anti-colonial activist Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948) in 1930, which resisted Britain’s monopoly over Indian salt.

This led to Britain calling a series of Round Table Conferences between 1930 and 1932, on the future status of India. Attendees included leading figures of India’s anti-colonial movement including Gandhi, Mohammed Ali Jinnah (1876–1948) and B R Ambedkar (1891–1956), as well as British politicians including Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald (1866–1937). The meetings failed to generate a consensus on how India would be governed in the future.

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Held by British Library. Shelfmark: Photo 13(1). Public Domain

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Photograph of the second session of the Indian Round Table Conference, 1931

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Photograph of the second session of the Indian Round Table Conference, 1931

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Organisations such as the India League thus became significant sites for networking individuals committed to full Indian independence. The India League was founded in London in 1928 for the purposes of promoting Indian self-governance. Its driving force was activist and lawyer V K Krishna Menon. Born in 1896, Menon came to Britain in 1924 to study at the London School of Economics. During his long residence in the UK, he devoted his time and energy primarily to two social and political causes: Indian independence and poverty in the London borough of St Pancras. A member of the Labour Party since his student days, he was elected Councillor for St Pancras in 1934. In 1937, he co-founded the non-fiction Pelican series with Penguin publisher Allen Lane.

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As Secretary of the India League, Menon was an energetic campaigner for Indian independence. Under his leadership, the India League became a large movement with branches all over Britain. Many MPs and British members of the public supported it.

Many working-class Indians in Britain organised to promote the cause for Indian independence and equal rights as British citizens. The Indian Workers’ Association (IWA) was founded in Coventry in 1937. A social welfare organisation fighting for better working and living standards, it also lobbied for Indian independence.

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Held by British Library. Shelfmark: IOR/L/I/1/1457. Public Domain

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Profile about Krishna Menon, 1 September 1947

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Profile about Krishna Menon, 1 September 1947

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In their bid to improve conditions of labour for their members, they established links with the British Labour Movement. Some middle-class Indians also joined and the IWA had branches in many industrial towns, including Birmingham, Coventry and Bradford. By 1947, splits among its members led to its decline, although it was revived soon after.

Race and anti-racism: the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination and Asian Youth Movement

During the late 1950s, Indian Workers’ Associations (IWAs) re-emerged across the UK, and largely consisted of South Asians labourers who migrated to rebuild Britain after the Second World War. Members resisted economic exploitation, racism and discrimination. The recruitment of working-class South Asians into British industries had long been a point of contention. In 1919, for example, port towns such as Cardiff became the sites of racist riots which were instigated by a highly competitive job market in which South Asian, Black, Chinese and Yemeni labourers, particularly seamen, were accused of ‘stealing’ white workers’ jobs and housing. This was despite racialised minority seamen contending with less pay and poorer working conditions compared to their white counterparts.

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Held by British Library. Shelfmark: IOR/L/PJ/12/645.

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Intelligence report on the Indian Workers' Association, 1942

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Intelligence report on the Indian Workers' Association, 1942

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Crown Copyright: This material has been published under an Open Government Licence.

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Following the Second World War, Britain’s growing racialised minority population continued to organise in response to deep-seated racism in employment, housing, policing  and education, as well as violence on the streets. In 1965, the first Race Relations Act was legislated to ban discrimination ‘on racial grounds in places of public resort’. The Campaign Against Racial Discrimination, which was established in 1965 and whose leaders included prominent South Asian academics Dipak Nandy and Hamza Alavi, suggested several amendments to the original Race Relations Bill, although the act proved ineffective given that it did not legislate against discrimination in housing and employment. Therefore, a wide spectrum of anti-racist organisations emerged across the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, some of which were led by South Asians.

This included the Asian Youth Movement (AYM), a radical anti-racist organisation that drew from the Black Power movement, which advocated for self-determination and self-defence. AYM branches emerged across the UK during the 1970s, and were founded by second-generation South Asians. In Sheffield, for example, the Sheffield Youth Movement (initially named the Asian Youth Council) was established in 1981 when a South Asian restaurant was attacked by racists and the police failed to act. AYMs often coordinated with each other and shared tactics for mobilising grassroots, radical collective action.

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Held by British Library. Shelfmark: C2047. © Remaking Britain. Image credit: Photo by M. Parmar.

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Mukhtar Dar talking about the creation of the Sheffield Asian Youth Movement (recorded 2024). Please note that this clip contains racial slurs.

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Mukhtar Dar talking about the creation of the Sheffield Asian Youth Movement (recorded 2024). Please note that this clip contains racial slurs.

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For example, Anwar Ditta (1953–2021), a British national who married and had three children in Pakistan, fought to reunite her family after the Home Office denied her and her husband’s application to call their children to the UK following their settlement in Rochdale. The Home Office accused Ditta of lying about having three children who were born in Pakistan, and suggested they were her sister-in-law's children. During the period that Ditta lived in Pakistan, British immigration legislation had changed considerably. The Immigration Act of 1971 removed the right of Commonwealth citizens to migrate, settle and work in the UK. This meant that although Ditta was able to move freely because of her British citizenship, her children were not granted the right to live in Britain and therefore were subject to the Home Office’s decision-making. In 1979, at a meeting in Longsight Library, Manchester, the Anwar Ditta Defence Campaign was established to draw together wide-ranging political organisations such as OWAAD, the AYM and IWA, with the purpose of reuniting Ditta with her children.

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Between 1979 and 1980, Ditta partook in 400 meetings, conferences and demonstrations across the UK and collected donations in Rochdale town centre every week. This was despite racial abuse and significant financial pressure. In 1981, a Granada TV World in Action television documentary marked a turning point in the campaign. The documentarians and Ditta’s lawyer visited the children in Pakistan and collected their blood for DNA testing, which unequivocally proved that they were Ditta’s children. In April 1981, Ditta and her children were reunited in the UK.

Parliamentary representation in the late 20th and 21st century

Across the late 20th and 21st centuries, South Asians have been elected to political positions in local and national contexts. In 1982 for example, Zerbanoo Gifford – who was born in India in 1950 and migrated to London aged three – was elected as a Liberal councillor in Harrow. She was the first racialised minority woman to be elected councillor for the Liberal Party. By 1983, she became the first South Asian woman to contest a general election in the United Kingdom, alongside Pramila le Hunte who stood as a Conservative candidate in the seat of Birmingham Ladywood in the same year. Gifford was unsuccessful in the three elections for which she stood. In recent years, South Asians have occupied some of the most powerful positions in British politics. By 2022, for example, Rishi Sunak – the first South Asian to lead the Conservative Party – became Britain’s first South Asian Prime Minister. Similarly, Sadiq Khan of the Labour Party became London’s first South Asian and Muslim mayor when he took office in May 2016.

Conclusion

South Asians have shaped British politics and society through their engagement with politics and activism. South Asians played a leading role in some of the most significant activist campaigns in modern British history, such as the campaign for Indian independence, women’s suffrage and anti-racism in the 1970s and 1980s. Moreover, since the 19th century, growing numbers of South Asians have been elected to Parliament and have occupied positions of authority in local and national politics. This has historically been met with mixed reactions. Nonetheless, some South Asian political figures used their positions to agitate for change related to a wide range of concerns, including housing, education and health.

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The text in this article is available under a Creative Commons License.

Credit: Remaking Britain team (Rehana Ahmed, Aleena Din, Sumita Mukherjee, Susheila Nasta, Maya Parmar, Florian Stadtler, Rozina Visram).

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