The Dilemma of Rhodes Scholarships – Remembering African and Caribbean Students At British Universities

The death of Eldred Jones reported in The Guardian today reminds us of the many students from Africa and the Caribbean and who studied at British Universities.

www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/30/eldred-jones-obituary

Jones obtained his BA at Christi Corpus College in Oxford. Becoming a literary scholar and critic his Othello’s Countrymen: English Renaissance Drama was published in 1965, He went to work at Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, which was linked with Durham University. In 1974 he became principal of the College. In 2002 he was made at honorary fellow at Corpus Christi.  

Many other students studied at Oxford on Rhodes Scholarships. A debate between former Jamaican Rhodes scholars on the proposed removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College emphasises the need for Rhodes scholars to continue ‘to be agents of change, fighting against racism and other forms of justice in their home countries.’

www.loopjamaica.com/content/jamaican-rhodes-scholars-share-mixed-views-rhodes-must-fall

This is a useful reminder that history and legacy are complex.

Since it started in the early 20thC the Cecil Rhodes scholarship programme has supported many students of African heritage at Oxford.

Alain LeRoy Locke, of the later Harlem Renaissance, was the first  African American Rhodes Scholar in 1907 (see Jeffrey’s Green’s website). There were then none until 1962 with John Wideman.  

https://aaregistry.org/story/the-rhodes-scholarship-and-african-america

https://goodblacknews.org/tag/african-american-rhodes-scholars

There had been previous Black students at Oxford, the first Christian Cole graduating  in 1876 and becoming the first black African to practice law in English courts from 1883. He was celebrated with a plaque at University College in 2017, thanks to the work of Pamela Roberts, director of the project Black Oxford: Untold Stories (www.blackoxford.net).

Time is ripe to give a higher profile about the black graduates at Oxford and other Universities, whether Rhodes Scholars or not.

At Oxford these included Edward Nelson of British Guiana who had held office in Oxford Union debating society (see Jeffrey Green’s website), Frank Dove (see Stephen Bourne’s Black Poppies), Norman Manley (Rhodes and Royal Field Artillery, First World War, Jamaican Prime Minister), Malcolm Joseph-Mitchell (League of Coloured Peoples), Rex Nettleford (scholar and choreographer), and Eric Anthony Abrahams (President of the Oxford Union 1964-5).

There was also Grantley Adams, who became Prime Minister of Barbados. He won a Rhodes scholarship and started at Oxford in 1919. His friends there included Noel ‘Crab’ Nethersole (later Jamaica’s Minister of Finance), Erskine Ward (later Speaker of the West Indies Federation House of Representatives), the Bajan H. A. M. Beckles (later academic), the Nigerian Jibowu who became a Judge, and Sidney Van Sertima from British Guiana who became a barrister). Adams also met the Bajan Principal of Wycliffe Hall (Church of England theology college) Rev. H. B . Gooding (Rhodes 1906).

The internet is full of material, including press and video interviews with more recent Rhodes scholars

There were African and Caribbean students at other universities like at Edinburgh including Charles Duncan O’Neal (1899-1904), who was a doctor on Tyne and Wear before returning home, and John Alcindor, who became a GP in Paddington, whose biography by Jeffrey Green awaits publication. Born in Jamaica the playwright Barry Reckord studied at Cambridge University in the 1950s. Edward Kamau Brathwaite was at Cambridge and then Sussex Universities.

I have been discussing with academics at Durham the history of its links awarding degrees to African students at Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, and some students who came to study at Durham, like H. A. M. Beckles before going to Oxford, and George (Coleridge- Taylor.

Not all Rhodes scholars from the Caribbean came to Britain. Richard Dayton went from Barbados to Harvard. He is now Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at Kings College London.

Every University should be researching its historic engagement with black students. If there are proposals for statues then men like John Alcindor should be high on the list. Plaques could be put up on buildings associated with them as students.

Note: My father was a Rhodes Scholar from Canada in the 1930s.

History is Shades of Grey: The Dilemma Over Baden-Powell

From South African Scouts website

Nelson Mandela was patron of the South African Scouts, and said:

“The international Scout movement is a world leader in youth education, and has particular relevance to the needs of youth in Africa and the emerging democracies around the globe.

I am pleased with the progress of Scouting in South Africa, and in the steps which are now being taken to make the programme accessible to more young people. The importance of a high moral code, which is at the foundation of the Scout movement, cannot be stressed too highly.” (1)

As a letter writer in The Guardian (16 June) points out Mahatma Gandhi supported the caste system. This and the row about the Baden-Powell statue illustrates that historical figures are shades of grey, and are a mix of positive and negative aspects. Given the daubing of the Winston Churchill statute, the recent repeat of David Olusoga’s documentary on the Windrush scandal and the way a hostile environment was built from when the Windrush was sailing here in 1948, highlighted the racist views of Churchill and the pressure he put on the Cabinet from 1951 to examine the issue of immigration by ‘coloured’ people. It also highlighted uncomfortably for Labour Party members racist attitudes of Clem Attlee and a number of Labour MPs.

The Dilemmas about  Baden-Powell

In the first edition of my Black & Asian History Heritage in the UK ENewsletter in October 2003 I wrote the following piece re-Baden-Powell.

‘An area of possible research is the role of the Scout Movement in organising young people in the colonies as well as Britain, what values they inculcated with regard to Empire or internationalism, and what opportunities they provided for Scouts from the Empire to visit Britain. This suggestion has been triggered by reading the book ‘I Was There. St. James’s, West Malvern’ arranged by Alice Baird (Littlebury & Co, 1956). Alice Baird was the Head Mistress of St. James, a private girls’ school in West Malvern. She was a keen supporter of Scouting and Girl Guiding, and knew the founder Baden-Powell and his wife, who sent their daughter to the school.

‘The inspiration he had given to the youth of other nations was strongly impressed on me by the Jamboree at Wembley in 1924, and even more by the great Jamboree at Arrowe Park in 1929. There were thousands of Scouts from all parts of the world. At Arrowe, Scouting was an international expression for India as well as for Norway, for Britain as well as for Hungary; an ideal of the good life which appealed to all alike.’ (Baird, p. 513)

Between 26 January and 8 March 1929, Baird went on a Canadian Pacific Cruise to the Western Islands and North West Africa, along with the Baden Powells. They stopped at Gibraltar, Monaco, Majorca, Algiers, Tangier, and Grand Canary. Then on to the Sierra Leone. It was ‘a great surprise. I had had a vague idea of a hot, dreary unremarkable town, swarming with chocolate and ebony inhabitants. Everywhere we went they welcomed us in the most friendly way. Everyone was genial and cheerful. The winding roads climbed up and up between tropical trees and shrubs to a height from which we could see a great distance over mountains and forest and sea. Then, conducted by African Boy Scouts, we saw native dancers accompanied, or on might say, impelled by the most vigorous playing and thumping of various instruments of music, up till then, unknown to me. There were native diving boys all around the ship all day. When we came back in the evening, one canoe was empty except for its paddles, for its owner had dived and had never reappeared.’

At Dakar ‘Mountains of pea-nuts hemmed in the way to the quay, and up and down the quay stalked tall, dignified Senegalese in their vivid blue robes. Great and important public buildings seemed to be accidentally plunged down on untidy waste sandy land. A long motor drive in the desert behind, and the first sight of vultures and queer Rackham-like baobab trees.’

The cruise returned to Liverpool via Tenerife, Casablanca, Madeira, Cadiz and Lisbon. (Alice Baird. p. 397)

‘Early in the morning, perhaps at six or seven o’clock, we would hear that the Scouts in Gibraltar or the Canary Isles or Tangier, Dakar, Freetown or Lisbon had come on board to greet the Chief; that he had gone off with them, or was inspecting their troops or talking to their leaders, Then, later in the evening, as we left our port, groups of Scouts gathered round the Chief.’ (Baird, p. 514)

On 27 January 1941 she attended the Memorial Service for Baden-Powell at Westminster Abbey. ‘Men and women of all ranks and races came to do honour to the dreamer whose dreams came true.’ (p. 515-6) ‘I saw an Arab Scout wearing the beautiful mourning robes of Palestine, the black robe and white head-dress, like that worn by Lawrence of Arabia. I saw an Indian Scout, wearing the magnificent plumed mourning head-dress.’ (p.516) She also comments ‘Framing the picture, the ancient grey aisles and pillars of the Abbey, the spiritual heart of the Empire where rest so many great and famous men.’ (p.517)

(Since writing the above Postscript has advertised the reduced price availability of the book by Robert H. MacDonald: Sons of the Empire. The Frontier and the Boy Scout Movement, 1890-1918 …)’

I do not recall receiving any comment back on this item from the historians of Black Britain who it was sent to.

The Scouting Movement In Africa

Baden-Powell is commemorated in parts of Africa because of the Scouting Movement. (2)

From School website

There is the Lord Baden-Powell Memorial School in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It teamed up with the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Africa Goodwill Tour in 2012 to have some of the students complete Disaster Response Specialist Training. A  singer Grace Paul performed an original Swahili song based on the motto of the Ministers, with the students joining in the chorus: “No matter the situation, something can be done about it.” (3)

In 1960 Kwame Nkrumah initiated the Ghana Young Pioneers Movement to replace the Scouts which were seen as the relics of colonialism. (4) The Movement no longer exists, but the Ghana Scouts do. (5)

(1)      https://scoutmastercg.com/nelson-mandela-patron-scouting

(2)      www.scout.org/africa

(3)      https://news.cision.com/church-of-scientology-international/r/scientology-disaster-response-specialists-graduation-in-tanzania,c9276625

(4)      Ebenezer Obiri Addo. Kwame Nkrumah: A Case Study of Religion and Politics in Ghana. University Press of America. 1999

(5)      www.ghanascout.org

What More Should Sadiq Khan Be Doing In Response To Black Lives Matters?

In response  to the pulling down of the Colston statue in Bristol in the wake of the astonishing support for the Black Lives movement around Britain, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor London launched a new commission to assess “the landmarks that currently make up London’s public realm”. Road names, murals and street art will be considered alongside statues and plaques. Since then Oriel College has agreed to take down the statue of Cecil Rhodes.

Action on landmarks will not tackle what is central to the world-wide explosion of support for the US movement: objection to racism.

The way race discrimination operates varies from country to country dependent on its history. Within each country there are conflicts about discrimination and racism.  It is interesting to see the different ways in which people responded around Britain. On Tyneside, for example, where Black British historian David Olusoga grew up as a victim of racial attack, 3,000 people took part in a Zoom  discussion on the murder of George Floyd.

Given we have not seen such protests previously in response to the previous killings by the police of black men in the United States, the question is why now.

• Is it more than just pent up anger about past deaths?
• Is it linked to the frustration of COVID-19 lockdown and the need to be outdoors?
• Is it  a realisation that street protest has been given much more legitimacy since Extinction Rebellion especially for the younger generation?
• To what extent has the enormous amount of work on Britain and the slavery business and British Black History since 2007 penetrated into large numbers of people’s consciousness?
• Has the continuing Windrush Scandal and the hostile environment alerted more people to the issues of racism?

We will never really know. What is important is that we are in a new situation which could result in positive actions, as long as the movement does not get diverted and marginalised.

Need for London Review of Racial Disadvantage and Discrimination

As anti-racism is central to the protests  Khan should set up a review of racial disadvantage and discrimination in London, the social-economic experience of Black citizens, the extent to which institutional racism still exists in the Metropolitan Police, Transport for London, and the Greater London Authority, and the way in which his London Plan policies are aggravating the social-economic problems. A key question is to what extent that having to support the arrest for deportations in the hostile environment, how many individual Met Police officers were negatively affected in their view of Black individuals and families?

Khan should challenge the City of London Corporation to join the  review I suggest given it’s  is autonomous with Greater London, and the fact that it was at the heart of the British slavery business and post emancipation in the American slave cotton states, and in colonial exploitation.

The Missed Opportunity of the Lawrence Inquiry Recommendations

Several people have said to me that real progress was being made by local authorities against racism and discrimination up until the publication of the Lawrence Inquiry Report. Then there was a fear of engaging in the issue of institutional racism highlighted by the Inquiry out of fear of being called racist. This in my view is due to the apparent failure of other institutions to look at the Inquiry recommendations and see which were relevant to non-police organisations.

At the time I was Policy Development Officer at the British Society of Settlements and Social Action Centres. I produced a policy briefing showing how the recommendations of the Inquiry for the Met could be used to examine the way our members were working. In the case of one of our members the Black staff were able to open up about their concerns. 

Biased British History

Part of institutional racism is the lack of integration of Black British history in the way British history is taught. This means that neither black nor white pupils have a proper understanding. They largely receive the airbrushed version. While there are plenty of ways in which individual teachers can include Black British History this is usually down to the interest and enthusiasm of individuals and their confidence.

Recently Dame Jocelyn Barrow died. It would be a lasting tribute to her memory as an anti-racism campaigner if the Mayor ordered a review of the extent to which the recommendations in the report of Ken Livingstone’s Mayor’s Commission on African and Asian Heritage which she chaired have actually been implemented since its publication in 2005.

Engaging With The Commission

Historians (academic and community) will need to engage  with the Commission especially as it will also assess the representations of the histories of women, disabled people and LGBT+.

Action in Croydon

It is to be hoped that every local authority in London will carry out its own review of the extent to which they dealing with racial discrimination as institutions and in the wider community. In Croydon we have had the Fairness and Opportunity Commission, and now the Climate Change Emergency Commission. Just as with the latter why not start with a Citizens’ Assembly review to look at the issues and potential actions that need to be taken feeding into to a longer term Commission. The problem is not going to be solved overnight. As I discussed in my paper on preparing for the Borough of Culture 2023 programme Croydon’s Black history and culture and its influence on wider culture should be an important component, especially in those neighbourhoods with  large section of Black and Asian populations who are subject to all kinds of racial discrimination.

https://seancreighton1947.wordpress.com/2020/04/20/time-to-debate-croydon-borough-of-culture-2023

See also:

http://historyandsocialaction.blogspot.com/2020/02/reflections-on-current-state-of-british.html

George Larmuth and the British Legion Supporting Garibaldi

In the July issue of BBC History David Olusoga discusses the support in Britain for Garibaldi in the liberation of Italy. He mentions the volunteers from Britain and Europe who went to fight with him. One of those was George Larmuth from Manchester.

I came across Larmuth just over 20 years ago while looking at The Protestant Standard newspaper for 3 June 1911.

‘GARIBALDI'S ENGLISH LEGION

THE MANCHESTER SURVIVOR

‘The Manchester survivor of Garibaldi's English Legion is Mr. George. H. Larmuth, of 10, St Ann's-square. Mr. Larmuth will be on the party of Garibaldian veterans who will shortly leave for Rome to join in the celebration of the jubilee of Italian unity and independence. When the war broke out Mr. Larmuth had just completed his apprenticeship with the old Manchester firm of Messrs. Hewitt and Paul, land agents and valuers. He was one of Captain Bridgford's Company (No. 6) of the 1st Manchester Volunteers, and was attracted by the advertisements which held out a prospect of exciting adventure in Italy. Accordingly he communicated with Captain. E. J. Hampton, and Captain Hampton came to Manchester to see applicants. Several young men went from Manchester, but some who had entertained the notion drew back at the last. Mr. Larmuth sailed with his companions from Harwich, and was present at such fighting as the Legion got. When he returned to Manchester he established the firm of valuers and estate agents of which he is still the head. Mr. Larmuth has been abroad a great deal, but has not visited Italy since he went as a member of the Legion.’

I wrote to the Manchester Central Library requesting any information they had. Richard Bond. The Archives and Local Studies Officer replied  attaching photocopies of three newspaper articles about Larmuth visiting Italy for celebrations in 1911 and dieing in 1913.

The 1911 Celebrations

The Daily Dispatch reported on the Celebrations in Italy in 1911, including interviewing Larmuth.

The Dispatch  recounted that Colonel Peard, of Cornwall, and Dr. J. Nelson, of Belfast, were the first British on the battlefield, and that Garibaldi subsequently gave Colonel Peard the command of the BritIsh Legion. Contingents from Liverpool, London, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh landed at Naples from two steamers. On their way to battle they were reviewed by Garibaldi. The Legion comprised 674 men.

The first Englishman killed was Lieutenant Tucker, a Devonian, who joined in London. Some of them were involved in building a bridge of boats across the River Volturno, enabling Garibaldi to join up with the Sardinian Army under Victor Emmauel. Under shelling they cross the bridge before it was destroyed by enemy fire. They then experienced a four day forced march over the Apennines where the two armies joined up near Capua.

Larmuth told The Daily Dispatch: “There was not much fighting, but those of us who remain will never forget. It was an exciting time while it lasted. We were in the vineyards, where much of the fighting took pace. It was the first time I had seen shot and shell, and we had to drop under the trees, where we were shelled. Quite number of men fell around me.”

When ordered to retreat at another location “We did retreat and were glad to do it. It was by an accident that we had been ordered into the fighting line.” ‘In one of the vineyards, where they had encountered the enemy, some of the Legion made what was regarded as ‘a very lucky discovery.’  “It was from a well in which we found two old umbrellas,  two bottles of wine – which proved to be sour – and some bacon, which we ate with much gusto.”’

“It was only what you might call a short date excursion for we were back in England in less than three months.”

He went to Italy in 1911 to represent the veterans at the unveiling of the monument to King Victor  Emmanuel II in Rome, and then to take part in the celebration of the jubilee of independence on 1 June. During the first ceremony King Victor Emmanuel II passed before the British Legion. ‘Noticing the British colours, which were carried by. Mr. Henry Noble, of Exeter, His Majesty remarked: “This is the flag of the brave British Legion” ‘and at the same time saluted in military fashion, while the flag was lowered.’ The veterans them took part in a procession to the Pantheon to visit the tombs of King Victory Emanuel and King Humbert. Colonel Byrne and Larmuth officially represented the veterans.

Because many of the survivors were poor the Society of Veterans (English and Italian) ‘opened a fund to enable as many as possible to undertake the journey to Rome on June 1^st.’

Larmuth’s Career and Activities

After schooling he became an apprentice in an estate agency. Later he established Messrs George Larmuth and Sons auctioneers, valuers, and estate agents. The last proper transaction he was involved with was the valuation of the land and buildings required for the Royal Exchange extension scheme. He had also been involved in city extension schemes for railway companies, street improvements , the Ship Canal and the tramways. For the latter he acted for the City Corporation, which took over the system from the commercial companies.

He was active in Manchester’s civic society. He was Secretary of the Salford and Pendelton District Hospital, advertising for a District surgeon in July 1884. (1) He was a member of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, and an occasional contributor The Manchester City News Notes and Queries column. (2)

The work of his agency in 1911 included a sale of seven cottages at Ancoats. ‘To  be sold by auction, pursuant to an Order of the High Court of Justice, made in an action BENNETT v. HOULDSWORTH, 1872, B. No. 230, with the approbation of Mr. Justice Eve, by Mr. Reginald Ashley Larmuth, of the firm of Messrs. George H. Larmuth and Sons, of 10, St. Ann's-square, Manchester, the person appointed by the said Judge, at the Albion Hotel, Piccadilly, Manchester, on Tuesday, the 16th day of May, 1911, at 5 o'clock in the evening prompt, subject to conditions of sale, to be then and there produced. Lot 1.—Seven cottages (one used as a shop), numbered 164 to 176 (even numbers, both inclusive), in Mill-street, Ancoats, Manchester aforesaid, let on weekly tenancies at an aggregate rental of £97 5s. 8d. This lot will be sold free from the rent of £9 7s. 6d. hereinafter mentioned. Lot 2.—A fully licensed inn or public-house, known - as " The Bridge Inn," situated in Mill-street’. (3)

His book Real Property Hand-book: A Practical Guide. Also treating of the Law of Landlord and Tenant. With an Appendix, containing useful forms of Agreement, Notices, Lists of Prices for Work and Material, &c. went into three editions.  (2)

He wrote two plays, a burlesque Alonzo the Brave and Advertising for a Wife. (4)

Reporting his death in 1913

He died at his home Enderley, Bramhall, in late August 1913 aged 76. He was one of the few survivors of the Legion and the last of those from Manchester. At his funeral the coffin was draped with the Italian Flag. (2)

Garibaldi and Britain

In 1854 having bought a ship in the United State Garibaldi stopped at Newcastle to load coal before sailing on to Italy. He was welcomed by the radicals like Joseph Cowen. The Northern Reformer journal Cowen funded included a report that his supporters organised a public meeting on 28 March and agreed to make a presentation to him which took place on his American boat the Commonwealth at Shields on 11 April. The deputation included Cowen, Thomas Pringle, G. Julian Harney from London, and Constantine Lekawski, a Polish exile. (5) It also published To the Children of Garibaldi, a poem by Walter Savage Landor. (6)

Other organised support for Garibaldi in 1860 and 1861 included the Garibaldi Italian Unity Committee. One of the Committee members was J. P. Malleson of Croydon.  (7) Malleson is probably the Reverend who lived at Birdhurst in 1854, a Trustee of Manchester New College, later a member of the Committee of the London Domestic Mission, and a member of the Local Education Board for Croydon. (8) Cowen’s Newcastle Chronicle organised support for the formation of the British Legion. (9)

In April 1864 Garibaldi visited Britain. So many people were expected to welcome him that the former Nine Elms Station, which no longer served passengers, was opened for his arrival. (10) Robert Applegarth, the trade union leader, who would later settle in Thornton Heath, was a member of the reception committee.  (11) Although Cowen and others organised a welcome for Garibaldi to Newcastle, it did not take place due to Garibaldi sailing for Italy. (12)

John Jennison the owner of Manchester’s Belle Vue Zoological Gardens  built some cottages and a pub for his workers, naming  pub The Garibaldi Inn. (13)

A number of mutual organisations which were established adopted the name of Garibaldi. Manchester had a Garibaldi Loan Society from 1866.(14) The Loyal Garibaldi Lodge of the London Oddfellows started in Lambeth’s York St in 1867; by 1873 it had amalgamated with the Brixton based Reiman. (15)

(1)    British Medical Journal. 2 August 1884

(2)    The Manchester City News. 6 September 1913. p. 189

(3)    The London Gazette. 5 May 1911. p. 3491

(4)    Manchester Literary Club Papers on line

www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/manchester-literary-club/papers-ala/page-22-papers-ala.shtml & Thomas Costley. Lancashire Poets and Other Literary Sketches. Abel Haywood &Son, Manchester. 1897.  p. 54

(5)    The Northern Reformer. Vol 1. No. 5. p. 175-6

(6)    Ditto. Vol 1. No 6. p. 207

(7)    Letter. Garibaldi Italian Unity Committee Committee Secretary. September 1861 calling for local committees to be set up. Copy on Google Books

(8)    Reports of Manchester New College Annual Meetings from 1861; & London Domestic Mission Society (London). The Thirtieth Annual Report. Presented ... 29th May, 1865; Journal. Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. 1862. p. 358

(9)    Joan Allen. Joseph Cowen and Popular Radicalism on Tyneside 1829-1900.  Merlin Press. 2007

(10)  Margot C Finn. After Chartism: Class and Nation in English Radical Politics 1848-1874. Cambridge University Press. 2003 & Paul Laity. The British Peace Movement 1870-1914. Clarendon Press. 2002.

(11)  Sean Creighton. Thornton Heath History. An Introductory Overview. History & Social Action Publications. 2018

(12)  W. E. Adams. Memoirs of a Social Atom.  Augustus  M. Kelley  Publishers. 1968. p. 527.

(13)  Robert Nicholls.  Looking Back at Belle Vue.Willow Publishing; &  Heather Stackhouse and Daniel Hyams. Pocket Belle Vue: Manchester's Playground. At Heart Publications. 2007. The Belle Vue Archive is at Chetham's Library:  www.chethams.org.uk/belle_vue.htm. Details of    the collection can be seen on the National Archives Access to Archives website.

(14)  QDS/1/4/279  1866. Lancashire Record Office.

(15)  Sean Creighton.  Organising Together in Lambeth. A Historical Review of Co-operative and Mutual Social Action.  History & Social Action Publications. 2018

Indian Music and Influence in Britain

As Croydon moves towards being Borough of Culture 2023 there will be proposals for performances of Indian music and dance. Many people will not know that Indians have contributed in many ways to Britain’s musical culture over the last hundred and more years. Here are some details about five important contributors: Sarojini Naidu, Imryat Khan, Kaikhosru Sorabji,  Ram Gopal and  Vyakarnam Lakshmipathy.

Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949) was a Bengali poet and women's rights campaigner. Croydon's composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor used her  A Lovely Little Dream and Sons of the Sea. She became the first woman President of the Indian National Congress. 

Imryat Khan

Inayat Rehmat Khan (1882 – 1927) was an Indian classical musician who came to Europe. While in London in 1914 he founded the Sufi Order. In February 1915 some of his music was played at a concert organised by the National Political League at the Aeolian Hall in London to raise money for its land and unemployment scheme. (The Times. 19 February 1915. p. 27) The National Political League (NPL) was founded in 1911 by Mary Adelaide Broadhurst, who had been the Women’s Freedom League organiser in Liverpool. Its main objective was to further social and political reforms on a non-party basis. On 19 March 1913 it had organised a meeting to protest against forcible feeding of imprisoned suffrage campaigners at Kingsway Hall. Among the performers at the 1915 concert were Lilian Braithwaite and Eva Moore. Braithwaite (1873-1948) was the daughter of the Revd John Masterman Braithwaite who became  curate and later vicar of Croydon. She was educated at Croydon High School. Eva Moore (1868-1955) was active in the suffrage movement and a founder of the Actresses’ Franchise League.

Khan’s Sufism emphasised love, harmony, and beauty. His writings included The Music of Life and The Mysticism of Sound and Music. He saw harmony as the "music of the spheres" which linked all mankind and had the ability to transcend one's spiritual awareness.

https://wahiduddin.net/hik/hik_origins.htm

The Music of Life. Omega Press. 1988.

The Mysticism of Sound and Music: The Sufi Teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan. Shambhala Publications. 1996. 

His daughter was Noor Inayat Khan who became a British SOE operative captured, tortured and killed by the Nazis.

www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/obituaries/noor-inayat-khan-overlooked.html

Her life can be read about in

Shrabani Basu. Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan. The History Press.

Gaby Halberstam. Noor Inayat Khan. A&C Black. 2013. 

Kaikhosru Sorabji

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, a composer of Parsi heritage, was born in Chingford in Essex on 14 August 1892. His father was a Zoroastrian Parsi civil engineer and his mother is thought to have been part Sicilian, part Spanish and a soprano. He spent most of his life in England. He became a prolific composer. He lived in London and then in South Dorset.  His music began to reach an audience from 1976 promoted by the South African pianist Yonty Solomon. Sorabji died aged 96.  CDs are available and a book edited by Paul Raport was published in his centenary year: Sorabji: A Critical Celebration. There is also a Sorabji Archive, Alistair Hinton being the archivist. For further details compiled by Alistair Hinton see: 

www.music.mcgill.ca/~jwapnick/sorabji/sor_bio.html  

(From my Black & Asian Heritage in the UK ENesletter.  No.1. October 2003)

Ram Gopal

Ram Gopal was born in Bangalore and became a leading exponent and teacher of Indian classical dance.  His lawyer father discouraged his dancing, so he taught himself accompanied by gramophone records. He obtained mentoring and financial support and was able to Kathkali and Dasi Attam Dance. The American dancer La Meri visited Bangalore and invited him to join her on a tour of the Far East. He then visited America, England and Europe before returning to India where he opened a dance school in Bangalore. This finally closed and he spent the war years giving performances for the troops. After the war he began touring again, presenting a ballet at the Edinburgh Festival. He performed at Wimbledon Theatre on 21 June 1948. He eventually settled in London. Rina Singha partnered Ram Gopal on his European tours & taught at his dance school.

Kathakali deals with the struggle between good and evil, based on the heroic ventures of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. It involves a fierce battle and the destruction of a demon. Kathak Dance flourished in the 16th Century. Kathakali has a  heavy head-dress (Kiritam), made of wood, painted red, green, white and gold, inlaid with imitation gemstones.  The eyebrows & eyes are emphasised with heavy black make-up. Heroes have green and villains  dark red or black faces. The costumes, ornaments and movements all suggest the nature of the

character played.

Raghunath Manet, one of his pupils performed at London’s  Globe Theatre in  July 2000, and according to a member of the team led by me that put together the Merton Black History display for the North East Community Association. Ram Gopal was in the audience. .

Vyakarnam Lakshmipathy

Inspired by a Chinese performance in Beijing of the Indian Bharat Natyam classical dance, Vyakarnam Lakshmipathy (1918-1998) set up the UK University Music Circuit with the support of his wife Moona, a veena player. ‘The Circuit brought quality players from Indian to play in universities, but also to take workshops and give explanatory lecture-demonstrations. At its height, 30 institutions had bought into it.’ It lasted for 12 years but had problems because  arts funding bodies ‘had still not recognised the needs of music other  than western, and universities themselves were under financial pressure.’

Brought up in South India he obtained a science degree and worked with the British monitoring wartime Japanese broadcasts to India. From 1947 he was active in the Indian Labour Forum fighting for workers’ rights. Later he entered  the Indian diplomatic service and then the Engineering Export Promotion Council. He came to London in 1972 where he retired.

(Obituary by Naseem Khan. The Guardian. 8 September 1998. p. 18)