Class, ethnicity and religion in the Bengali East End : a political history / Sarah Glynn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Glynn, Sarah, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bengali (South Asian people)--England--London.

Bengali (South Asian people).

England--London.

Physical Description:

xii, 292 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2015.

Summary:

This exploration of one of the most concentrated immigrant communities in Britain combines a fascinating narrative history, an original theoretical analysis of the evolving relationship between progressive left politics and ethnic minorities, and an incisive critique of political multiculturalism. Its central concern is the perennial question of how to propagate an effective radical politics in a multicultural society: how to promote greater equality that benefits both ethnic minorities and the wider populations, and why so little has been achieved. It charts how the Bengali Muslims in London's East End have responded to the pulls of class, ethnicity and religion, and how these have been differently reinforced by wider political movements. Drawing on extensive recorded interviews, ethnographic observation and long sorties into the local archives, it recounts and analyses the experiences of many of those who took part in over six decades of political history that range over secular nationalism, trade unionism, black radicalism, mainstream local politics, Islamism and the rise and fall of the Respect Coalition. Through this Bengali case study and examples from wider immigrant politics, the book traces the development and adoption of the concepts of popular frontism, revolutionary stages theory and of the identity politics that these ideas made possible. It demonstrates how these theories and tactics have cut across class-based organisation and acted as an impediment to tackling cross-cultural inequality, and it argues instead for a left alternative that addresses fundamental socio-economic divisions. This insightful work will appeal equally to sociologists, political activists and local historians. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Sailors, students and settlers 6

2 Desher Dak - 'The Call of the Homeland' 32

3 Joi Bangla! - 1971 57

4 British Bangladeshis 79

5 Socialism on stony ground 92

6 Black radicalism and separate organisation 115

7 Bengalis in the council chamber 147

8 Mobilisation through Islam 175

9 The Respect experiment 215

10 Diverging paths 240.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-276) and index.

ISBN:

0719095956

9780719095955

OCLC:

892043534