Home
People
Organizations
Events
Themes
Oral Histories
Learning Resources
Ayana Deva Angadi
‐
Writer, lecturer and a founder of the Asian Music Circle
Other names
Ayana Veerayyaswami Angadi
Raj Hansa
Jaya Deva
Place of birth
Date of arrival to Britain
Date of time spent in Britain
1924–?
About
Ayana Angadi came to Britain in 1924. His original intention was to prepare for the India Civil Service examination but instead he became involved in political activism, writing and lecturing about imperialism and India. As well as contributing to a range of journals in Britain, he wrote several political pamphlets under the pseudonym Raj Hansa. A committed Trotskyist, he joined the Labour Party and worked as a lecturer for the Central Advisory Council for Adult Education in HM Forces and then for the Imperial Institute, travelling to schools and colleges around the country to speak about Indian matters. He also travelled to Scandinavia to lecture and was there suspected of being a Cominform agent (L/PJ/12/518, p. 48).
Arguably, Angadi's most significant achievement while in Britain was the establishment with his wife Patricia Fell-Clarke of the Asian Music Circle in 1946. This organization introduced Indian music, dance and yoga to the British public, paving the way for musicians such as Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan.
Numerous concerts and lectures
India League meetings
E. F. Bramley (CPGB), R. F. O. Bridgeman, Benjamin Britten, J. R. Campbell (CPGB), Patricia Fell-Clarke, George Harrison, B. K. S. Iyengar, Krishna Menon, Yehudi Menuhin, Shapurji Saklatvala, Ravi Shankar.
(as Jaya Deva) Japan’s Kampf (London: Gollancz, 1942)
Numerous pamphlets written under the name Raj Hansa
Massey, Reginald, Azaadi! Stories and Histories of the Indian Subcontinent after Independence (New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 2005)
Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto Press, 2002)
L/PJ/12/518, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras
Asian Music Circle 1954–1960: Correspondence with Ayana Deva Angadi, founder and director, regarding the Circle’s programmes, with copies of leaflets and programmes, MSS 157/3/MU/A/1/1–26, Papers of Victor Gollancz, Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick Library
For image and copyright details, please click "More Information" in the Viewer.
Image credit
© Remaking Britain: South Asian Connections and Networks, 1930s – present
