Bengali Housing Action Group

The Bengali Housing Action Group (BHAG) was established in response to a rapidly growing Bengali squatter population in the East End of London in the 1970s. Tower Hamlets and Spitalfields were particularly well known for their sizeable Bengali populations.

The BHAG emerged in a period of growing intolerance to the Greater London Council’s (GLC) housing discrimination. The GLC did not intervene when some Bengalis were left homeless after not qualifying for social housing. It also did little to intervene against the alienation and racist attacks experienced by Bengalis when housed in predominantly white neighbourhoods. This tense environment motivated many Bengalis to adopt the ethos of self-help, which was important in the Black Power movement. Bengali families began squatting in abandoned houses around Spitalfields and similar areas of east London. They followed white countercultural groups in making their own squatter communities. Informal groups organized their own housing lists which prioritized families and the elderly. Areas like Pelham Buildings on Woodseer Street came to house forty-one Bengali squatter families in this period. Amidst the rapidly rising Bangladeshi population, these resistance communities officially organized themselves as the BHAG. Their aim was to create strong Bangladeshi communities, safe from street racism and targeted attacks.

A major case taken up by the BHAG was to create Bengali-dominated areas in east London. The Tower Hamlet Council (THC) and the GLC tended to disperse Bengali families within white neighbourhoods. These families were thus alienated within their local areas and vulnerable to targeted attacks. This would often push them to squat in abandoned houses in Bengali-dominated areas. For example, in 1976 Mr Montaz Uddin’s house was broken into by people claiming to be Electricity Board inspectors. His eight-months-pregnant wife was beaten. It was at this time that Mr Uddin and his wife were on the waiting list to be relocated to an area considered safer for them. On 2 April Mr Mujir Ahmed and his wife were attacked with knives and missiles by a group of fifteen white racists in their homes. No police action was taken. There was also the ‘pedestrian gaze’, as Bengali families’ homes were peered into by passers-by. Their homes became displays that were scrutinized and analysed, and the Bengali home essentially became a public space.

The BHAG began a two-year campaign against the GLC and THC demanding cooperation in rehousing Bengalis to the East London. They argued that strong Bengali communities would lessen feelings of alienation, reduce riots sparked from dissatisfaction and allow police to focus their protection efforts against racist attacks. Initially, the Bangladeshi Youth Movement had organized vigilante groups to patrol areas known to house Bengali families. However, the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) forbade squatting and was deemed ineffective to communicate with. Many vigilante groups were also subjected to racial attacks.  By the end of the two years, the BHAG achieved tenancy agreements with the GLC to create Bengali-dominated areas in the East End.

Writers and anti-racist activists Mala Sen and Farrukh Dhondy took a leading role in BHAG demonstrations during this campaign. Sen and Dhondy were writers for the Race Today Collective and used their platform to publicize the BHAG as a nationwide effort for safe and equal housing as a basic citizenship right. Its first demonstration was a march to Bethnal Green Town Hall and was joined by around a hundred people. It gained momentum in the 1980s when over ten thousand protesters gathered from Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds to join protest efforts. The BHAG also worked alongside the Socialist Workers Party and Anti-Nazi League. Its marches were joined by sympathetic members of these organizations. Black activists from Race Today joined Sen and Dhondy in making this campaign hit the headlines.