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Indian Workers' Association (pre-1950)
Campaigning organization for workers' rights and for Indian independence
Other names
Indian Workers’ Union
Hindustani Mazdur Sabha
Location(s)
B8 1EE
United Kingdom Bradford
BD5 0DX
United Kingdom Coventry
CV1 2LP
United Kingdom
About
The Indian Workers’ Association had a dual aim: to raise consciousness of the struggle for Indian independence among working-class Indians in Britain, and to protect and enhance their welfare. While there was some overlap between the IWA and the India League, the former was a working-class organization whose membership was composed almost uniquely of Indians. The founders and protagonists were mainly Sikh and Muslim Punjabis who had turned to peddling on their arrival in Britain, later finding factory work or construction work at the aerodromes and militia camps that had sprung up in the Midlands during the Second World War. Meetings were conducted predominantly in Hindustani, which often excluded Bengali seamen and ex-seamen from participation, although there were also bi-monthly ‘open meetings’ conducted in English and with invited British speakers.
In the Indian Political Intelligence files, many of the Sikh pioneers of the IWA are described as having ‘Ghadr sympathies’, their main concern being to raise money for Ghadar Party initiatives such as the Desh Bhagat Parwar Sahaik Committee, which helped the dependants in India of ‘Sikh martyrs’, or the Udham Singh Defence Fund. Generally, the political activity and mobilization of working-class Indians was a source of grave concern to the India Office. IPI records reveal discussion of ways in which the organization’s leaders could be dispersed to different parts of the country where there were few Indians and less opportunity to stir up anti-British feeling among their fellow countrymen. Indeed, the IPI kept lists of IWA men who they considered particularly seditious and who should be interned in the event of an invasion during the war.
In terms of welfare work, the IWA leadership helped working-class Indians to avoid army conscription if they wished. It also provided a forum for discussion of employment grievances. Records of speeches at IWA meetings reveal the link between the oppression of Indians in Britain and their subjugation to the British in India; for example, Indian machinists in British factories are described as being reallocated to unskilled labouring jobs because of the fear that if they acquired the same skills as Englishmen they would return to India and teach their fellow countrymen the trade, thereby undermining the rationale for British rule.
Although it began as early as 1937, the IWA gained real momentum when Vellala Srikantaya Sastrya, an educated Madrasi, became Secretary of the Birmingham branch in 1942. He gave the organization leadership and coherence. By 1944, however, signs of discord among the main players were evident, with Akbar Ali Khan relocating from Coventry to east London to open a rival IWA in the capital.
By 1947 it looked like the organization was in terminal decline, but with the arrival of a new generation of workers from the subcontinent after 1950, the organization revived.
For further information about the IWA post-1950, please follow this link.
Numerous meetings held at different branches concentrated mainly in the Midlands but extending throughout Britain
Celebrations of Indian Independence Day, commemorations of the Amritsar Massacre, ‘Quit India’ demonstrations
Muhammad Amin Aziz (original secretary), Thakur Singh Basra (‘unofficial secretary’ and one of leaders), Charan Singh Chima (founding member, vice-president of Coventry branch in 1945), Vidya Parkash Hansrani (vice-president of Coventry branch, co-edited Azad Hind), Mohammed Tufail Hussain (elected chairman of the Bradford branch in 1942), Mohammed Fazal Hussein (secretary then president of Bradford branch, edited Indian Worker), Akbar Ali Khan (chairman of the central organization from 1942 at least, and president from 1944 at least; lived with Thakur Singh Basra in Coventry), Kartar Singh Nagra (founding member, one-time secretary, co-edited Azad Hind), Muhammad Hussain Noor (assistant secretary of Bradford branch), Ajit Singh Rai (treasurer of Bradford branch), G. D. Ramaswamy (editor of news-bulletin, student at Sheffield University), V. S. Sastrya (secretary from October 1941), Sardar Shah (treasurer of Birmingham branch), Gurbaksh Singh (key figure in Bradford branch), Karm Singh (member of central committee), Natha Singh (president of Bradford branch in 1945), Ujagar Singh (first treasurer of Coventry branch).
Surat Alley, Amiya Nath Bose, Fenner Brockway, W. G. Cove, Dr Ganguly, Mrs Kallandar Khan, Fred Longden, V. K. Krishna Menon, Dr D. R. Prem, Pulin Behari Seal, Dr Diwan Singh, Udham Singh, Vic Yates.
Federation of Indian Associations in Great Britain (the IWA and Swaraj House were components of the Federation), Hindustani Social Club (linked to the Birmingham branch of the IWA in 1942), India League (joint meetings occasionally held despite differences between organizations), Swaraj House (linked up with branches of the IWA in 1943).
Indian Worker [bulletin in English and Hindustani, edited by Mohammed Fazal Hussein, published irregularly]
Azad Hind [bulletin in Urdu and Punjabi, edited by Vidya Parkash Hansrani and Kartar Singh Nagra, launched in 1945]
Mazdoor (‘Worker’) [bulletin in Urdu, edited by Chowdry Akbar Khan and Said Amir Shah and managed by Abdul Ghani, launched in1945]
Desai, Rashmi, Indian Immigrants in Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963)
Hiro, Dilip, Black British, White British (London: Paladin, 1992)
John, DeWitt, Indian Workers’ Association in Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969)
Josephides, Sasha, Towards a History of the Indian Workers’ Association, Research Paper in Ethnic Relations, No. 18, Warwick University, ESCR (1991)
Ram, Anant and Tatla, Darshan Singh, ‘This is Our Home Now: Reminiscences of a Panjabi Migrant in Coventry’ (An interview with Anant Ram), Oral History, 21. 1 (Spring 1993), pp. 68–74.
Virdee, Pippa, Coming to Coventry: Stories from the South Asian Pioneers (Coventry: The Herbert, 2006)
Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto Press, 2002)
L/PJ/12/645, India Office Records, African and Asian Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras
L/PJ/12/646, India Office Records, African and Asian Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras
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© Remaking Britain: South Asian Connections and Networks, 1930s – present
