Bashir Maan

Glasgow

1953–2019

Bashir Maan was born in Gujranwala, British India. After completing his high school education, he became a clerk and was an undergraduate student at the University of Lahore. Maan was involved in the Indian independence movement and supported Muslim refugees who were migrating to the newly formed Pakistan.

In 1953, after receiving correspondence from his brother – a naval cadet at Rosyth – about his positive experiences in Glasgow, Maan decided to migrate to the city and by 1957 was joined by his wife Rahama and daughter. He became a pedlar and sold clothes in Glasgow, Motherwell, Hamilton and Bellshill. Later, by 1962, he became a businessman and owned a laundromat and a life insurance agency.

Soon after his migration, Maan established himself as a prominent member of Glasgow’s growing Pakistani and Muslim communities. By 1956 Maan was Assistant Secretary of the Jamiat Ittihad ul Muslimin in Glasgow. He was also a founding member and Secretary of the Pakistan Social and Cultural Society, founded in 1955. In addition, he was part of the Glasgow Central Mosque planning committee, which first assembled in 1958, and by 1962 he was a welfare officer for the Pakistan Association. Maan created local and national connections with prominent Pakistanis, such as Mohammad Yousuf, High Commissioner for Pakistan. He also played a prominent role in galvanizing community support for Kashmiri independence. On 5 April 1962 Maan, in his capacity as Secretary of the Jamiat Ittihad ul Muslimin, addressed a meeting of Pakistani locals who demanded a free Kashmir. Following the meeting, 600 people marched in George Square. Similar protests occurred in Sheffield and Leeds.

By 1968, Maan was President of the Pakistan Association. He represented its 3,000 member when, after Enoch Powell delivered his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, he shared a statement with the press about the fears of racial violence among the Pakistani community. He also organized the Pakistan Solidarity Front in response to the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 and was responsible for co-ordinating fundraising in Glasgow to support the Pakistan Defence Fund. In April 1972, for example, Maan sent a cheque of £1836.44 to the Pakistan High Commission on behalf of Pakistanis in Scotland to support the fund. In the mid-1970s, he became President of the Standing Committee of Pakistani Organisations in the United Kingdom (SCOPO), an umbrella organization for Pakistani community groups across the UK. Their activities included representing British Pakistanis in national and international contexts.

In 1968 Maan became Scotland’s first Pakistani Justice of the Peace. In 1970 he made history as the UK’s first Muslim to be elected to public office, when he became a Labour councillor for Glasgow’s Kingston Ward. By May 1971 he became Scotland’s first Pakistani Baillie, or city magistrate. In 1972 Maan made a bid to become a Labour MP. He stood for a seat in East Fife. Conservative candidate Sir John Gilmour won the seat and Maan came last. He also worked with bodies committed to anti-racism. In his capacity as SCOPO President, Maan pressed the Home Secretary Merlyn Rees to amend the Race Relations Act 1976, to ensure the proper handling of cases related to the incitement of racial hatred. In addition, between 1977 and 1980 he was a committee member and Deputy Chairman of the Commission of Racial Equality, notably advising on the Heathrow virginity testing scandal and, more broadly, discriminatory immigration policy.

Maan was eager to show Scottish Pakistani life to wider audiences. Between 1976 and 1978, Maan was on a BBC advisory committee for Asian programming, as well as the BBC Immigrants Programme Advisory Committee. He was also the author of The New Scots: The Story of Asians in Scotland, and his research was supported by the sociologist Robert Miles, Research Director of the Research Unit on Migration and Racism at the University of Glasgow.

Maan received an honorary doctorate at the University of Strathclyde in July 1999. He was also awarded a CBE for his services in 2000. In 2006 Maan publicly opposed same-sex marriage and was met with criticism, as he was forced to step down from the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organizations. He published two books on Islam in Scotland.

Bashir Maan died on 20 December 2019, aged 93.