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“Going for an Indian”: Food, Immigration and Multiculturalism in Britain

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Authored by Nishah Malik
Published on 7th April, 2022 32 min read

“Going for an Indian”: Food, Immigration and Multiculturalism in Britain

Our new collection, London Life, 1965-1966, consists of weekly issues of the London Life magazine, which was owned by Illustrated London News. The magazine, that captured the spirit of the ‘Swinging Sixties’, aimed to ‘reflect all aspects of the life of London’. Encompassing nearly 5,000 images, the collection contains all 63 issues of London Life, published between October 1965 and December 1966. The magazine portrays the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of British society. London Life covers a wide range of topics, from music, film, fashion, sexuality to the thriving nightlife of London’s West End. The collection is an invaluable source for students and researchers alike, it provides a window into discovering the social and cultural transformations that happened in ‘Swinging London’.


An extract from London Life listing restaurants.


Every issue of London Life consisted of a comprehensive entertainment guide which listed the TV, films, discos, theatre productions and exhibitions coming up within the next week. This guide also contained a list of restaurants, with mini reviews outlining the prices and the top dishes at an establishment. Each issue contained a range of different cuisines such as Greek, Indian, Chinese, Arabic, Austrian, Ceylonese, German and French. While by 21st century standards seeing a range of cuisines listed in magazines is the norm, examining their presence in the mid-1960s can reveal a great deal about food, immigration and changes to the British palate.

An article titled "The Liberation of the English Palate".

Within the 8th October 1966 issue of London Life Rodger Baker wrote an article titled “The Liberation of the English Palate”, in which he discussed how Britain was undergoing a revolution to its eating habits. The restaurant guide in each issue of London Life is testimony to this. He explained that during the last 10 years British people have “broadened their taste and acquired a less inhibited palate”, speculating that this revolution to English eating habits was down to a combination of the travel boom and immigration.1 In line with this historian Panikos Panayi in Spicing Up Britain: The Multicultural History of British Food stated that by end of the Second World War Britain “had reached a culinary stasis” in which most diets were centered around meat, bread and potatoes, in part due to rationing.2 Before the 1950s foreign foods in Britain “hardly existed”. Panayi, similar to Baker, explained that this changed vasty due to post-War immigration, he further expressed that:   

“From the 1960s increasing numbers of Britons visited Chinese and Indian restaurants to sample foods vastly different from the dishes they had eaten during the age of austerity”3

Now Britain, particularly London, is a financial and multicultural hub. Modern Britain has been built on its cultural diversity, ethnic minorities have played a key role in shaping modern Britain. The Minority Rights Group mention how migrant communities make a “major contribution to British life in business, medicine, science, the arts, academia, politics and sports”.4 This article aims to look at their contributions through a culinary perspective. In the grand scheme of history food history is often overlooked greatly, however the food we eat and see in society has a significance that goes beyond simply nourishing our bodies.

This article aims to focus on Baker’s article in London Life and Panayi comments to explore how this “revolution in our [British] eating habits” came about by immigration. As listed in London Life, 1960s Britain saw a range of foreign cuisines taking the streets of London by storm. However, while there were many cuisines prevalent in Britain by the 1960s, this article will primarily focus on South Asian food in Britain. In the 21st Century “Going for an Indian” has emerged as a popular evening out, this article aims to trace this popularity back to the 1960s and earlier, in order to explore how South Asian food was implemented into British society and the meanings of the cuisine, while also exploring both positive and negative perceptions of the cuisine. It will take an interdisciplinary approach, placing Indian restaurants in to the wider discussions surrounding South Asian immigration, multiculturalism and the racialisation of food, as well as cultural identity studies.  

South Asian Immigration and The Post-War Years

“Another potent factor in the liberation of the English palate has been the influx of immigrants”5 – Rodger Baker, London Life, 8th October 1966

Before exploring South Asian food it would wise to trace South Asian presence in Britain. The post-War years are most commonly believed to be when families from India, Pakistan and after 1971, Bangladesh settled in Britain for the first time.6 However, the post-War immigration should be considered more as a watershed moment where there happened to be an influx of migrants from the subcontinent, rather than a specific post-War phenomenon.7

The South Asian diaspora have been in Britain for many centuries, there is evidence of South Asian presence as early as the mid-17th century.South Asian immigration to Britain has often been thought off in four phases. The first phase of immigration began between the 1850s to the 1880s, during this time, Sikhs who were part of the Indian army and ex-seaman were attracted to Britain.9 The second phase took place between the 1880s to the Second World War, a period when South Asians from affluent backgrounds came to study in Britain and when soldiers settled.10  

The third phase is the most commonly known phase: the post-War mass migration. After a six-year long war Britain had to rebuild its economy, which in turn mass labour shortages.11 In order to fill the unskilled labour jobs, the government “turned to the former colonies to secure new recruits” and cheap labour.12 Following the economic instability created by the partition of British India in 1947, many single or married men came to Britain to seek employment with the intention of earning money for a short period of time, in order to secure a better life for their families.13 Many men from the Punjab region of India gained employment in “manufacturing, textile and service sector” jobs in the West London areas of Hounslow, Slough and Southall.14 While many men from the Mirpur region of Pakistan gained employment in textile and engineering factories in Bradford, Birmingham and Manchester.15 In 1955, 5800 immigrants migrated from the subcontinent, however this number tripled in size by 1966 when 18402 South Asians were migrating to Britain.16 

The final phase of immigration took place in the 1960s onwards when there was “large-scale entry of wives and children” joining their husbands and fathers.17 This final phase of South Asian immigration to Britain was a major turning point and it truly was a watershed moment for South Asian presence in Britain. This was not only because the migration of families created a “general consolidation of ethnic settlement”, but also because this was the moment when individuals of all ages and genders began integrating and making their own contributions to British society and culture.18

The Liberation of the English Palate: History of South Asian Food in Britain

While an abundance of Indian restaurants have been seen in Britain since the partition of the Indian subcontinent, South Asian food has been prevalent in Britain long before that. In the 18th and 19th centuries, due to Britain’s connection with India, an obsession with Indian curries developed. Many men from the East India Company brought ingredients and Indian recipes from India. In 1747, an Indian recipe featured in a British cooking book for the first time. “The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy” contained three pilau recipes and also a curry recipe which claimed to teach readers how “to make curry the Indian way”.19 The first purely Indian restaurant in Britain, ran by an Indian person, was Hindoostane which opened in 1810. Founded by Sake Dean Mahomed, a former captain of the British East India Company, the establishment offered “Indian dishes, in the highest perfection” to his patrons, while also providing a shisha smoking room.20 Most early Indian restaurants catered towards the Indian seamen and students in Britain, but members of the East India Company also visited. Unfortunately, a couple of years later Hindoostane closed due to the running costs not matching sales. 

One of the oldest Indian restaurants that still remains in Britain is Veeraswamy’s. Veeraswamy’s, off Regent Street in London, was opened in 1926 by a spice importer.21 The restaurant had a different clientele and mainly served elite upper-middle class customers and officers who had lived in India. Veeraswamy offered a nostalgic Indian experience, a 1928 restaurant guide stated how the restaurant allowed diner who had “been out East...to eat again a real curry and remember the days when they were important functionaries on salary instead of ‘retired’ on pension”.22 However, ordinary Britons tended “to steer clear of South Asian food” in restaurants like Veeraswamy. Following post-War immigration, there became an abundance of South Asian restaurants in Britain.23 In the 1950s and early-1960s the clientele were largely South Asians themselves, this changed to more British customers by the late-1960s and 1970s. This change will be discussed in greater detail within this article

Perceptions of South Asian Food: Multiculturalism 

“Substantial immigration from the former South Asian colonies, alongside that from the Caribbean and elsewhere, remade Britain in cultural and demographic terms”24 – Elizabeth Buettner 

Aside from having cultural significance, the rise of South Asian cuisine reveals a great deal about multiculturalism in Britain. 21st century Britain is a country that ‘welcomes rather than fears multiculturalism’; London has emerged as ‘one of the most multicultural cites in the world’.25 Muslim mosques, Sikh Gurdwaras, Hindu temples, the Pakistani newsagents and the Indian restaurant have all become ‘indispensable components’ of the cultural landscape of Britain.26 While now “Going for an Indian” has become a popular evening out this seed was first sown in the 1960s and 1970s.

Jasvir Singh, co-founder of South Asian Heritage week, mentioned how by the late-1960s and 1970s South Asian cuisine “came to be seen as a cheap and exotic night out for Brits”, in particular amongst the younger generation.27 Jim Taylor recalls his first time visiting an Indian restaurant as a teenager in the 1960s, explaining how at home he was brought up eating meals “that consisted of lamb chops, boiled potatoes and peas, with a bit of salt if I was lucky”.28 Further expressing that he enjoyed visiting curry houses as “like a lot of young people you always want to try something that your parents won’t give you”.29 Britain truly underwent “a revolution to its eating habits”, as Baker maintained. South Asian restaurants provided Brits with a way to sample new foods to what they were usually accustomed to at home. Buettner mentioned how throughout the 1950s and early-1960s most people in Britain “continued to steer clear of South Asian food”, however late-1960s marked a “transitional phase in the evolution of Britain’s curry house culture” with the cuisine being avidly consumed throughout the public sphere.30 This is clearly shown by simply looking at the growth in Indian restaurants, in 1960 there were approximately 300 Indian restaurants in Britain, while by 1970 this grew to 1,200 and by 1980 it was 3,000.31 

“Bradford is still a pork pie and black pudding town, but two decades of largely Asian immigration has created a north of England curry capital”32 - Yorkshire Post, 1973

Food plays a central role in depictions of multiculturalism. This rise in popularity of Indian restaurants represented a new form of positive multicultural interaction. As the Yorkshire Post outlined, areas in Britain such as Bradford, Birmingham and Southall became known as “curry capitals”. Buettner mentioned how this rise of “curry capitals” in Britain marks a “manifestation of a modern transnational phenomenon”.33 Similar to Buettner, Kalah Elantra Vance asserts how cultural foods have “often traveled from their country of origin to be integrated into the cuisine of another”.34 South Asian cuisine slowly began to submerge within local and regional culture, this can be seen in the invention of new South Asian dishes in Britain. The dish ‘Balti’, usually a meat curry served in a wok-like dish, was developed in Birmingham in the 1970s and 1980s. The dish takes influence from the culture of Northern Pakistan and Britain; it was created for a British customer base. While many restaurants throughout Britain incorporated the dish on their menus, during the “Balti craze” of the 1990s, ‘Balti’ emerged as specifically a ”Brummie thing”.35 Jim Taylor noted that despite most Indian restaurants serving ‘Balti’ “few offered Balti cooked the correct way” as done in Birmingham.36 A 2004 guide to Birmingham mentions a range of synonymous of Birmingham such as “canals, Cadbury’s, cars and jewellery”, going on to state “but undoubtedly Balti is now equally part of Birmingham’s tradition”.37 Similarly, in 2001 Britain’s foreign secretary, Robin Cook, proclaimed that “Chicken Tikka Masala is a true British national dish”, further mentioning how the dish is a perfect “illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences”.38 Cook mentioned how this cultural traffic did not “threaten British national identity”, but rather it “epitomised multiculturalism as a positive force”.39 In light of Buettner’s comment curry has become deeply intertwined into western culture and has become an indispensable component to Britain’s landscape, to the extent that Chicken Tikka Masala is the national dish of Britain. It is a true “transnational phenomenon”.40         

Cultural Identity

While many Indian restaurants appealed to a white clientele, this was not the only reason for the rise of Indian restaurants and grocers in Britain. Food has much of an importance beyond nourishing our bodies, following mass immigration to Britain food remained a way for South Asians to “retain their cultural identity”.41 While eating and preparing food is an universal process, the meanings associated with food varies culture to culture and what we choose to cook and eat is a major expression of who we are and where we come from. Not being able to consume the food one is culturally accustomed to can be a trial for ones sense of identity. Ram Gidoomal’s book, Sari ‘n’ Chips, discusses the difficulties South Asian migrants faced when integrating into a western culture, within the book he recalls his own experiences of migrating with his parents from Kenya to Southall in 1967.42 Gidoomal explains that within his first year in Britain, him and his family experienced many difficulties in adjusting to British life to the extent they had to compromise aspects of their culture, particularly in regards to food and fashion. Due to Asian food being scarcely available within the 1960s Gidoomal had to have British food, which he found to be “dull and tasteless”.43 Similarly, within an article published in 1964 in the Birmingham Post, Mr Qureshi, a leader of the Pakistani community in Balsall Heath, maintained that “English food is very limited. We like variety in our diet.”44 This clearly highlights the importance of food to ones sense of identity. 

Beoku-Betts maintained that in countries where ones culture is not the dominant culture within society “there is a strong desire to preserve one's culture through food practices”.45 While now Indian restaurants mainly cater for a white clientele, early Indian restaurants in the 1960s were mainly targeted and ran by factory workers who came from the subcontinent. These eateries were located near factories and open long hours. They provided South Asian men with an opportunity to eat “inexpensive home cooking”, as well as a providing a “support network for Asians”.46 In align with what Beoku-Betts expressed, traditional South Asian food clearly provided first-generation immigrants with cultural unity. However, food is not just a way for first-generation immigrants to express their cultural identity, but is also a vital method for second and third generation immigrants, born in Britain, to feel connected to their roots. South Asian food is not a one box fits all type of cuisine there are many different alternations to ingredients and cooking practices depending on which region you are from in the subcontinent. Many British born South Asians grow up eating South Asian food on a daily basis, it is an important way to stay connected to their parents culture and their regional roots. Thus, the influx of South Asian restaurants and grocers in Britain allowed South Asian immigrants to eat, make and buy traditional ingredients that in turn helped to “retain their cultural identity” within a vastly different society.47          

Perceptions of South Asian Food: Racism and a Tokenistic Multiculturalism 

“I do not think that imaginatively we have become multicultural. I think that in diet we have, absolutely, but I don’t think that has translated from our stomachs to our brains yet.”48 - Jatinder Verma

The avid consumption and adaptation of South Asian food in Britain is a display of one form of multiculturalism. However, multiculturalism is an extremely loaded term that has a range of meanings, multicultural practices also include the fair and respectful treatment of individuals from a different ethnic background to yourself. Buettener, drawing on Cook’s Chicken Tikka Masala comment, poses the question that if South Asian food now counts as British “has a Britishness thus conceived replaced one that long revolved around whiteness with one that makes space for ethnic minority people and cultures?”.49 While, as Baker suggested, the English palate underwent a liberation in the 1960s and welcomed new cuisines unfortunately this liberation was not extended to the people of South Asian origin. Racism and discrimination against ethnic minorities in the 1960s and 1970s did not just revolve around the colour of their skin, but food was also racialised. 

Stanley Fish had come up with a theory of multiculturalism called “boutique multiculturalism”, in which he argues that under this definition of multiculturalism there is only a “superficial or cosmetic relationship to the objects of its affection”, going on to explain how this is a “far cry from full acceptance”.50 In light of this “boutique multiculturalism” South Asians have been called the racist slur “curry muncher”; this term and other derogatory terms related to food have certainly been heard by many South Asians throughout their life. The term “curry muncher” is loaded with “boutique multiculturalism”, it is rather ironic how Britons avidly consume curry, yet this term is only used in a derogatory sense towards individuals of South Asian origin. Francis Wheen, in his book The Sixties, refers to the racism South Asians experienced at the hands of skinheads, explaining that “Paki bashing” became a favourite pastime for skinheads. In particular one skinhead from Birmingham, Des, recalls his experience of visiting an Indian restaurant stating: 

“I’ll tell you why I hate the bloody Pakis. Have you ever been in their restaurants? Have you seen the way they grovel around you, the way they are always trying to please you? I hate them that’s all.”51

Des’ comments further highlights Fish’s “boutique multiculturalism” point, as while Des visited an Indian restaurant he simultaneously despised the hospitality the staff offered. Similarly, the smell of South Asian food has also been heavily resented and racialised in Britain. Rashmi Desai recalled visiting a factory in the 1960s where the “English workers had refused to work with the Indians and Pakistanis” on the grounds that they “could not bear the smell of garlic”.52 This racialisation of the smell of South Asian food even translated its self to neighborhoods. An article published by Birmingham Evening Mail in 1976 discussed the resentment of South Asian presence in the neighborhood, one woman expressed how she wanted to leave where she had lived for 30 years stating “I want to get away from the Asians…It’s not the colour I’m against…[But] all the houses reek of cooking curry”.53 These sentiments were felt by many white residents in the Smethwick area in Birmingham, many found the odors “so offensive and detrimental to the neighborhood” they wanted rate reductions on their houses.54 By the late 1970s, when this article was written, Birmingham had emerged as a popular Indian restaurant spot, this racialising of the smell of South Asian food and the people just goes to show how the conversation between the rejection and embrace of South Asian cuisine and people is on a very thin line.  

Buettener, writing in 2008, maintained that multiculturalism “continues to serve as a myth in contemporary Britain”.55 This thin line between rejection and embrace was not just left in the late-20th century, but has also been witnessed in the 21st century. Most famously this was visible in the 2007 series of reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother, in which contestant Jade Goody frequently spouted racial insults to Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. During a row over undercooked chicken Goody “protracted a wave of abuse” towards Shetty which revolved around Indian food. Goody frequently referred to Shetty as “Shilpa Fuckawallah” and “Shilpa Poppadom”.56 Later when asked about the language used within the incident she explained how she “wanted to use an Indian name and the only word she could think of was an Indian food”. Similarly, within an interview upon her departure from the Big Brother house Goody denied being racist expressing that “If I was a racist I wouldn’t have ate any of the food Shilpa cooked. I wouldn’t have ate chicken curry”.57 Goody’s racist comments within the Big Brother house and her comments upon exit clearly highlights the “boutique multiculturalism” prevalent in British society. Uma Narayam similarly expressed that food constitutes “as an acceptable face of multiculturalism” the fact Goody claimed that she was not racist as she “ate chicken curry” just goes to show how the avid acceptance of South Asian food in Britain is a tokenistic form of multiculturalism that attempts to mask racism.58 

Academic, Edward Anderson expressed that South Asian food “has historically been demonised by many as unhealthy, unhygienic, or ‘smelly’”.59 Aside from the more verbal form of racialising food, South Asians and their food has often had a reputation, within western societies, of being something unhealthy, uncivilized and dirty. On 16th November 1964, the Birmingham Post published an article written by James Clayton titled “The Newcomers Keep to Their Old Food Habits”. Within the article Clayton mentions how even though Indians and Pakistanis are now more financially better off and can afford more foods than before they emigrated very “few change their diets”.60 Further expressing how this has arisen as a point of concern as “doctors in Britain are concerned about the health of immigrants”. He explained how this concern stems from “deficiencies in the diet of many immigrants and the difficultly the authorities have in persuading them of a balanced diet”.61 Going on to state: 

“Doctors are becoming increasingly concerned at the number of anemic women and children with rickets, but nor surprisingly most of the immigrants are unaware of the deficiencies of their diet. Nor do they comprehend the importance of diet if it can be explained to them.”62

Although on the surface the article may seem to be showing concerns towards the health of immigrants, some of Clayton’s comments are reaped with white superiority. An article by Healthline maintained that white culture has repeatedly been “the barometer for measuring worth”, stating that this in turn means “the cultural foodways of Black, Indigenous, People of Colour are often deemed worthless”.63 Healthy diets and which foods are considered to be healthy are often viewed with western rose-tinted glasses. Despite the avid consumption of Indian food, deep-rooted racism has shaped perceptions of heathy food. 

Priya Fielding-Singh, in her book exploring food and inequality, mentions how many foods are stigmatised as inferior and unhealthy “not just because of what they are, but also because of what they represent and who they have been historically produced and consumed by”.64 Within society there is a narrow image of what a healthy diet consists off, foods that are culturally consumed by white people are “paraded as healthy and sophisticated”, while food of migrants are considered unhealthy and inferior. Priya Fielding-Singh asserts how this sense of inferiority related to the cuisines of immigrants is also stretched to the individuals themselves, as “families of colour are generally considered to be unhealthy, and their traditional diets are seen as deviant”.65 This notion of Indians and their accompanying food being dirty and uncivilized can be clearly seen within the 2007 Celebrity Big Brother series when one contestant warned not to eat the food Shilpa had cooked stating “you don’t know where her hands have been”.66 This attitude can also be seen within Clayton’s Birmingham Post article as the traditional diets of Indians and Pakistanis are demonised as causing deficiencies. The tone of the article is remnant of colonial attitudes of white dominance and portrays South Asians as inferior and uneducated on what a healthy diet should include as “they do not comprehend the importance of diet”.67 However, in actual fact South Asian cuisine is one of the healthiest and diverse cuisines around. Traditional South Asian diets have many health benefits as the dishes are high in fibre, low in saturated fat, rich in vegetables and high in protein in the form of lentils and meat. In particular the South Asian dish Kitchari, which is a mixture of mung bean and rice, is reaping with many health benefits. Kitchari particularly improves digestion, eliminates toxins and improves bowel movements.68 Despite being avidly consumed by Britons South Asian food and people of South Asian origin have and unfortunately still are viewed as inferior and a civilisation that “keep to their old food habits” who are unaware of healthy western diets. These examples further highlight how while South Asian food and ethnic food stores have been prevalent in Britain for decades this does not translate to Britain being a fully multicultural society as the acceptance does not stretch to the people themselves. 

Anderson mentions how customers at Indian restaurants “behave in particular ways”, suggesting this is “connected to a sense of entitlement, racism, or even colonial nostalgia”.69 Ever since the rise of Indian restaurants in the late 1960s staff have reported that some customers are rude and verbally abusive. This “particular way” of behaving is so prevalent it has filtered into mainstream media and even become a negative cultural cliché to such an extent it has been highlighted in comedy sketches. Goodness Gracious Me, a BBC all-Asian sketch show in the 1990s, portrayed British Asian culture and the difficulties integrating into western culture. The show had an extremely distinct British comedy in which the writers used typical British humour, yet with an Asian twist. Often many of their sketches witnessed a subversion of South Asian stereotypes, in particular their famous “Going for an English” sketch was a comedic twist on the British practice of “Going for an Indian”. Within the sketch the characters portrayed rowdy behavior within the restaurant, asked “what’s the blandest thing on the menu” and rudely mispronounced the waiters name and the names of dishes. The sketch was a comedic social commentary on the behavior of British people in Indian restaurants. Similarly, Rowan Atkinson, in his live show, played a waiter at an Indian restaurant serving drunk rowdy customers. Within the sketch Atkinson portrays the rude behavior of some customers with regards to South Asian dishes and their names. These portrayals are unfortunately not far from reality and further emphasise the tokenistic multiculturalism in Britain with regards to South Asian cuisine and people. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, focusing on Baker’s article in London Life, this article has explored the ways a “revolution to our [British] eating habits” has happened from the 1960s.70 The prevalence of South Asian food in Britain is significant for multiple reasons, it reveals lengths about the importance of cultural identity and multiculturalism in Britain. 

Ultimately the rise of South Asian cuisine in Britain illuminates an important conversation between both rejection and embrace. In a sense the influx of South Asian restaurants in Britain is sort of a double-edged sword. While on one end it is good that other cultures cuisines are prevalent and appreciated in Britain, on the other end this acceptance and appreciation is not stretched to the people of South Asian origin themselves, as the examples within this article have articulated. Since the 1960s “curry” and South Asian food in general have become extremely loaded terms, food has become a vehicle for masking, articulating and denying racism towards people of South Asian origin.  

Footnotes

  1.  "The Liberation of the English Palate", Rodger Baker, London Life, 8th October 1966, Available on British Online Archives. 
  2. Panayi, Panikos, Spicing up Britain: The Multicultural History of British Food, (London: Reaktion Books, 2010), p. 122. 
  3. Ibid, p. 8
  4. South Asians, Minority Rights Group International, Available on: https://minorityrights.org/minorities/south-asians/
  5.  "The Liberation of the English Palate", Rodger Baker, London Life, 8th October 1966, Available on British Online Archives. 
  6. Singh, Gorharpal, Singh, Tatla, Sikhs in Britain: the Making of a Community, (London: Zed Books, 2006), p.42.
  7. Ibid.
  8. Visram, Rozina, The History of the Asian Community in Britain, (East Sussex, Wayland Publishers, 1995), p.4.
  9. Singh, Gorharpal, Singh, Tatla, Sikhs in Britain: the Making of a Community, p.33.
  10. "Pre 1947 direct migration to the UK from South Asia", Available On: https://www.striking-women.org/module/map-major-south-asian-migration-flows/pre-1947-direct-migration-uk-south-asia
  11. Singh, Gorharpal, Singh, Tatla, Sikhs in Britain: the Making of a Community, p.34.
  12. Ibid. 
  13. Ibid.
  14. "Post 1947 migration to the UK - from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka", Available Online: https://www.striking-women.org/module/map-major-south-asian-migration-flows/post-1947-migration-uk-india-bangladesh-pakistan-and
  15. Ibid. 
  16.   Indian Immigration to the UK 1955-66 reproduced in Benn Rose, Elliott, Colour and Citizenship: Report on British Race Relations, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), p. 4.
  17. Ballard, Roger, Ballard, Catherine, “The Sikhs: The Development of South Asian Settlements in Britain”, in Watson, James (ed.). Between Two Cultures: Migrants and Minorities in Britain, p. 21.
  18. Ibid.
  19. The British Curry - https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-British-Curry/
  20. https://historyhouse.co.uk/articles/first_indian_restaurant.html 
  21. Buettner, Elizabeth, "“Going for an Indian”: South Asian Restaurants and the Limits of Multiculturalism in Britain", The Journal of Modern History, 80:4, (2008). p. 872.
  22. Ibid. 
  23. Ibid, p. 874.
  24. Ibid, p. 866.
  25. Smyth, Gerry, “Ethnicity and Language” in Storry, Mike, Childs, Peter (ed.). British Cultural Identities (London: Routledge, 1997), p. 261.
  26. Singh, Gorharpal, Singh, Tatla, Sikhs in Britain: the Making of a Community, p. 2.
  27. https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/masala-magic-how-indian-cuisine-came-to-tickle-the-british-palate-53651#:~:text=%E2%80%9COpening%20restaurants%20came%20with%20cheap,of%20South%20Asian%20Heritage%20Week.
  28.  Buettner, Elizabeth, "“Going for an Indian”: South Asian Restaurants and the Limits of Multiculturalism in Britain", p. 878.
  29.  Ibid.
  30. Ibid, p. 879. 
  31. Ibid.
  32. Ibid, p. 875. 
  33. Ibid, p. 880. 
  34. Vance, Elantra Kalah, "Culture, food, and racism: the effects on African American health", UTC Scholar, (2018), p. 2. 
  35. Buettner, Elizabeth, "“Going for an Indian”: South Asian Restaurants and the Limits of Multiculturalism in Britain", p. 889.
  36. Ibid. 
  37. Ibid, p. 890. 
  38. Ibid, p. 865.
  39. Ibid.
  40. Ibid, p. 880
  41. https://www.wathi.org/food-identity-of-culture-and-religion-researchgate/
  42. Gidoomal, Ram, Sari ‘n’ Chips, p. 28-35.
  43. Ibid.
  44. James Clayton, “The Newcomers Keep to Their Old Food Habits,” Birmingham Post (Birmingham), November 16, 1964.
  45. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666319311602
  46. Buettner, Elizabeth, "“Going for an Indian”: South Asian Restaurants and the Limits of Multiculturalism in Britain", p. 875.
  47. https://www.wathi.org/food-identity-of-culture-and-religion-researchgate/
  48. Alibha-Brown, Yasnim, Imagining New Britain, (London: Routledge, 2001), p. 110.
  49. Buettner, Elizabeth, "“Going for an Indian”: South Asian Restaurants and the Limits of Multiculturalism in Britain", p. 875.
  50. Ibid, p. 869. 
  51. Wheen, Francis, The Sixties, (London: Ebury Press, 1982), p. 13.
  52. Buettner, Elizabeth, "“Going for an Indian”: South Asian Restaurants and the Limits of Multiculturalism in Britain", p. 876.
  53. Ibid. 
  54. Ibid. 
  55. Ibid, p. 899. 
  56. Ibid, p. 900.
  57. Ibid. 
  58. Ibid, p. 866. 
  59. https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/masala-magic-how-indian-cuisine-came-to-tickle-the-british-palate-53651
  60. James Clayton, “The Newcomers Keep to Their Old Food Habits,” Birmingham Post (Birmingham), November 16, 1964.
  61. Ibid. 
  62. Ibid. 
  63. https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/black-dietician-food-and-racism
  64. https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/racism-healthy-food/
  65. Ibid. 
  66. Buettner, Elizabeth, "“Going for an Indian”: South Asian Restaurants and the Limits of Multiculturalism in Britain", p. 890. 
  67. James Clayton, “The Newcomers Keep to Their Old Food Habits,” Birmingham Post (Birmingham), November 16, 1964. 
  68. https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-do-a-kitchari-cleanse
  69. https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/masala-magic-how-indian-cuisine-came-to-tickle-the-british-palate-53651
  70.  "The Liberation of the English Palate", Rodger Baker, London Life, 8th October 1966, Available on British Online Archives. 



Authored by Nishah Malik

Nishah Malik

Nishah Malik is Collections Editor at British Online Archives. Nishah gained a Masters in History from the University of Derby in 2020. Her research interests centre around South Asian culture and heritage, as well as the history and experiences of the South Asian diaspora. She also has a keen interest in women's history.


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The British Online Archives blog is a platform for scholars to present their research to students and the general public. The posts cover a range of historical themes and debates from around the world. The opinions expressed represent those of the authors, not British Online Archives or Microform.

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