Find out more: Indian Workers’ Association (IWA)

Over the next ten weeks I will share resources to find out more about each of the movements I discuss in The Shoulders We Stand On: How Black and Brown people fought for change in the UK.

The resources will mostly be free, and will cover a range of mediums including articles, videos, podcasts and radio programmes. Follow me on Twitter to be the first to know when a new list has been posted.

IWA Southall (from LibCom)

The Indian Workers’ Association, specifically the IWA Southall, is the first movement I discuss in The Shoulders We Stand On. I look in particular at their role in defeating bussing of children to schools miles away from where they lived, and how they campaigned against virginity testing on Brown women entering the UK.

Here are some resources to find out more about this organisation which was one of the first set up by Brown people in the UK.

This fabulous booklet called Indian Workers’ Association (Southall): 60 years of struggles and achievements 1956-2016 was created as part of a project to mark 60 years of the organisation and covers key points in the organisation’s history and their role in the community.

There is also a 40 minute documentary created by Digital Works as part of the same project to mark 60 years of the IWA. All of the interviews that were recorded for the documentary can be seen uncut too. An incredible resource to

For more background on Southall generally, this article ‘How London’s Southall became “Little Punjab”’ in the Guardian is a great place to start.

There were branches of the IWA around the country. For more on the IWA outside of Southall, Sital Singh Gill has written a comprehensive history of the IWA GB.

And you can read an extract of Ron Ramdin’s phenomenal The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain here in which he discusses organisation of Brown workers.

For more on bussing in particular, you can read the government circular 7/65 from 1965 in which the maximum ⅓ immigrant quota in schools was recommended.

And Shabina Aslam has done fantastic research on bussing, with a Bradford focus but the experiences are definitely shared by others, including those bussed in Southall. There are some interview snippets here.

With regards to virginity testing, this satirical 15 minute docu-drama, ‘No Virginity, No Nationality’, offered for free from BFI online gives you an insight into the process.

And though the fantastic articles by Australian academics Evan Smith and Marinella Marmo are paywalled, here is an interesting piece from them about how the beliefs behind virginity testing were formed in the colonial period: Virginity Testing: Racism, Sexism, and British Immigration Control.

Lastly I have two paid resources to suggest (that aren’t extortionately expensive academic articles). First up, a book from the Institute of Race Relations, Southall: The birth of a black community. This booklet was invaluable in my research, with so much rich detail.

Next up, Balraj Purewal’s book IWA Southall: 60 years of struggles and achievements. It can be tricky to get your hands on a copy, but I know Gunnersbury Park Museum have a copy.

BONUS: this article was shared with me by the grandson of VP Hansrani and I had to add it to the list as it is wonderful. VP Hansrani and his friend Ujagar Singh were two of the founders of the Coventry IWA. This broad ranging BBC article ‘Indian activists who helped change the face of modern Britain’ tells their story, and that of the IWA more widely.

And if you are seeing this but haven’t read the book I’m referring to, then what are you waiting for?! Get your copy of The Shoulders We Stand On now.