Politicians and Suffragettes
It is perhaps surprising that the first Black and Asian MPs were elected not in 1987, when Diane Abbot, Paul Boateng, Bernie Grant and Keith Vaz were hailed as Britain's first Black MPs but a century earlier.
Dadabhai Naoroji (Liberal) was the first of three Asian MPs during this period. He represented Finsbury Central in 1892-5, followed by M.M. Bhownagree (Conservative), MP for Bethnal Green from 1895-1905. Sharpurji Saklatvala was the most radical and influential of the three, representing Battersea from 1923-1929, initially Labour and then as Britain's first Communist MP.
Asian MPs in Westminster were no more homogenous then than they are today, whilst both Naoroji and Saklatvala fiercely opposed British rule in India, Bhownagree's support for the Empire earned him the nickname 'Bow and Agree'.
Dadabhai Naoroji's electoral poster, 1895
Princess Sophia Duleep Singh selling the 'Suffragetter' outside Hampton Court
Sophia Duleep Singh was daughter of the last Maharajah of Lahore, deposed by the British at the age of 12. All his personal effects and jewels were made over to his guardians, including the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond, which was then presented to Queen Victoria.
Sophia lived at Hampton Court, in London, and was a high-profile Suffragette, a member of the Mrs Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union. She was an active campaigner and fundraiser for the cause, and became a prominent tax resister. For refusing to pay taxes on her five dogs, a carriage, and manservant in 1911, she was fined and had her diamond ring impounded and sold off at auction.
M. M. Bhownagree (Conservative), MP for Bethnal Green from 1895-1905
Early British feminists shared the imperialist world-view of the age. From the 1870s, they articulated strong concern for their Indian sisters, yet the portrayal of these women in the pamphlets of the day was often as helpless and passive, objects for pity and rescue.
The suffragette movement drew in campaigners from the Indian elite in London, like Bhikaji Cama, an energetic campaigner for Indian independence who funded the publication of influential books and traveled widely promoting self-rule.
Asian people have thus had a long-standing involvement in British politics at a national and grassroots level. They have brought new perspectives from an international point of view as well as demonstrating deep concern and commitment to local issues.
The auction was packed with other campaigners and a Mrs Jopling Rowe duly bought the ring for 10 Pounds and promptly returned it to Sophia Duleep Singh. She maintained her resistance and at a court appearance in 1913 she declared:
"I am unable conscientiously to pay money to the state, as I am not allowed to exercise any control over its expenditure; neither am I allowed any voice in the choosing of Members of Parliament, whose salaries I help to pay. This is very unjust. When the women of England are enfranchised and the state acknowledges me as a citizen I shall, of course, pay my share willingly towards its upkeep. If I am not a fit person for the purpose of representation, why should I be a fit person for taxation?"
Bhikaji Cama was also a suffragette, a prominent socialist and an ardent campaigner for Indian independence. Having worked as a social worker during the plague epidemic in Bombay in 1897, she moved to Europe, with Paris providing her main base. She addressed the International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart in 1907, making a passionate speech on behalf of the dumb millions of Hindustan, exposing the terrible tyrannies under British rule and pointing to the 35 million pounds taken from India annually. She ended her speech by theatrically unfolding the Indian National flag, the first time an Indian flag had been displayed abroad, with the words:
Bhikaji Cama - the important socialist suffragette
"This flag is of Indian Independence! Behold, it is born! It has been made sacred by the blood of young Indians who sacrificed their lives."
Financially independent, Madam Cama published a radical newspaper with her own funds and her home became a meeting place for budding nationalists and revolutionaries from India, Egypt, Turkey and China. British intelligence monitored Madam Cama's movements, viewing her as one of the recognised leaders of the revolutionary movement in Paris and described her as anarchical, revolutionary, anti-British and irreconcilable. During the First World War she was interned for incitement to rebellion in Bordeaux.