Fig.8

The town of Southall is situated in the southwest corner of the West-London borough of Ealing (Fig.8). According to the 1991 census, some 22% of Ealing’s population either were born or were children of parents born in the Indian subcontinent including a minor number from other parts of the commonwealth. This is in comparison to the British national figure of 3.5%. An average of 46% of the town of Southall was of such origin. Because of the relatively high concentration of people of South Asian origin, Southall is something of a symbol of British Asian town (although its absolute size is small) much as Brixton in South London is something of a symbol of those of West Indian origin. In both cases, the symbolism is potent for the extreme right.

Fig.9

On 23 April 1979, St. George’s Day, the right-wing political group National Front held an election meeting in Southall Town hall (Fig.9). The meeting was plainly for symbolic effect right in the heart of the Indian immigrant neighborhood as the audience was to be brought out of the town to attend the meeting. Only five seats were kept for the public and the gathering was intended as a calculated affront to the community, whose right to be in Britain at all the NF vociferously denies. The community decided at an open meeting that if it became impossible to get the civil administration to rescind the meeting, a protest march would be organized. However, hours before the planned demonstration, the civil administration with the aid of a Police force 3000 strong arrived and occupied the center of the town rendering any demonstration impossible. The community leaders found themselves incapable to exercise their plan and their role was to act as spectators of an occupying force which sealed off the center of their town, into which the perpetrators of racial hatred were to be escorted. From the resulting confusion and chaos, some violence erupted which the police handled with utmost dispatch; nearly a hundred were injured and one person died. This event became an icon for the anti-racist movement and is commemorated till the present day.