British Indians Research Articles

A socio-ecological perspective on psychological well-being in a culturally diverse context: The role of perceived national multicultural norms

The research examined perceived national norms for multiculturalism, Multicultural Contact (MC), Multicultural Ideology (MI) and Multicultural Policies and Practices (MPP), as associated with well-being in a community sample. One hundred and twenty-five British Indians and 250 British Whites completed an online survey with measures of Normative Multiculturalism, belonging, and psychological well-being (positive affect, flourishing, and life satisfaction). A multi-group mediational model was tested with direct and indirect (via belonging) paths to well-being. Results demonstrated significant direct and indirect associations of MC on well-being for Indians and indirect associations for Whites. MPP produced the same indirect pathways, but only for Indians. MI was not significantly related either to belonging or well-being. The findings are discussed in relation to broader theorizing on multiculturalism and their practical implications in the British socio-political context.

PS08 Skin lightening product use among British Indian immigrants: a qualitative study exploring causes and consequences

Abstract Cosmetic, topical skin-lightening products (SLPs) containing steroids, hydroquinone and mercury are available to Indian consumers without dermatological supervision. The World Health Organization discourages such SLP use, recognizing scar tissue formation, skin atrophy, localized infection, chemical burn and renal/hepatic impairment as adverse effects. Despite legislation restricting the sale of unlicensed SLPs in the UK, they remain accessible to British Indians through illegal importation. The current literature focuses on the high prevalence of unsupervised SLP use in India, documenting its psychodermatological and physical harm. However, no research has explored the causes and consequences of its use among British Indian communities, despite notable variances in culture. This qualitative study addresses the research gap to inform future management of unsafe SLP use. After ethical approval was granted, 24 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted. Participants were recruited using maximum variation and snowball sampling through national radio and social media advertising, to encourage generalizability. Transcripts and field notes were analysed using conventional thematic and deviant case analysis, using NVivo 12 software. Two interdependent sets of themes influencing SLP use emerged. The first set, titled ‘Causes of SLP use’, included the following themes: ‘British cultural influence’, ‘product accessibility’ and ‘Indian beauty standards’. The second set, titled ‘Consequences of SLP use’, included the following themes: ‘financial’, ‘social’, ‘intrapersonal’, ‘physical’, ‘societal’ and ‘psychological’. Participants felt the Indian beauty standard derives from caste, religion, colonialism, Ayurvedic medicine and Indian media, which together heavily depict fair skin as superior, encouraging SLP use. This was further facilitated by frequent advertising on Indian television channels and social media, and the abundance and affordability of SLPs in South Asian stores in the UK. Participants persistently used SLPs, despite experiencing burning and patchy dyspigmentation as common adverse effects. Open internalized racism within the community instilled shame and stigma against those with darker skin, encouraging SLP use. Participants believed this was less common among second- and third-generation British Indians, discouraging SLP use, due to increased assimilation into British culture and improved media representation of people of colour. Participants agreed that SLP use negatively impacts on personal identity but identified its potential to elevate social desirability. This study newly highlights the significant negative psychodermatological impact of unsupervised SLP use among the British Indian community. As a factor propagating internalized racism, this study identifies a need to control illegal SLP importation and provide community-wide education on unsafe SLP use. These management strategies should be evaluated in future research.

Practising cultural identities: British Indians' use of Indian classical dance

AbstractThe Indian diaspora has faced many obstacles including the challenge of navigating their dual identities, in order to belong in the UK. Music and dance are popular ways of practising cultural identities, which could mean that British Indians (BIs) use Indian Classical Dance (ICD) for maintaining cultural continuity and establishing a strong cultural identity. This qualitative study explores the reasons behind ICD practice, the relationship between ICD practice and the cultural identities of BIs, and the role served by themes of cultural continuity in their talk about identity. We conducted semi‐structured interviews with 10 UK‐based, Indian classical dance artists and analysed them using Thematic Analysis to identify the following themes: (1) Dual‐Identity Struggle (Sub‐themes: Confusion and Isolation and Racism and Stereotypes), (2) Parental Influence, (3) Embracing Dual‐Identity (Sub‐themes: Growth with Age and Impact of a Diverse Community), (4) Benefits of ICD (Sub‐themes: Education & Connection to Indian religion and history and Expressing & Understanding Identity) and (5) ICD: Authenticity versus Modernity (Sub‐themes: Authentic ICD in UK and Modernising ICD). The results from this piece of exploratory research have generated further data that improves our understanding of how BIs maintain a sense of collective continuity, and how they practise their Indian identity in daily life. Limitations of this study include the lack of balance between participants of different genders and dance styles. Therefore, further research can be developed including large‐scale studies on the role of ICD between genders, nationalities or generations.

Twisted Words: Torture and Liberalism in Imperial Britain by Katherine Judith Anderson

Anderson’s Twisted Words examines the many ways in which torture featured as a tool of public and private governance in mid- and late-Victorian Britain and the British Empire. Anderson draws from critical terrorism studies to argue that the use of torture was not an extreme and anomalous practice that contravened liberal ideals of citizenship but rather a “state-sanctioned, physical or mental means of compulsion that [was] inflicted to elicit a specific response” from victim and perpetrator alike (5). She interweaves literary analysis with investigations of British-government reports to build her case, focusing on the many bodily and sensory experiences of those who suffered torture and those who inflicted it. At its core, the book argues that the use and experience of torture in the Victorian world was ordinary and normative, not a barbarous anomaly.The book begins with a reading of Victorian martyrological novels. Anderson posits that this genre reflected a sensory liberalism, referring to works by well-known writers like George Eliot and Cardinal John Henry Newman. Chapter 2 addresses the use of torture by Indian tax collectors in the Madras Presidency, the ways in which the British government responded to these acts, and Indian subjects’ narratives of pain as revealed in the government’s report on the abuses. Chapter 3 expands on this theme, examining the well-known Morant Bay uprising in 1865 and the subsequent Governor Eyre controversy concerning the colonial government’s violent conduct in quelling the uprising. Anderson’s attention to the physical and mental strain that British troops underwent through inflicting violence, including the haunting suicides of Gordon Duberry Ramsay and Colonel Thomas Hobbs, demonstrates the “tension between emerging expectations for a gentler form of masculinity and traditional expectations for military stoicism” (98).Chapter 4 shifts attention from the public to the private realm to argue that the patriarchal structure of the British family, and the psychological and physical abuse of women that it sometimes facilitated, constituted a form of domestic torture. In this context, Anderson’s argument that women existed in a liminal space between citizen and subject is somewhat opaque. It would be interesting to assess her argument beyond a close reading of novels by George Meredith, George Eliot, and Anthony Trollope. In the book’s final chapter, Anderson makes the case that late-Victorian colonial-settler fiction, especially romantic adventure novels, demonstrates how torture was sanctioned by the liberal imperial state.Anderson’s insightful and thorough use of Victorian periodicals and newspapers, along with other literary and printed historical sources, reveals how torture was imbricated in Britons’ daily lives. The book, attuned to the question of audience, explains how different media reached different readers, and it inspires further interest in how visual sources might have functioned. Anderson’s broad reach across time and space—from Britain to Jamaica, South Africa to India, and Oceania and the settler colonial world—aptly demonstrates the pan-imperial nature of torture, but it also obscures the different social, cultural, and political circumstances of each locale. The Victorian Empire was both a single entity and a multitude of separate and distinct societies. Anderson implicitly suggests as much when she notes the tension between the universal assumptions of liberal citizenship and the unequal and violent experiences of different people. How did the administering of, and suffering from, torture change, for instance, in India once Britain officially became an empire after 1858? The Raj was instituted, after all, as a means for London to assert direct control of the subcontinent in response to the Indian Rebellion. Atrocity stories of British Indians suffering torture at Cawnpore, which produced outrage in Britain, served as excuses for extreme reprisals by the British, such as execution by cannon.A key finding of the book is that a close look at torture in British history helps us to understand the ways in which imperial citizenship was literally embodied through sensory experiences. This approach complements studies about the legal, cultural, and economic aspects of citizenship to provide a well-rounded sense of how citizens and subjects experienced the Victorian Empire. Anderson’s impressive interdisciplinary analysis demonstrates how scholars can benefit from methods of literary analysis and the tools of neighboring disciplines to enrich our understanding of the past.

COLONIAL UNREASON: GANDHI’S REACTION TO THE PLAGUE AND PERSECUTION IN COLONIAL SOUTH AFRICA

During his stay in Colonial South Africa over a period of almost twenty-one years, he witnessed a wanton exhibition of colonial unreason by the British. The ‘colonial unreason’ involves the process of legitimization of irrationality in order to achieve control over the colonised subjects. This paper, therefore, deals with Gandhi's reaction to the discriminatory treatment and severe persecution of the British Indians by the colonial dispensation over the outbreak of plague both during and after the second Boer war (from 11 October 1899 to 31 May 1902). Gandhi wrote extensively about the unleashing of discriminatory action against the British Indians in colonial South Africa as the coloniser apprehended or more often accused maliciously the community of having carried the plague virus. Several measures were taken to punish the Indians apart from the prevailing colonial coercion. In the name of precaution or prevention, punishments and unlawful segregation were taken up as the new normal. This was nothing new in the colonial normative. It was rather a rigorous intensification of the already prevailing colonial modes of control. The champions of reason, liberalism and human rights legitimized unreason as an instrument of control or public safety. In the name of prevention, persecution became the norm. This research revisits the plague in South Africa through the writings of Gandhi in order to understand the colonial apathy against the British Indians.

Contribution of the British To Develop Indian English Literature

Development of Indian English Literature in India gathered momentum with the consolidation of British imperialism in India. As we know the British sow the seed of Indian Writing in English during the period of the British rule in India. English language and literature in India starts with the advent of East India Company in India. It all started in the summers of 1608 when Emperor Jahangir, in the courts of Mughals, welcomed Captain William Hawkins, Commander of British Naval Expedition Hector. It was India's first tryst with an Englishman and English. Jahangir later allowed Britain to open a permanent port and factory on the special request of King James IV that was conveyed by his ambassador Sir Thomas Roe. English were here to stay. Indian writings in English were heavily influenced by the Western art form of the novel. It was typical for the early Indian English language writers to use English unadulterated by Indian words to convey experiences that were primarily Indian. The core reason behind this step was the fact that most of the readers were either British or British educated Indians. In the early 20th century, when the British conquest of India was achieved, a new breed of writers started to emerge on the block. These writers were essentially British who were born or brought up or both in India. Their writing consisted of Indian themes and sentiments but the way of storytelling was primarily western. They had no reservation in using native words, though, to signify the context. This group consisted likes of Rudyard Kipling, Jim Corbett, and George Orwell among others. In fact, some of the writings of that era are still considered to be masterpieces of English Literature. KEYWORDS: Contribution of British, Development, British works & strategy, English Literature.

The Evacuation and Repatriation of ‘British Indians’ Resident in Japan, 1940–42

In 1940, the Indian population resident in Japan was estimated at over 500. With the potential for war with Japan increasing, the British embassy in Tokyo advised locally resident British subjects to leave in October 1940 and again in February 1941. However, some, including a number of Indians, chose not to leave. This article considers the evacuation of the Indian population from Japan before December 1941 as well as those who departed as part of the wartime Anglo-Japanese Civilian Exchange. In doing so, it discusses the use of the SS Anhui to evacuate British subjects and also the lack of safe conduct for the City of Paris, which carried the Indian repatriates back to Bombay.

New forms of cultural nationalism? American and British Indians in the Trump and Brexit Twittersphere

AbstractDiaspora networks are one of the key, but often invisible, drivers in reinforcing long‐distance nationalism towards the ‘homeland’ but simultaneously construct nationalist myths within their countries of residence. This article examines Indian diaspora supporters of Brexit and Trump in the United Kingdom and the United States who promote exclusionary nationalist imaginaries. Combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, it analyses British Indian and Indian American users that circulate radical right narratives within the Brexit and Trump Twittersphere. This article finds that these users express issues of concern pertinent to the radical right—for example, Islam and Muslims and the left‐oriented political and media establishment—by employing civic nationalist discourse that promotes cultural nationalism. It sheds light on digital practices among diaspora actors who participate in the reinvigoration of exclusionary nationalist imaginaries of the Anglo‐Western radical right.

Biomarker Concentrations in White and British Indian Vegetarians and Nonvegetarians in the UK Biobank

BackgroundProspective studies have shown differences in some disease risks between vegetarians and nonvegetarians, but the potential biological pathways are not well understood. ObjectivesWe aimed to assess differences in concentrations of biomarkers related to disease pathways in people with varying degrees of animal foods exclusion. MethodsThe UK Biobank recruited 500,000 participants aged 40–69 y (54.4% women) throughout the United Kingdom in 2006–2010. Blood and urine were collected at recruitment and assayed for more than 30 biomarkers related to cardiovascular diseases, bone and joint health, cancer, diabetes, renal disease, and liver health. In cross-sectional analyses, we estimated adjusted geometric means of these biomarkers by 6 diet groups (regular meat eaters, low meat eaters, poultry eaters, fish eaters, vegetarians, vegans) in 466,058 white British participants and 2 diet groups (meat eaters, vegetarians) in 5535 British Indian participants. ResultsWe observed differences in the concentrations of most biomarkers, with many biomarkers showing a gradient effect from meat eaters to vegetarians/vegans. Of the largest differences, compared with white British regular meat eaters, white British vegans had lower C-reactive protein [adjusted geometric mean (95% CI): 1.13 (1.03, 1.25) compared with 1.43 (1.42, 1.43) mg/L], lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [3.13 (3.07, 3.20) compared with 3.65 (3.65, 3.65) mmol/L], lower vitamin D [34.4 (33.1, 35.9) compared with 44.5 (44.4, 44.5) nmol/L], lower serum urea [4.21 (4.11, 4.30) compared with 5.36 (5.36, 5.37) mmol/L], lower urinary creatinine [5440 (5120, 5770) compared with 7280 (7260, 7300) μmol/L], and lower γ-glutamyltransferase [23.5 (22.2, 24.8) compared with 29.6 (29.6, 29.7) U/L]. Patterns were mostly similar in British Indians, and results were consistent between women and men. ConclusionsThe observed differences in biomarker concentrations, including lower C-reactive protein, lower LDL cholesterol, lower vitamin D, lower creatinine, and lower γ-glutamyltransferase, in vegetarians and vegans may relate to differences in future disease risk.

Development and Validation of a Short Form Version of the Ethno-Cultural Identity Conflict Scale (EICS-SF).

A short form version of the Ethno-Cultural Identity Conflict Scale (ECIS-SF) was developed and validated to address item redundancy in the original scale and to increase its utility in comparative studies and applied settings. Construct, discriminant, nomological, and predictive validity of the EICS-SF was tested and supported with five samples in three countries. In Study 1, the EICS-SF was derived and validated using data from Chinese (n = 232) and Greek (n = 139) New Zealanders. Study 2 confirmed the factor structure, measurement equivalence and discriminant validity of the EICS-SF with Chinese Canadians (n = 199) and British Indians (n = 190). Study 3 provided additional evidence for the test-retest reliability and temporal consistency of the EICS-SF's association with criterion measures in Indian New Zealanders (n = 147). The EICS-SF is psychometrically sound and easy to administer with diverse populations. Potential for application in clinical settings is discussed.

Sugar and the City: The Contribution of Three Chinese-Indonesians to Architecture and Planning in the Dutch East Indies (1900–1942)

Around 1900, the Dutch East Indies was a multicultural and international society populated by Indonesians, Europeans, British Indians, Arabs and Chinese. The Chinese, although one of the colony’s ethnic minorities, contributed considerably to its economic and urban development. This article examines the professional and private lives of three Chinese-Indonesians: Tjong A Fie, Oei Tiong Ham and Liem Bwan Tjie. Tjong was a first-generation Chinese who left China and settled in Medan where he soon became one of the wealthiest citizens. Oei was a second-generation Chinese. Born into a trading family in Semarang, the fortune he accumulated in the sugar industry and his exuberant lifestyle soon earned him the nickname ‘Sugar King’. Liem, the fourth-generation descendant of a successful, Semarang-based textile-business family, became a professional architect. Much of Liem’s work was commissioned by Chinese-Indonesians. What Tjong, Oei and Liem had in common was their ethnic and cultural origin, their local and supralocal prominence within Chinese communities in the Dutch East Indies and their pioneering and leading role as professionals. By focussing on Tjong, Oei and Liem as <em>pars pro toto</em> for the affluent and educated Chinese community, this article describes how these figures cut across colonial categories of culture and community. It also illustrates how their personal and professional preferences and choices were instrumental in introducing European idioms and approaches to architecture and town planning and thus in changing the appearance of cities in the Dutch East Indies.

A Colonial Worldview in E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India

This paper aims to analyze the colonial worldview characteristic of the friendship between the English and the Indians in the early 20th century represented in E. M. Forster’s novel A Passage to India. The socio-cultural contacts between the British colonizers impersonated in the novel as the British characters and Muslim Indians as the colonized group is studied in detail. Applying Franz Fanon’s psycho-political perspective the paper focuses on conflicting situations between two groups of characters in the novel. The paper focuses on the colonial worldview and its effects on the relations described in the novel are represented through the situations of misunderstanding and alienation that result in chaos. The study found that the hostile and discriminate approach of English men toward the Indians never let the relationship flourish. The study however, shows some positive signs, as the author has criticized the attitude of the English. This paper suggests further research into Forster’s novels from different literary perspectives to investigate the psyche and its effects on human relationships.

Hematological parameters and prevalence of anemia in white and British Indian vegetarians and nonvegetarians in the UK Biobank

ABSTRACTBackgroundThere may be differences in hematological parameters between meat-eaters and vegetarians.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to perform cross-sectional analyses of hematological parameters by diet group in a large cohort in the United Kingdom.MethodsA complete blood count was carried out in all UK Biobank participants at recruitment (2006–2010). We examined hemoglobin, red and white blood cell counts, and platelet counts and volume in regular meat eaters (>3 times/wk of red/processed meat consumption, n = 212,831), low meat eaters (n = 213,092), poultry eaters (n = 4815), fish eaters (n = 10,042), vegetarians (n = 6548), and vegans (n = 398) of white ethnicity and meat eaters (n = 3875) and vegetarians (n = 1362) of British Indian ethnicity.ResultsIn both white and British Indian populations, compared with regular meat eaters (or meat eaters in Indians), the other diet groups had up to 3.7% lower age-adjusted hemoglobin concentrations (difference not significant in white vegan women) and were generally more likely to have anemia (e.g., 8.7% of regular meat eaters compared with 12.8% of vegetarians in white premenopausal women; P < 0.05 after Bonferroni correction). In the white population, compared with regular meat eaters, all other diet groups had lower age- and sex-adjusted total white cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, and eosinophils (P-heterogeneity < 0.001 for all), but basophil counts were similar across diet groups; in British Indians, there was no significant difference in any of the white blood cell counts by diet group. Compared with white regular meat eaters, the low meat eaters, poultry eaters, fish eaters, and vegans had significantly lower platelet counts and higher platelet volume, whereas vegetarians had higher counts and lower volume. Compared with British Indian meat eaters, vegetarians had higher platelet count and lower volume.ConclusionsIn the UK Biobank, people with low or no red meat intake generally had lower hemoglobin concentrations and were slightly more likely to be anemic. The lower white blood cell counts observed in low and non-meat eaters, and differences in mean platelet counts and volume between diet groups, warrant further investigation. This observational study was registered at http://www.isrctn.com/ as ISRCTN10125697.

‘The only safe haven of refuge in all the world’: Paris, Indian ‘revolutionaries’ and imperial rivalry, c. 1905–40

Focusing on British Indian subjects who travelled to France in the early twentieth century and who resided in Paris, this article argues that these migrants occupied a position that was simultaneously privileged and invidious. It urges that closer attention be paid to the group for two reasons. First, British Indians in Paris were able to negotiate contentious and potentially hazardous political situations according to context and audience, sometimes mobilising their status as British subjects as a means of achieving limited preferential treatment from the French state, at other times making use of a certain conception of Frenchness to garner support among socialist and anti-imperial movements. Second, the policing of the group reveals collaboration and competition between imperial nation-states and between different anti-colonial movements, analysis of which can nuance the growing body of historical research on the policing of foreigners and colonial subjects in Europe.

Understanding the energy use behaviour of British Indian households to shape optimised sustainable housing strategies in existing housing stock

The notional benefits of more efficient use and effective retrofit to existing housing is both sensible and attractive. Unlike new build, performance improvements cannot be pursued purely by legislation and regulation. Instead, householders need to be persuaded of the material benefits of better energy practices. In improving energy efficiency in the home, providing relevant and useful guidance is critical. Current guidance rarely takes account of specific cultural and ethnic circumstances. The research examines the relationship between cultural values and the energy use behaviour of diaspora households in the UK. The paper presents the results of two surveys that seek to measure energy use practices in the British Indian community. The first, conducted by the authors in England, seeks to understand attitudes and habits in relation to energy consumption in the home for British Indians. This is compared to a wider survey of British attitudes using an identical question set as undertaken by the EnerGAware project. The second survey researches cultural perspectives on the home in a British Indian community. This is compared to an identical survey conducted by the authors with comparative Indian households. The results of the research highlight where behavioural characteristics between the two contexts diverge. The paper suggests there are key areas for future research using ethnographic as well as quantitative techniques to produce tailored strategies for energy conservation in British Indian communities.

Analysing acculturation to sustainable food consumption behaviour in the social media through the lens of information diffusion

Drawing on theories of acculturation and information diffusion, this paper examines whether social media usage, intergroup contacts and information dissemination influence the cultural adaptation of three ethnic groups, and its implications on sustainable consumption behaviour. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews containing multiple dimensions of social media uses, acculturation, food consumption behaviour, and information diffusion were administered to a sample of Indians (living in the home country), British Indians (living in the host country for more than 10 years) and White British (natives of Britain) users of social media. Our findings suggest that there is a clear link between the integrated strategy of acculturation and information diffusion on social media, which influences acculturation to sustainable food consumption behaviour among social media users. Managerial implications of this research finding are that intervention in information diffusion aids acculturation through the social media, which serves to infuse social media and sustainability strategist with knowledge to best influence the consumers in developing sustainable food consumption behaviour. This research also identifies opportunities to expand this academic research and contribute further to the theories of remote acculturation on which limited research has been done.

Incidence of clinically suspected venous thromboembolism in British Indian patients.

Introduction Venous thromboembolism (VTE) remains a major public health issue around the world. Ethnicity is known to alter the incidence of VTE. To our knowledge, there are no reports in the literature investigating the incidence of VTE in British Indians. The aim of this study was to investigate the rates of symptomatic VTE in British Indian patients in the UK. Methods Patients referred to our institution between January 2011 and August 2013 with clinically suspected VTE were eligible for inclusion in the study. Those not of British Indian or Caucasian ethnicity were excluded. A retrospective review of these two cohorts was conducted. Results Overall, 15,529 cases were referred to our institution for suspected VTE. This included 1,498 individuals of British Indian ethnicity. Of these, 182 (12%) had confirmed VTE episodes. A further 13,159 of the patients with suspected VTE were coded as Caucasian, including 2,412 (16%) who had confirmed VTE events. VTE rates were a third lower in British Indians with clinically suspected VTE than in the equivalent Caucasian group. The British Indian cohort presented with VTE at a much earlier age than Caucasians (mean 57.0 vs 68.0 years). Conclusions This study suggests that British Indian patients have a lower incidence of VTE and are more likely to present at an earlier age than Caucasians. There was no significant difference in VTE type (deep vein thrombosis vs pulmonary embolism) among the ethnic groups. Clinicians should be aware of variations within ethnicities but should continue to adhere to existing VTE prevention guidance.

“A Greater Enterprise Than the Panama Canal”: Migrant Labor and Military Recruitment in the World War I–era Circum-Caribbean

Tens of thousands of Barbadians, Jamaicans, and other British West Indians journeyed to Panama during the first two decades of the twentieth century, seeking work in the Canal Zone, on the plantations of the United Fruit Company, and in port cities on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Following the outbreak of World War I and the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, migrant workingmen pursued a new employment opportunity—wartime military service in the British armed forces—as the job market on the isthmus contracted sharply and wages stagnated. This article examines the enlistment of British islanders in Panama as soldiers in the British West Indies Regiment during World War I. It responds to recent calls to “bridge the gap between military history and labor history” by exposing the dynamic interplay between interimperial labor migration and military recruitment in the circum-Caribbean.

An exploratory study into the health beliefs and behaviours of British Indians with type II diabetes.

British South Asians are six times more likely to suffer from type II diabetes than those in the general population. Yet, little research has been carried out into beliefs about diabetes among the British Indian population. The study used semi-structured interviews, a structured vignette and a pile-sorting exercise. In all, 10 British Indians were interviewed at a General Practice in North West London. Findings Those interviewed were informed about their diabetes but had difficulties in adapting their diet. Themes identified included causal beliefs of diabetes, use of alternative therapies, moderation of food, adaption of exercise regimes and sources of information. All were aware of avoiding certain foods yet some still continued to consume these items. Participants expressed the need for culturally sensitive forums to help manage their diabetes.

‘Between Two Fires’: Racial Populism, Indian Resistance and the Beginnings of Satyagraha in the Transvaal, 1902–06

ABSTRACTIn revisiting the historical circumstances leading up to the birth of satyagraha in the Transvaal in September 1906, this article seeks to place white popular protests against Asians within the same frame of analysis as Indian active nonviolence. In doing so it makes two interrelated arguments. First, I suggest that the evolution of satyagraha is better understood when examined in tandem with racial populism. Indian resistance to Transvaal laws was forged in a hostile, violent and racially charged environment. Gandhi and his followers were well aware of the power of white populism and its political influence over the Transvaal administration, and came to realise that some form of mass action of their own would be needed to counter this influence and achieve their political objectives. Second, I argue that it was the express intention of both white racial populists and the Gandhian resistance movement to exploit the competing imperial priorities of the Transvaal and British governments. The widespread agitation led by the White League and other organisations threatened the stability and authority of the colonial state; and so governors Milner and Selborne sought to appease settler opinion by enacting discriminatory legislation. However, London’s and Calcutta’s sensitivity to prejudice directed against British Indians in southern Africa also opened the door to anti-colonial protest, with Gandhi and his supporters generating support and sympathy in Britain and India by agitating for the repeal of unjust laws. The Transvaal administration was therefore forced to pick its way between white populists, Indian protesters, and imperial oversight and censure; and its anti-Indian policies were shaped by these contradictory pressures.