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LAKEER

Part VI · 1968–now

Arrival

Britain, from 1968 to now. An Act puts many British passport holders under immigration control unless they, a parent or a grandparent have a UK connection, a speech in Birmingham quotes Virgil, and in Southall and at Grunwick the people it was aimed at organise. Their children go to bhangra raves in the afternoon and are home by six, and in time they have number ones. The last song is set at a kitchen table, over a seven-year-old's homework: one line about where your family comes from. The record's final stamp comes down after it.

  1. 23 RIVERS 1968–1979 3:50
  2. 24 DAYTIMER 1981–2003 3:22
  3. 25 LINE 13 now 3:19

3 songs · 11 min

Listen straight through, or choose a song. Words underlined in gold translate; a magnifying glass opens the sources.

23. RIVERS

Britain, 1968–79: the Act, the speech, Grunwick, Southall

In March 1968 Parliament passed the Commonwealth Immigrants Act in three days. The Act brought many UK passport holders under immigration control unless they, a parent or a grandparent met specified UK-connection conditions. Seven weeks later Enoch Powell made his speech in Birmingham. The song follows the next eleven years: the murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar in Southall in 1976 and the youth movement that answered it; the Grunwick strike, led by Jayaben Desai and the women who walked out with her; and Southall on St George's Day 1979, when Blair Peach was killed. The stamp opens the song. Its hook asks where your grandfather was born.

A hand-drawn ink collage of the Houses of Parliament seen across the Thames, torn along the waterline, with a red paper strip across the sky.
Three days in Parliament The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 passed in three days. It brought many UK passport holders under immigration control unless they, a parent or a grandparent had been born, adopted, naturalised or registered in the UK. AI illustration, in the manner of 1970s hand-drawn cut-paper fanzine collage
  • Sutlej, about 1,450 km
  • Mandovi, 77 km
  • Thames, 346 km
Three rivers drawn to scale by length, source to mouth (the Sutlej to where it joins the Chenab). Lengths: Sutlej (opens in a new tab) and Thames (opens in a new tab), Wikipedia; Mandovi (opens in a new tab), Government of Goa’s river action plan (other sources give 81 km).

Verse 1

March, sixty-eight. , and a British passport stops opening Britain,unless a parent or a grandparent was born here.Twentieth of April, Birmingham. A politician stands up and :like the Roman, he seems to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood.. In the war he served in India,learned Urdu, wanted to be Viceroy. He knew the word for river. .Next day he's out of the shadow cabinet.Three days after that, on Westminster for him.

Hook

Three torn, hand-drawn strips of river stacked together: a Punjab river with buffalo, a Goan estuary with palms, and the Thames at night with a red bus.
Where was your grandfather born? The hook's answer is the Sutlej, easternmost of Punjab's five rivers, or the Mandovi, the river of Goa; the chorus ends on the Thames. AI illustration, in the manner of 1970s hand-drawn cut-paper fanzine collage

Where was your grandfather born? (born). . (Mandovi)He sees the Tiber foaming.We see the Thames from the night bus. (bus)

Verse 2

A hand-drawn fanzine collage of women in saris and winter coats, as flat ink silhouettes seen from behind, standing in a picket line outside a low brick factory.
The walk-out at Grunwick In August 1976 Jayaben Desai walked out of the Grunwick photo lab in Willesden, beginning a two-year strike led largely by East African Asian women. AI illustration, in the manner of 1970s hand-drawn cut-paper fanzine collage

Fourth of June, seventy-six. Southall. , eighteen, stabbed in the street.By the next week the young people of Southall have a movement of their own.Twentieth of August, north-west London. A photo lab called ., from East Africa, puts her coat on at five to seven,and they sack her for it. . Ben means sister.She walks out, and the women walk out behind her, in saris, on a picket line,two years, five hundred and fifty arrests.The strike is not so much about pay, she says. It is a strike about human dignity.They lose.

Hook

Where was your grandfather born? (born)By the Sutlej. By the Mandovi. (Mandovi)He sees the Tiber foaming.We see the Thames from the night bus. (bus)

Verse 3

A hand-drawn ink collage of a huge crowd seen from behind filling a high street, facing a distant drawn line of police helmets in front of a town hall.
Southall, St George's Day On 23 April 1979 thousands came to stop a National Front meeting at Southall Town Hall; Blair Peach, a teacher from New Zealand, died after a blow to the head. AI illustration, in the manner of 1970s hand-drawn cut-paper fanzine collage

Twenty-third of April, seventy-nine. St George's Day. books Southall Town Hall.Three thousand people come to stop it. Nearly three thousand police come to stop them.Hundreds arrested. A teacher from New Zealand, ,takes a blow to the head in a side street and dies after midnight.Thirty-one years later the police publish : almost certainly one of theirs.And on every high street, the , the , the shop on the corner,open till eleven, open Christmas Day,and a word sprayed on the shutter every other morning.

Hook

Where was your grandson born? (born)By the Thames. (Thames)He saw the Tiber foaming.We see the Thames from the night bus. (bus)

Outro

A hand-drawn ink collage of an empty corner-shop counter at night with a closed exercise book, shelves of tins and a half-lowered shutter.
The shop on the corner On every high street the corner shop stayed open late, and a word was sprayed on its shutter; that word is never written, here or in the song. AI illustration, in the manner of 1970s hand-drawn cut-paper fanzine collage

Behind the counter, a girl does her homework in three languages.She's got plans for Wednesday afternoon.

See the real thing

Side-rooms

Rock Against Racism

In August 1976, after Eric Clapton's drunken on-stage support for Powell, a group of musicians and designers wrote to the music press and started Rock Against Racism. Its fanzine, Temporary Hoarding, was made with scissors, glue and a photocopier. In April 1978 RAR and the Anti-Nazi League marched from Trafalgar Square to a carnival in Victoria Park.

Why the Act happened: the Kenyan Asians

After Kenya's independence in 1963, Africanisation policies and a new trade licensing law pushed out many Kenyan Asians who held British passports. By late 1967 thousands a month were arriving in Britain. The Commonwealth Immigrants Act was rushed through Parliament in February and March 1968 to stop them coming.

Before 1968

South Asians were in Britain long before the Act: lascars, the seamen of the Company's ships, and ayahs, the nannies brought home by British families. In 1810 Sake Dean Mahomed opened the Hindoostane Coffee House in London, the first Indian restaurant in Britain, and later ran shampooing baths in Brighton. In 1892 Dadabhai Naoroji was elected MP for Finsbury Central.

The mills, the foundries, the NHS

Most South Asians who came in the 1950s and 60s came to work: in the textile mills of Lancashire and Yorkshire, the foundries of the Midlands, the factories around Southall and Heathrow, and as doctors in the new NHS. The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 introduced work vouchers, and the Act of 1968 went further.

Further reading

  • Sundari Anitha and Ruth Pearson, Striking Women: Struggles and Strategies of South Asian Women Workers from Grunwick to Gate Gourmet (Lawrence & Wishart, 2018).
  • Camilla Schofield, Enoch Powell and the Making of Postcolonial Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

24. DAYTIMER

Bhangra in the afternoon, home before six: the gift

In the late 1980s British Asian teenagers went to : bhangra raves held on weekday afternoons, so they could be home before six and no one would know. The song is narrated by a composite girl from Southall, the one doing her homework at the end of RIVERS, at fifteen in 1987 and thirty-one in 2003. It moves from the Bradford 12 to Alaap and the daytimers, then to Apache Indian, Bally Sagoo, Talvin Singh, Asian Dub Foundation and Cornershop's number one about the playback singers, and finally to Panjabi MC. Along the way she samples an old film record, and the violins on it are the arranger's.

A neon airbrushed street scene of teenagers queueing along a brick wall to black club doors under a clock at eleven.
The daytimers In the late 1980s British Asian teenagers went to daytimers, bhangra raves held on weekday afternoons in cities such as London, Birmingham and Bradford. AI illustration, in the manner of late-1980s and 90s rave flyer and bhangra cassette-inlay art

Wednesday

  1. 11 a.m. Queue at eleven
  2. 2 p.m. on the floor by two
  3. 6 p.m. ਛੇ ਵਜੇ ਤੋਂ ਪਹਿਲਾਂ ਘਰ, home before six

Intro

(!)

Verse 1

Neon silhouettes of a dhol player and a tumbi player on stage, with boys dancing and girls clapping in a circle under laser beams.
Alaap and Bhujhangy The song names Southall's Alaap, formed in 1977, and Birmingham's earlier Bhujhangy Group, among the first British bhangra bands. AI illustration, in the manner of late-1980s and 90s rave flyer and bhangra cassette-inlay art

Eighty-one, Bradford: , thirty-eight milk bottles full of petrol,ready for the fascists everybody said were coming. Next summer the jury calls it self-defence.Eighty-seven. I'm fifteen. Wednesday. School shirt in a carrier bag.Queue at eleven, change in the toilets at the shopping centre,come out looking like somebody Mum's never met.Inside it's the afternoon and it's dark. , Heera, the going, the under everything.Southall's had Alaap since seventy-seven. Birmingham had before that.The boys do , the girls do , and nobody's cousin is allowed to see.

Hook

A carrier bag with a school shirt and tie spilling out, slumped against a speaker on a neon-lit dance floor, under a clock at two.
Home before six The daytimers ran in the afternoon so that teenagers could be home before six and no one would know. AI illustration, in the manner of late-1980s and 90s rave flyer and bhangra cassette-inlay art

School shirt in a carrier bag, (ਬੱਲੇ ਬੱਲੇ!)on the floor by two,, home before six,and Mum never knew.

Verse 2

Ninety three, out of Handsworth, bhangra and dancehall in one mouth, top twenty. takes the old film songs and puts a breakbeat under them.Ninety-six, starts a night at the Blue Note called Anokha.Ninety-nine, he wins the Mercury., out of a music workshop in Farringdon.February, ninety-eight, number one: , and , and .The voices behind the faces. . Number one in Britain, singing their names.

Hook

School shirt in a carrier bag, (ਬੱਲੇ ਬੱਲੇ!)on the floor by two,ਛੇ ਵਜੇ ਤੋਂ ਪਹਿਲਾਂ ਘਰ, home before six,and Mum never knew.

Verse 3

A neon-lit bedroom desk with a turntable playing an old record, its sleeve face down, beside a sampler with rubber pads.
The name on the sleeve The sampled record is a composite; its sleeve credits the name on the poster, but somebody from a village wrote those violins. AI illustration, in the manner of late-1980s and 90s rave flyer and bhangra cassette-inlay art
An empty kitchen at dusk in neon colours, with a portable stereo, two mugs of tea and a bag of carrier bags hanging on the door.
She knew In January 2003 Panjabi MC's "Mundian To Bach Ke" reached number five, the first bhangra song in the UK top ten. AI illustration, in the manner of late-1980s and 90s rave flyer and bhangra cassette-inlay art

Two thousand and three. I'm thirty-one, making beats in a back bedroom.Car-boot sale, an old film record, and I sample : violins, swinging.Two hundred quid to clear it. The sleeve says contains a sample, music by the name on the poster.Somebody from a village wrote those violins. I never found out who.January, , number five, over the Knight Rider theme by way of Busta Rhymes.It breaks in Germany first, then Jay-Z wants the remix.First bhangra song in the British top ten.I play it to Mum in the kitchen. She was .She says . She says she knew about Wednesdays.

Hook

School shirt in a carrier bag, (ਬੱਲੇ ਬੱਲੇ!)on the floor by two,ਛੇ ਵਜੇ ਤੋਂ ਪਹਿਲਾਂ ਘਰ, home before six,and Mum always knew.

See the real thing

Side-rooms

The voices behind the faces

In Hindi cinema the actors mime and the songs are sung by playback singers, recorded in the studio. For decades a handful of singers sang for almost every star: Lata Mangeshkar and her sister Asha Bhosle, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar and Mukesh. Cornershop's song is about them, and about the 45s they were heard on.

Further reading

  • Rajinder Dudrah, Bhangra: Birmingham and Beyond (Punch, 2007).
  • Sanjay Sharma, John Hutnyk and Ashwani Sharma (eds), Dis-Orienting Rhythms: The Politics of the New Asian Dance Music (Zed Books, 1996).

25. LINE 13

One line about where your family comes from. Due Friday.

The last song is set at a kitchen table. A seven-year-old has homework: one line about where your family comes from, due Friday. Her father starts at the beginning, and the second verse is the whole album in one breath, an object from every song. She falls asleep before he reaches the night bus. Every name in the family, he says, was written down by somebody else: a priest, a clerk, a barrister with five weeks. He admits which people in the album he made up. On Friday morning she writes her line, folds it in half and won't let him read it. The refrain is answered for the only time. The record's last stamp comes down after the last line.

A gouache painting of rain over the backs of terraced houses, with one kitchen window lit warm and a table visible inside.
Kitchen table, due Friday The last song is set at a kitchen table, where a seven-year-old has homework: one line about where your family comes from, due Friday. AI illustration, in the manner of present-day British gouache book illustration, domestic interior

Nothing you write here leaves this page.

Verse 1

A gouache painting of a small room with an upright piano, a tanpura leaning in the corner and an old suitcase on top of the piano.
Four thousand years and a suitcase Her father starts at the beginning, and the second verse is the whole album in one breath, an object from every song. AI illustration, in the manner of present-day British gouache book illustration, domestic interior
A gouache painting from above of a small child's hand holding a felt-tip over a blank ruled homework sheet, with a pot of pens nearby.
Somebody else's pen Every name in the family, he says, was written down by somebody else: a priest, a clerk, a barrister with five weeks. AI illustration, in the manner of present-day British gouache book illustration, domestic interior

Kitchen table. Rain on the window. A pot of felt tips.She's seven, and the homework sheet says one line about where your family comes from.Due Friday.One line. I've got four thousand years and a suitcase.She's got the pink lid in her mouth, waiting. , Papa.So I start at the beginning.

Hook

— — . One line.One on the map. One on your palm.One in the book. One in the song.Who was holding the pen?

Verse 2

Drains before throne rooms1. Four hundred signs nobody can read1.Seven rivers, every name changed2, and a hymn nobody got wrong for a thousand years2.A king who carved his sorry into rock3. A wind that kept the calendar4.A grave that grew a town5. Poets praying in the language you swear in6.A pass to sail your own sea7. A name for a receipt8. A language banned by decree8.Two seas, and the barrier between them9. A book of poems turned into a ledger10.A lion, a boy king11, a rifle, a garden with narrow gates12.An agreement nobody could pronounce13, and a clerk writing down what the railway cost13.A water turn in chalk14. A fistful of salt15. Two and a half million for the King15.A key that still fits16. A lullaby with a list in it17.Four names in the language they were shot for18. A letter brought by hand19.The bit before the verse20. A man deemed in his sleep21.A suitcase, a name spelt wrong22, a night bus by the Thames23.A girl home before six, and her mum, who knew24.

Hook

ਲਕੀਰ — لکیر — लकीर. One line.One on the map. One on your palm.One in the book. One in the song.Who was holding the pen?

Verse 3

A gouache painting of a small child asleep with her head on her arms at a lamplit kitchen table, seen from behind, felt tips scattered.
Before the night bus She falls asleep before he reaches the night bus, and he admits which people in the album he made up. AI illustration, in the manner of present-day British gouache book illustration, domestic interior
A gouache painting of a folded sheet of paper standing on an empty kitchen table in early morning light, a pink-lidded pen beside it.
She is On Friday morning she writes her line, folds it in half and won't let him read it; the album's refrain is answered for the only time. AI illustration, in the manner of present-day British gouache book illustration, domestic interior

She's asleep on her arms before I get to the night bus.The sheet's still blank, except her name at the top, in her own hand. Spelt right.Every name in this family got written down by somebody else.A priest. A clerk. A barrister with five weeks.And half the people I told her about, :the woman on the canal14, the clerk in his slippers21, the boy with the letter19, the girl with the carrier bag24.A woman in Ponda told me, back in fifteen-sixty-something, what she thinks of people with pens.Friday morning, she writes her line before I'm up,folds it in half, and won't let me read it.

Hook

ਲਕੀਰ — لکیر — लकीर. One line.Who's holding the pen?She is.

Outro

I'll start at the drains.

See the real thing

Side-rooms

Starting your own line

Most family histories from South Asia and East Africa are held in more than one country. Records from British India, including baptisms, marriages and many ships' lists, are at the British Library. Partition memories are being recorded by volunteers. Goan parish registers are in Goa. Start with the oldest person you can ask, and write down what they say, in their words.

End of Part VI.

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