ABSTRACT
The rapid growth of Britain’s South Asian population during the second half of the twentieth century, such that it included nearly two million people by the turn of the millennium, is best understood as the most recent manifestation of a dynamic series of interconnections between the British Isles and the Indian subcontinent. These first began to emerge as Britain set about creating an imperial presence in South Asia, and are now developing yet further – albeit on rapidly changing terms – in a post-imperial context. In that process of transformation 1947 was a turning point in three quite separate senses. In the first place it marked the point at which, as Nehru put it, India fulfilled its tryst with destiny, and thus awoke to life and freedom: the British Raj had come to an end. Second, and just as significantly, it did so not as a single unit, but as two separate states, which were before long to become three: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – each of which have followed increasingly different socio-economic trajectories as the years have passed. Third, and equally important, it marked the start of Britain’s post-war economic boom, and with it the beginnings of a phenomenon which ultimately precipitated some equally significant transformations in the character of Anglo-Indian relationships: the large-scale immigration of migrant workers of South Asian descent.
