In 1925, when the British Empire was at its most widespread, around 70% of its peoples resided in the lands that make up today’s Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
About half the entire global empire’s subjects were Hindu and about a quarter were Muslim.
Given the peak British empire ruled over half the world’s Muslims, it may seem counter intuitive for it to have also had a majority Hindu populace, especially because after the First World War, Britain had dominion over much of the Middle East as well as large parts of Africa. This is explained by the fact many nations which are today home to large numbers of Muslims were then relatively underpopulated compared to the Raj. Nigeria (c.52% Muslim) for instance, is home to over 230 million people today compared to less than 21 million in 1930.
Because both Christianity and Islam are more globally widespread than Hinduism (over 93% of whose adherents reside in India,) it is perhaps to be expected post-imperial migration would result in the United Kingdom today being home to an estimated 4 million people with Muslim heritage compared to around 1.1 million recorded as Hindu by its 2021 census.
This is still a bit surprising given that India is by far the biggest non-EU nationality for immigrant visas to the UK, and the 2021 census recorded over 1.8 million people in Britain as having Indian ethnicity, making ‘British Indian’ the biggest single non-white ethnic minority population group in the UK. Not to mention the fact the community has also given the UK an observant Hindu in Rishi Sunak as its prime minister, (at the time of writing.)
It becomes less of a surprise when you consider how Britain’s Indian empire was grown, ruled, and dismantled. People with Punjabi heritage make up over 40% of the British Indian community immediately differentiating its demographics from that of India at large, and accounting for the majority of the UK’s half million strong Sikh community. (UK citizens with Indian heritage via the empire’s former East African colonies also add to this differential.)
As the 2021 census also counts over 1.5 million British people with Pakistani ethnicity and 640,000 Bangladeshi, both overwhelmingly Muslim groups, over three fifths of the UK’s Muslim population can claim roots in the sub-continent. The wider group ranges from long-established Somali and Yemeni communities to growing North and West African populations and around half a million people with links to Turkey, Cyprus, and the Balkans.
It should not need to be said that any such large, diverse group of people does not act, think, pray, or vote alike. Yet from the tenor of much public discussion about Muslims in the UK that is precisely what many people (including Muslims) take as a starting point. In addition to regarding Muslims as a monolithic group, there is also a tendency to exaggerate their number, to the extent one could be forgiven for forgetting that in total Muslims represent just 6.5% of the UK’s population -- compared to 46% stating Christian in the census, and a growing proportion (37%) indicating “no religion.”
In his 2019 book, “Empires of the Mind,” the historian Professor Robert Gildea explores how nostalgia for empire and the ‘top table’ in the British psyche, has undermined efforts to build multiculturalism, dragged the UK into unpopular wars in the Middle East, and brought about the debacle of Brexit. Gildea also argues this century’s western invasions of Iraq and Libya “went a long way to provoking the ‘blowback’ of al-Qaeda, ISIS, and jihadist attacks in Paris, London, and Manchester.”
His is a thoughtful wide-ranging history, unlike many of the toxic “clash of civilizations/Islam v the West” narratives that have proliferated since 9/11. From the Crusades to the overthrow of the Ottomans, it is easy to construct such narratives around British/western history. Unfortunately, some of those doing so are racial, religious, or otherwise ideological supremacists of one stripe or the other, prone to sowing division or fear. Racist diatribes by the likes of Donald Trump and assorted conspiracy theorists against Sadiq Khan, London’s recently three-time elected Mayor, are the loudest and most pernicious outcome of such thinking.
Khan is arguably the best known and most senior British Muslim figure on the Labour side of politics so his profile is likely to grow should the Conservatives lose this year’s general election.
Clearly David Cameron’s policy of parachuting ethnic minority candidates into safe Conservative seats outflanked Labour in promoting non-white figures to the front bench of UK politics; the most senior political post attained by a British Muslim was Chancellor of the Exchequer by Sajid Javid. Javid is like Sunak a right-wing merchant banker, but one who shares with Khan the background of being the son of a working-class Pakistani bus driver.
It is clear some British Muslims who ordinarily vote Labour have been put off by its leadership’s stance on Gaza. No doubt this fact will continue to be hyped up by groups claiming to speak for all Muslims as well as by assorted Islamophobes, not to mention the media looking for good copy.
What tends to be overlooked in such discussions however is that the ongoing war is not merely a “Muslim issue;” before February, two thirds of the British public were demanding a ceasefire. With public opinion favouring a halt to arms sales to Israel by 56% to 17%, this is more a case of front benches being out of step with mainstream public opinion, than with Muslims alone.
Similarly, in classic divide and rule fashion some right-wingers have tried to hype Islamophobic narratives among Hindu and Jewish communities to gain votes. However, most psephologists point to factors like class, education, income, profession, and constituency -- not views on Hindutva or Israel -- as the main reasons why the latter two groups contain higher numbers of Tory voters than in the past. Nonetheless, thanks to social media such narratives are percolating and being promoted by the far right, which should be a worry to all minorities, including Jews, Muslims, and Hindus alike.
Taking a step back, some facts of not-too-distant history now seem downright peculiar. Imagine the Baghdad pact (Cento/Meto), today for instance. This made the UK a military ally of Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq, with backing from the United States. Formally dissolved in 1979, it was founded in 1955, just one year before a Conservative government colluded with ostensibly left-wing governments in France and Israel to invade Egypt in opposition to Nasser’s nationalisation of the Suez Canal, before humiliatingly being told to stop by President Eisenhower.
Despite such fiascos, thanks in part to the footprint of empire which left the UAE as a protectorate till 1971 -- and beyond the Middle East in the conveniently fossil fuel blessed kingdom of Brunei which only became independent in 1984 -- the UK today has many billion dollars of trade and arms deals with many a Muslim potentate.
Important as it is to study how racism has often been integral to colonialism, it is also useful to note how longer-lasting empires tend to prioritize the pursuit of power and wealth, not ideology.
Niaz Alam is London Bureau Chief of the Dhaka Tribune.
