Worshippers celebrating 22nd Ganesh festival, Golders Green 1973. Henry Grant collection. Copyright Museum of London

Out of India

A subcontinent’s influence on London

Out of India, a new display at Museum of London, highlights the impact of the culture of the Indian subcontinent on London, and the contributions made by people of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent, who settled in the capital. It marks the 60th anniversary of Indian Independence, and the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan.

From food to fashion, politics to sport, spirituality to cinema, Out of India unravels the subcontinent’s ever developing relationship with London, bringing together photographs, textiles, objects and oral histories to celebrate an extraordinary and ongoing tale of cultural influence on life in the capital.

Photograph of Indian suffragettes on the Women’s Coronation Procession of 17 June 1911. Copyright Museum of London

The display casts an eye over the long history of Indian representation in political life, from Dadabhai Naorji, MP for Finsbury Central in 1892, to the first Zoroastrian Parsi to take a seat in the House of Lords in July last year, Lord Bilimoria. The major political figures of 1947, Ghandi, Nehru and Jinnah, all trod the London political stage, and in this anniversary year, Out of India looks back to the empire they fought. The London-based East India Company determined trade with the subcontinent. Muslins, silks and Kashmiri shawls bear testimony to influence and, in the case of the Paisley pattern, dilution, of Indian design passing through the docks into the homes of 18th century Londoners.

Francis Marshall curator of the exhibition comments, ‘The people and cultures of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have had a truly significant influence on London. This display attempts to reveal how this has come about. Eating habits are well known, but others, like the involvement in the Suffragette movement are much less familiar. Out of India offers an opportunity to celebrate and explore this important aspect of London’s history.’

For more information visit www.museumoflondon.org.uk or www.museumindocklands.org.uk

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