Bangladeshis are one of the largest immigrant communities in the United Kingdom. Significant numbers of ethnic Bengali peoples, particularly from Sylhet, arrived as early as the seventeenth century, mostly as lascar seamen working on ships. Following the founding of Bangladesh in 1971, a large immigration to Britain took place during the 1970s, leading to the establishment of a British Bangladeshi community. Bangladeshis were encouraged to move to Britain during that decade because of changes in immigration laws, natural disasters such as the Bhola cyclone, the Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan, and the desire to escape poverty, and the perception of a better living led Sylheti men bringing their families. During the 1970s and 1980s, they experienced institutionalised racism and racial attacks by organised far-right groups such as the National Front and the British National Party.
Early history of Bangladeshis in Britain
Throughout the 17th to early 20th centuries, the British East India Company employed thousands of lascars and workers from British India, who were mostly Bengali Muslim and Punjabi Sikh, to work on British ships. The first educated to travel from colonial India to Europe and live in Britain was I'tisam-ud-Din, a Bengali Muslim cleric, munshi and diplomat to the Mughal Empire who arrived in 1765 with his servant Muhammad Muqim during the reign of King George III. He wrote of his experiences and travels in his Persian book, Shigurf-nama-i-Wilayat (or 'Wonder Book of Europe'). This is also the earliest record of literature by a British Asian. Also during the reign of George III, the hookah-bardar (hookah servant/preparer) of James Achilles Kirkpatrick was said to have robbed and cheated Kirkpatrick, making his way to England and stylising himself as the Prince of Sylhet. The man was waited upon by the Prime Minister of Great Britain William Pitt the Younger, and then dined with the Duke of York before presenting himself in front of the King.
Another early record of a migrant from Sylhet by the name of Saeed Ullah can be found in Robert Lindsay's autobiography. Saeed Ullah was said to have migrated not only for work but also to attack Lindsay and avenge his elders for the Muharram Rebellion of 1782. Due to the majority of early Sylheti settlers being lascar seamen, the earliest Muslim communities were found in port towns. Naval cooks and waiters also came. There are other records of Sylheti-Bengalis working in London restaurants from at least 1873. At the beginning of World War I, there were 51,616 lascars from the subcontinent working on British ships, the majority of whom were of Bengali descent.
Many middle-class Sylhetis believed that seafaring was a historical and cultural inheritance due to a proportion of their community being descended from foreign traders, lascars and businessman from the Middle East and Central Asia who migrated before and after the Muslim conquest of Sylhet in 1303. Khala Miah claimed this was a very encouraging factor for Sylhetis to travel to Calcutta aiming to eventually reach the United States and United Kingdom. A crew of lascars would be led by a Serang. Serangs were ordered to recruit crew members themselves by the British and so they would go into their own villages and areas in the Sylhet region often recruiting their family and neighbours. The British had no problem with this as it guaranteed the group of lascars would be in harmony. According to lascars Moklis Miah and Mothosir Ali, up to forty lascars from the same village would be in the same ship.
Shah Abdul Majid Qureshi is said to be the first Sylheti to open a restaurant in the country. It was called Dilkush Delight and located in Soho. Another one of his restaurants, known as India Centre, alongside early Sylheti migrant Ayub Ali Master's Shah Jolal cafe, became hub for the British Asian community and was sites where the India League would hold meetings attracting influential figures such as Subhas Chandra Bose, Krishna Menon and Mulk Raj Anand. Ali was an influential figure who supported working-class lascars, providing them food and shelter. In 1943, Qureshi and Ali founded the Indian Seamen's Welfare League which ensured social welfare for British Asians. Ayub Ali was also the president of the United Kingdom Muslim League having links with Liaquat Ali Khan and Mohammad Ali Jinnah.