Local Studies and Archives Oral History Project
Tameside Local Studies and Archives Service Oral History Project
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Tameside Council with the help of the Heritage Lottery Fund has decided to catch the memories and experiences from the first generation of asians in Tameside.
Text Only Version
Voiceover
It's a community that's grown up in Tameside over the past 40 years. Since the early 1960's, thousands of people from the Indian subcontinent have made this part of the north west their adopted home. For the more senior members it's been a long and often difficult journey, from the heart of Asia to the centre of Ashton.
They brought with them their own culture, diet, and ways to beat the good old British weather. And now Tameside Council with major support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, they've decided to catch their memories and experiences for the benefit of future generations living here in England.
Alice Lock - Local Studies Librarian, Ashton
We realised there was a very big gap in the collections we hold here for the experiences from people who have come from other countries. It's a really big change that's happened in all the local towns, all the local towns have been very much changed by the arrival of people especially people from the Indian subcontinent. And it's not very well recorded in documentary resources, there may be bits in the newspaper, bits in council records and so forth but there's not been many documents and there are no documents that record the peoples experiences in their own words.
Nazrul Hoque - Project Manager
As part of this project, we're doing 200 interviews with the ethnic minorities in Tameside. The interviews are done in their own languages and we're going to transcribe all those interviews into English, and they'll be kept in the Local Studies Archive for future reference for people who want to do some research work or people who want to trace their family roots.
Voiceover
Mohan Bhai Patel arrived in England in December 1967, and has one outstanding memory of that day, his wedding at and airport in London.
Mohan Bhai Patel - Retired School Teacher
My wife was here and she came to the airport, and we had a marriage ceremony at the airport. We exchanged our vows to each other and the priest was present and he did some rituals and we got married over there. And then we registered our marriage officially at a ceremony in Ashton.
Our beliefs are a strict vegetarian diet, no alcohol, no gambling, no smoking, no violence, and no disrespecting other religions.
Voiceover
After working in textiles he eventually retrained and became a primary school teacher. He's now retired and probably even busier than ever.
Mohan Bhai Patel - Retired School Teacher
My typical day starts with the morning prayers, other activities are visiting the library, shopping, visiting the temple, voluntary work at the temple, visiting friends and families, helping my granddaughter with her homework.
Voiceover
Mohan Bhai is now one the senior members at this Hindu temple, one of three in Ashton. He's happy that his dream to become a teacher has been fulfilled, but knows that life in Tameside today is a far cry from those early times.
Mohan Bhai Patel - Retired School Teacher
When I came, in our house there was no bath, no central heating, no carpets and now a lot has changed. We have a car, telephone, carpets and all the facilities we are getting now.
Voiceover
Lila Ben's motto is to make 'something from nothing' and that's reflected in her escape from the regime of brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 1970's.
Lila Ben - Community Worker
We left in the last week of the exodus, the last week of October. We left as soon as we had the tickets. We had one suitcase and 50 shillings which was £2 in the pocket that's it.
Voiceover
The Contrast between a warm Uganda and a freezing England couldn't have been greater.
Lila Ben - Community Worker
Well in Uganda the weather was really wonderful, you could go out without a sweater, without anything. So when we came here we were stuck out in the cold, and we couldn't come out at night time, when in Uganda you could stay out from 7 o'clock in the evening to midnight without a sweater on. And you could go out and talk to people but here we were all in our rooms an didn't come out to talk to anyone, because when we looked out of the window all we saw was snow and people wrapped up in coats and things like that!
When we were there my husband was declared stateless, and he became so upset, he said "I am the one who is to be blamed because I didn't take British citizenship", he took his Ugandan citizenship. I cried that night, my mum and my dad told him not to take it and he took it.
Voiceover
These days she's a proud mother of four sons who are all developing their professional careers, and Lila's happy to simply help the community here.
Lila Ben - Community Worker
I am the president of the ladies wing and there are many festivals organised by myself and we do lots of work in the community.
Zameer M. Malik - Project Worker
This is an interesting example actually. It's about a Doctor Siddiqui who was born in July 1958 Lahore, Pakistan, a very accomplished and educated person. He's worked with the United Nations, Bosnia, Iraq, a very humanitarian person as well. He set up a school in Pakistan out of his own funds.
Voiceover
The project has involved months of research and that's nothing new at Tameside council. The authorities archive staff are vastly experienced because they've already catalogued one of the pioneering oral history collections in the country.
Preserving old documents and photographs is a delicate and painstaking task. The memories of hundreds of people will provide a crucial record for reference, not only today but by future generations.
Sameena Zaheer - Project Worker
This is one of the examples I have. It's a certificate of one of the interviewees who was in the second world war. He was not ready to donate it to us, so he lent it to us and we photographed, scanned and printed off the document and now we're going to put it in this plastic envelope so that it can be preserved.
Alice Lock - Local Studies Librarian, Ashton
The end result of the project in the short term will be a book and exhibition. A lot of the photos that have been collected will be on our web site in the Tameside image archive, so the people who can't get to the exhibition can get the photographs on the web.
Voiceover
Purshotam Sachdev is another who arrived in Tameside in the early 70's this time from Nairobi in Kenya where he ran his own shop, now he's the head of a major family wholesale business in the centre of Ashton, concerned with that vital ingredient, food. To take advantage of a huge rise for example in the number of Indian takeaways and restaurants.
Purshotam Sachdev - Founder, Ashton Sweet Mart (ASM)
When I came at the end of 1971, and I was looking for a proper job, I came across one property in Cotton Street which is opposite a Tameside Theatre. I bought the property, and in the early days I started with my wife. She was very helpful and hardworking, unfortunately my wife passed away 14 years ago, and now my children and grandchildren help run the business.
Voiceover
Now Mr Sachdev is overseeing the latest expansion plan. Along side the supermarket his grandson will manage a new cafe named as a tribute to his late grandmother Lily. She played such a vital role in setting up the company all those years ago.
And the principles for good business and good diet are the same today as they've always been.
Nila Mistry - Customer
With being Gujarati, our main diet is vegetarian so it's nice to have ASM here. Every day we get fresh fruit and vegetables, most of us don't freeze anything so the availability is brilliant so we can come every day and get what we want, we don't have to pack it in the fridge or freezer. And we encourage our children to eat our diet as well. We do eat foods like pizza and pasta as well but this is our daily diet so it's nice that it's all here available to us.
Voiceover
Zubeda Malik has her hand full these days keeping an eye on her grandchildren, but that's nothing compared to the challenge she faced in 1970. She had to come to terms with a traditional muslim marriage to a man she'd never met with a wedding ceremony conducted over the telephone.
Zubeda Malik - Widow
My marriage was outside of the family, and it took place over the telephone. I was 20 when I got married and it was the first time I'd gone out of the house and got on a bus.
Voiceover
Sadly 4 years later her husband died in an accident and despite the help of an extended family of relatives Mrs Malik's had to cope with problems caused by not attending any form of school and having no knowledge at all of the English language.
Zubeda Malik - Widow
I'm not educated at all, I've never been to school. I didn't wear a traditional veil so my husband could recognize me at the airport from a photograph. I was very anxious.
When my husband died everyone was so supported, but at night with the children beside me I just couldn't control my sadness. I just cried a lot and the children would wipe away my tears and say "Mummy why are you crying?"
Voiceover
In order to survive and enjoy her grandchildren's company Mrs Malik has had to work for more than 20 years. Not only that but she was also forced to take her children with her to the factory.
Zubeda Malik - Widow
To pass the time I went to work at a friends factory. I used to drop the children off at school then work for a few hours. Later the children would come with me for a few hours before going to the mosque, and I did that for more than 20 years.
Voiceover
When you're 6,000 miles away from relatives back in the east there's a need to keep in touch, and over the years in Tameside a social network has developed to make sure people aren't left isolated.
Such meetings are usually held over a lunch time meal and they've become a vital forum in the exchange of pensions and vital allowances.
Mohammed Masood - Chairman, Pakistan Elderly Association
There are people living in isolation who are lonely, and we try an get them together to provide a stopping point for them where they can meet, socialise and share they experiences. We provide them with health information and we invite people from other institutions to come in to show us any courses that are available to people. And many people have a language problem.
Voiceover
In recent years the community has grown to more than 10,000 people, and they're making their mark on the Tameside area. New building have gone up to help a wide selection of social services.
Manu Bhai Mistry - Secretary, Indian Community Centre, Ashton
The place is used nearly every day, and one of the more popular activities is the welcome group for the elders three times a week, we have luncheon provided at a very very low cost and subsidized. Again we have a team of very dedicated volunteers who participate in the contribution. We have the temple that is open every day, morning lunch time and evening. And during the week we have other activities like yoga classes, youth clubs, computer classes, classes for learning English and so on. So there are many many activities going on every day.
Voiceover
I this day and age satellite television also plays a vital role in retaining links. It all helps shape, what's become a very satisfactory and settled lifestyle over the past half a century for Tameside's asians.
Lila Ben - Community Worker
I have no regrets, I am quite happy because we found our friends we found activities. And my boys are very well educated
Mohan Bhai Patel - Retired School Teacher
I also dreamed of being a teacher and that dream was fulfilled.
Zubeda Malik - Widow
I'm very happy because my sons are happy, they're both earning, they've got jobs, they're happy with their own families.
Purshotam Sachdev - Founder, Ashton Sweet Mart (ASM)
We are settled here now and this is our home, this is our home. We are happy here, we are happy with the people, we are happy with the customers.