There’s a history of the community at India Club, says Tharoor
SHASHI THAROOR spoke last week in London at the India Club, mostly about his book, The Struggle for India’s Soul: Nationalism and the Fate of Democracy,
but the author and opposition Congress MP also addressed questions about the history of the venue, writes Amit Roy.
He was a guest of “the 1928 Institute” which was set up in 2020 as a think-tank and “is the continuation of the original India League established in 1928”. This year, the institute became “an official University of Oxford spin-out” and now does research into British Indians as well as represent them.
The India Club, which has a lease, does need rescuing once again from its landlords, Marston Properties, freeholders of the property at 143 Strand.
Eastern Eye has learned that Marston Properties has now served an eviction notice on Yadgar Marker, who runs the India Club, with the battle going to court next year.
The India Club is an off-shoot of the India League, which was set up in 1928 by VK Krishna Menon to lead the battle for Indian independence in the UK.
Asked about the origins of the India Club, Tharoor spoke of his late father, Chandran Tharoor: “Dad came here as a student. Krishna Menon was the founder and head of the Indian League, when he was here in 1928, and then he became India’s high commissioner, equivalent of ambassador, after independence.
“And he took this young Malayali student under his wing. And my dad helped him. He (Krishna Menon) was really the moving spirit in creating a club where Indians would get together. We’ve the picture – they show lots of young Indians in smart suits and black tie. I think that was a slightly earlier era of the India Club. Because today, as you can see, it’s a pleasant, small, affordable eatery, rather than a posh dining club. And the fact is that it was (then) still a place where Indians could gather and feel at home. That, I think, is the spirit in which it was (founded).”
Tharoor added: “We had lots of distinguished English people also coming to some of these events…. it was already in the 1950s, when the Indian population was miniscule, a significant gathering place.
“Now, of course, the Indian presence in London has come a long way. But people don’t realise how far back it goes. I mean the first record we have of an Indian in England goes back to the burial in 1550, of a man called Noor who was buried in St Margaret’s Church in Westminster. And the first known baptism of an Indian in England was (of ) a chap called Peter Pope – (he) was baptised by no less than the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1610. So you’ve really got a history of an Indian presence here.”
There is a photograph of Chandran Tharoor at the India Club, not far from where his son spoke at the meeting last week.