Who are the suffragette heroes for British Asian girls?
Girls need heroes. Mostly they’ll pick figures from the world of celebrity culture, but occasionally we can sneak in our own. This is why I’m speaking at Walthamstow School for Girls on International Women’s Day about the suffragette centenary. But there’s an issue — around 90% of the school is black and Asian. Will they connect with a bunch of white women from long ago?
My focus for the talk at the girls’ school is the East London suffragettes, a group of mostly working class women whose activism has been overshadowed by their middle class counterparts. When initially researching activism in the area, myself and my volunteers did look for stories about women activists of colour, but found nothing before the 1970s. The only non-white East London suffragette story I found was Adelaide Knight, who married Donald Adolphus Brown, son of a Jamaican Naval Officer. But he is not a woman and she is not black!
Since then I have explored a wider geographical area for British suffragettes of colour. There was one name that appeared repeatedly — Sophia Duleep Singh, daughter of the Maharaja Duleep Singh and god-daughter of Queen Victoria (pictured). An Indian princess is of course a fantastic story, but is it something a group of East London Asian girls will relate to? As royalty she afforded huge privilege and protections (it was her personal frustration that she struggled to get arrested). The story also doesn’t reflect the brutality that was afforded to the rest of the movement. She may represent an ethnicity, but does she accurately represent the history of the wider movement or the class based struggles?
Further digging revealed that in 1911 the WSPU organised a “coronation procession” in honour of the new King and to campaign for the vote. Much has been made of the “Indian suffragettes” involved in that event due to the discovery of a photo of them. But this was not a call for Indian suffrage rights. Pankhurt’s motivation for including these women was to represent the might of the empire and add colour. They were essentially invited because of their pretty dresses!
On further exploration it also turns out there were actually only five Indian women. The women’s names have been discovered but there is no evidence they were involved in any further activism with the WSPU.
Dr Sumita Mukherjee criticises the use of the term ‘Indian suffragette’ in relation to this photo. She claims the women were “not fighting for Indian suffrage but were invited to attend a demonstration to support white British women’s rights.”
There are few Indian names that have occasionally cropped up in suffragette newspapers, but on the BBC website suffragette historian, Elizabeth Crawford says: “Apart from the photographs of the ‘Coronation Procession’ and of Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, there is no visual evidence of the presence of BAME women at any suffrage event, either as protagonists or as onlookers.”
There have been claims by some that the suffragette story has been “white-washed”; that women of colour are failing to be represented in our retelling. However from the evidence we have this argument does not bear up. Beyond this small handful of figures there is nothing that indicates any significant movement of suffragettes of colour within Britain.
When talking about the past we must maintain a critical eye and avoid looking at it through the lens of modern identity politics. To do so risks revisionism.
The question remains: how do we interest British Asian girls in what is an important but essentially white movement?
The suffrage movement remains significant, and young girls and women need to understand it. It can inspire action in democracy and democratic processes; reinforces the importance of voting; and lets them know that change is possible through collective action. So how do we share these important messages with British girls of colour?
Dr Mukerjee argues: “Why must focus on the suffrage movement be on western examples? Why can’t role models be taken from fierce radical campaigners outside the Anglophone world?”
So perhaps we’re looking at it from completely the wrong direction. Maybe it isn’t about women of colour in Britain, but what was happening abroad. Maybe it’s time to teach British Asian girls about the Women’s Indian Association (WIA) which was founded in 1917; how it sought votes for women and the right to hold legislative office on the same basis as men. Maybe they need to learn that it took until 1950 until universal suffrage was granted to Indian men and women; that along that hard road were many incredible women fighting a British attitude that universal suffrage was a “bad fit for India”. Maybe they need to know that this was probably the view that Emmeline Pankhurst held.
It’s vital for students to learn about the campaign for suffrage, but for girls and young women of colour maybe their role models do not lie within the British movement. In order to engage interest we must look at exploring suffrage campaigns around the world with them.
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