Writing the City in British Asian Diasporas

Seán McLoughlin is Senior Lecturer in Religions and Diasporas at the School of Philosophy, Religion and the History of Science, University of Leeds, UK. He is co-editor of European Muslims and the Secular State (2005) and Diasporas: Concepts, Intersections, Identities (2010).William Gould is Professor of Indian History in the School of History, University of Leeds, UK. He is the author of Hindu Nationalism and the Language of Politics in Late Colonial India (2004); Bureaucracy, Community and Influence in India: Society and the State 1930s - 1960s (2010); and Religion and Conflict in Modern South Asia (2011). Ananya Jahanara Kabir is Professor of English Literature at King’s College London having previously lectured at the University of Leeds, UK. Her publications include Territory of Desire: Representing the Valley of Kashmir (2009) and Partition’s Post-Amnesias: 1947, 1971 and Modern South Asia (2013).Emma Tomalin is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the School of Philosophy, Religion and the History of Science, University of Leeds, UK. She is co-editor/author of books including Biodivinity and Biodiversity: The Limits to Religious Environmentalism (2009) Dowry: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice (2009);; and Religions and Development (2013).

How have British cities been transformed by the settlement of Asian immigrants and in what ways did these cities crucially shape newcomers' lives? Like a kaleidoscope refracting alternative patterns, the answer to this question lies, this marvellous collaborative volume shows, in the multiple voices writing the Asian diaspora's urban experience - anthropologists, sociologists, poets, novelists, oral and cultural historians, politicians, policy-makers and journalists. Avoiding sweeping, essentialist generalisations, the book's comparative scholarship and fine attention to detail demonstrate the depth and subtlety with which the Asian diaspora in Britain has been researched and analysed. Recommended reading for anyone teaching on migration and diaspora, and a must for new researchers on the Asian diaspora. Pnina Werbner, Keele University Britain's cities have been indelibly shaped through centuries of migration and settlement. In this wonderfully evocative and richly textured book, the authors trace the historical and contemporary inscriptions of five iconic British Asian cities - Birmingham, Bradford, Leicester, London and Manchester. Exploring multiple ways and scales of 'writing' the city, these essays remind us that 'all cities are global cities', woven from diasporic and local (hi)stories, journeys and the imagination of home. Claire Alexander, University of Manchester

• 1. Introduction Part I: Cities 2. Writing ‘Bradistan’ Across the Domains of Social Reality 3. Representing British Bangladeshis in London’s East End: The Global City, Text, Performance and Authenticity 4. Writing British Asian Manchester: Vernacular Cosmopolitanism on the ‘Curry Mile’ 5. Discrepant Representations of Multi-Asian Leicester: Institutional Discourse and Everyday Life in the Model Multicultural City 6. Between the City Lines: Towards a Spatial Historiography of British Asian Birmingham Part II: Themes 7. South Asian histories in Britain: Nation, locality and marginality 8. Writing Religion in British Asian Diasporas9. Writing British Asian Women: From purdah and the ‘problematic private sphere’ to new forms of public engagement and cultural production 10. From Writing to Embodied Vernacular Cosmopolitanisms: The British Asian City and Cultural Production