The Politics of Race

Ivor Crewe

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781138938304
• eBook ISBN: 9781317382966
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This volume, first published in 1975, is concerned with the politics of race relations; it is divided into theoretical, empirical and methodological studies together with an extensive bibliography. A key theme in this volume is to show how the study of race relations can advance beyond traditional micro-level analysis. In the opening paper Axford and Brier, concerned about the neglect of macro-level analysis, stress the need for conceptual frameworks which would help us to understand the place of racial conflict in the British political system. They suggest that elite political groups, otherwise in conflict, have by tacit consensus eliminated race from the national political agenda.

EMPIRICAL STUDIES: THE POLITICS OF RACIAL MINORITIES

4. PARTICIPATION IN ELECTIONS BY ASIANS IN BRADFORD

M. J. Le Lohé

Introduction

This is a rather limited study of one of many effects which a particular group of immigrants have had upon politics in a particular city. Although they will be mentioned as an influence upon participation the issues which have arisen as a consequence of the presence of this group are largely ignored. Again, other groups of immigrants, and other towns and cities, are mentioned only incidentally and the conclusions of this study do not necessarily have wider application.

The way in which participation is considered is also narrow, being limited to the electoral processes of voting and standing as candidates. There is a large area of participation, particularly pressure-group activity, which is important but also ignored. The largest audiences in St George’s Hall are common to ‘pop stars’ and meetings organised by the Pakistan People’s Party and the largest protest march in Bradford in 1973, estimated at 2,000, concerned the shooting of two youths at India House.

The field covered by this study is, then, rather narrow and the terms used in it are rather narrowly defined. There are problems when one uses, for example, the term coloured population,¹ but, in this particular instance it is both possible, and necessary to use certain working terms which are capable of being related, with some precision, to electoral data, and thus it is unnecessary to consider other definitions.

The term Asian will be used, and unless otherwise defined, this will mean persons whose full names are commonly found in South Asia. Typical of these are Muslim, Sikh or Hindu names such as Mohammed Hussain, Malkit Singh or Balwant Mistry. This definition will exclude a tiny minority of persons who are genuinely Asian, but not South Asian, such as Wai Kwok Pau² and it will also exclude women married to Asians such as Maureen Khan. It will, however, include East African Asians or West Indian Asians. This working use of the term Asian is adhered to because it has been used consistently and precisely in studies of Bradford over a number of years and it makes possible certain comparisons which demonstrate growing influence and political socialisation.

It should be stressed that the term Asian does not give a measure of the total coloured population for, apart from the few orientals, there are also West Indian and African residents. Nor can the term be equated with immigrants, for, apart from West Indians, Irish or other Europeans,³ a considerable proportion of younger Asians were born in Bradford or at least in Britain. Admittedly one can speak of immigrant origin, or first generation descendants, or of persons born in the coloured New Commonwealth countries (with its attendant problems of white immigrants), but this working use of the term Asian avoids some of these problems of definition and it has one outstanding advantage in studies of electoral participation. This is that one can produce data about electors and voters with a high degree of accuracy. The electoral register is the definitive document of the electorate and uncertainties about under-enumeration in the Census or even about under-registration of potential electors can be set aside. Furthermore when it comes to observing who actually voted, one can ask for electoral numbers and check that those whose appearance was Asian actually had fully Asian names.

In so far as the electorate is concerned one then has two categories: Asian and a residual category of non-Asian. The term non-Asian also is a working term which covers a very mixed group. There will be an insignificant number of persons who are truly Asians, whites born in Asia or orientals, but the non-Asians really cover the rest of the world. The overwhelming mass of them have names such as John Smith or Betty Robinson, but a few, such as Jan Rudalski⁴ will betray non-British origin and a number of others, such as Cecil Price, will not betray their non-British origin.

There is, in fact, an elector called Cecil Price who is coloured and who was born in the West Indies, and no doubt there is also a similar elector somewhere called John Smith. One might guess that, say, Beresford Hamilton or Hesketh Philip are West Indians but guesses of this kind lack accuracy and, with the working term non-Asian, become unnecessary. When one comes to observe voters at polling stations one can have two sub-categories within the non-Asian group. The West Indian John Smith can easily be distinguished, by an observer taking numbers, from a white John Smith. Thus insofar as voters are concerned we may have three categories: Asian, Afro-West Indian and European, but these last two sub-categories cannot be accurately related to the electorate to give precise statements about the level of turnout.

Yet limited statements about West Indian turnout can be made. These depend upon assumptions about the size of the West Indian electorate, but, based upon random samples of the electorate and the evidence which comes from Census material, these assumptions must be reasonably accurate. In 1970, for example, a random sample of the electors of the Manningham Ward in Bradford generated 155 names, of these 32 were Asian and three of the 123 non-Asians were found, on the doorstep, to be West Indian. This suggests that about two per cent of that electorate were West Indian and about 77 per cent were white, thus the non-Asian electorate in Manningham, allowing for some sampling error, would be at least 95 per cent white. The electoral register is, of course, definitive for our purpose but the Census provides useful supporting evidence. The 1971 Census Small Area Statistics for the Manningham Ward enumerates 655 persons born in New Commonwealth America whereas 12,809 were born in Great Britain and 454 were born in other parts of Europe. Admitting that there are persons born in Britain of West Indian origin on the one hand, and that there is possibly some under-registration of potential West Indian electors on the other hand, the assumption that up to five per cent of the non-Asian electors in Manningham are West Indian would appear reasonable. Knowing the number of West Indians who voted one can then use that assumption to suggest the approximate level of West Indian turnout and the possible range of error associated with that figure.

The fact that West Indians form such a small minority of the New Commonwealth Immigrants resident in Bradford needs some emphasis. The picture shown in one ward, Manningham, is not quite typical, as the 1971 Census for the County Borough enumerates 2,010 persons born in the New Commonwealth America, 5,965 in India and 11,080 in Pakistan within the total of 294,175. This fact, or state of affairs, is also very helpful for it means that the bulk of the New Commonwealth immigrants, being Asian, are easily identified on the electoral register and that those non-whites who cannot be so identified are only a small minority of the non-Asian total. This situation is peculiar to Bradford, as an analysis of the 1966 Sample Census showed that this city had a higher proportion of Asian born amongst its Commonwealth born residents than any other major urban area in the United Kingdom.⁵ Such a situation makes Bradford particularly suitable for study, especially for a study in participation.

The Asian Electorate, Its Location and Political Significance

1 The Old Boundaries

Fortunately one can usually find copies of electoral registers for previous years and in Bradford these can be used to chart the growth of the Asian electorate. In 1954 only 341 Asian names could be found on the city’s electoral register, but by 1959 there were three wards each of which included about that number. Two of these wards, Exchange and Listerhills, thereafter had substantial increases in their Asian electorates and by 1962 both had totals of over a thousand. At the same time the demolition of housing was reducing the total electorate, thus the percentage who were Asian tended to grow more rapidly than their actual numbers. By 1962 Asians formed 25.9 per cent of the electorate in Exchange which was then the smallest ward in the city. At Listerhills the Asian level was lower at 19.7 per cent but their total of 1604 gave a subjective impression, particularly in certain polling districts, that Asians were in the majority.

By 1967, when the ward boundaries were altered, Asians accounted for 28.2 per cent of the electorate in Exchange and 27.5 per cent of that at Listerhills. Two other wards, Manningham and South, had about 10 per cent and a further three, Bolton, Little Horton and North East had over 5 per cent. Before proceeding to consider the importance of these figures it should be noted that the degree of geographical concentration of Asians is not shown by these figures. In each of these wards certain polling districts which were close to the commercial centre of the city had high proportions of Asians, whereas other, more suburban, polling districts within the same ward had few, if any, Asians. Thus, for example in the Bolton Ward in 1967 Asians accounted for 5.6 per cent of its total electorate, but 84 per cent of these 539 Asians were in one down-town polling district where they formed 46.4 per cent of the electorate.

One might conclude from these figures that Asians formed an important element in the electorate in two wards, were a substantial element in two others and were significant in a further three. We are, however, considering not statistical significance but political significance and must look for some measure which will relate potential political influence to the particular electoral bloc. One possible method of assessing political significance would be to relate the Asian electorate to the majority year by year. Majorities are not constant things, but the average majority in a ward is easily calculated and may be used to suggest the number of votes normally needed to reverse a result. To be realistic one should not compare the average majority with the Asian electorate since that assumes that they will all turn out to vote. If one expected, say, a third of the Asians to turn out to vote this would be more realistic, although, of course, for this purpose of assessing potential political significance we are still being unrealistic in assuming that all Asians are going to vote for the same party.

Nevertheless this kind of situation could occur if there was a substantial bloc vote which could be delivered by its leaders. To the extent that these leaders were apolitical, in a British party sense, they could deliver to any candidate who happened to please them, or, conversely, switch from any candidate who happened to displease them. To some degree it will be shown that this has happened in Bradford where a substantial Pakistani vote has gone to the Conservatives, and one might also note that in Rochdale a similar bloc appears to have supported the Liberals.⁶ One should, however, emphasise that this has happened only to varying degrees and that it is still unrealistic to regard any Asian group simply as a switchable solid bloc.

Whilst it is admittedly unrealistic it does suggest a guiding limit and whenever that limit is passed, if not sooner, candidates will need to take Asians into account in their electoral calculations. Indeed Asian leaders, or putative leaders, may move into the electoral market place and attempt some local vote bargaining before that limit is reached. Again it is accepted that any such bargaining is considerably weakened if the votes have previously gone to the loser and switching them will do no more than increase the winner’s majority. But, for our purpose here we need some simple measure of this kind of significant electoral influence and our guideline may remain as that where a substantial Asian electorate is more than three times the average majority. This situation obtained in two relatively safe Labour wards, Exchange, from 1959 onwards, and Listerhills, from 1960 onwards, and also in the marginal ward of Bradford Moor after 1961. Since the City Council was highly marginal (it changed control three times in this period) the Asian electorate could have considerable political significance.

This significance was mainly, in those years, at the council level for the Asian electorate did not really have the same potential in the Parliamentary constituencies. The wards with the highest numbers of Asian electors were mainly grouped within the Bradford East constituency. Their numbers there were considerable with 4,110 Asians on the register for the 1964 General Election, 4,231 for that of 1966 and 5,454 for that of 1970 when Asians formed 13.6 per cent of the total. The Labour majorities in Bradford East were much larger than these figures and this concentration in a very safe seat meant their influence as potential swing voters was non-existent. In the marginal seats of Bradford North and Bradford West much smaller numbers of Asians were potentially more important, for example in 1964 at Bradford North there were 1,150 Asians and Labour gained the seat with a majority of 1,398. Yet the Asian electorate, at that time, was never seen as the key to Parliamentary success.

2 The New Boundaries

The 1970 General Election was the last to be fought on the old boundaries and after it three completely new constituencies were created although three of the old names were retained. The name Bradford East was abolished and, although it over-simplifies, one can think of that constituency being divided between the other three which retained their names. The part of Bradford East which contained the concentration of Asian settlement was transferred to enlarge the new Bradford West. This change, however, not only enlarged that constituency but also made it the most marginal of the three new seats.

Bradford West was now a marginal with a substantial Asian elector...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
• EMPIRICAL STUDIES: THE POLITICS OF RACIAL MINORITIES
• EMPIRICAL STUDIES: THE WHITE BACKLASH
• METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
• Bibliography of Studies on the Politics of Race in Britain