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BRENT INDIAN ASSOCIATION
A saga of thirty five years service
to the community
Indian settlement was there in
England during the British colonial
period in India but it was sparsely
populated. The immigration of
Indians from India took a
significant rise in the late sixties
and people from India went to
England for a permanent settlement
with a view to enriching their
lifestyle in a country of milk and
honey. By 1965 there was a sizeable
population of Indians in the London
Borough of Brent but they were
missing a central organisation where
they could meet, discuss and
celebrate. It was felt mostly so on
social and religious occasions when
the members of the community found
it utterly depressing as to where
and how to hold such events.
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BIRTH OF AN ORGANISATION:
Soon a solution was found out. In
1965, Ghanshyambhai Patel and
Sureshbhai Patel floated an idea to
hold a cultural programme. This was
spontaneously accepted and supported
by Arvindbhai C. Patel, Navin Amin,
Dinkerbhai Asher, Ranjit Patel,
Lalit Raja, Dayalji Karia, Devraj
Chudasama and others. An
organisation was born which was
named "Brent Indian Association".
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B.I.A. SPREADS ITS ACTIVITIES:
With the establishment of B.I.A. the
members derived inspiration from it
and they were imbibed with a new
spirit. They meant business. So in
1966, a Gujarati Play was staged at
the Commonwealth Institute which won
laurels from the critics. “Having
performed drama in India and in
Kampala (Uganda), I made a debut in
London with a one-act play ‘Kahevu-kone?’
by Prabodh Joshi, a charity show for
the Brent Indian Association in
1967/68. Writes Amrit Kotak in the
‘Opinion’ June 2000. In 1967 a
first ever coach trip to Blackpool
was arranged. During these years the
voluntary workers would visit the
hospitals, meet the patients and
offer them flowers etc. These visits
left a permanent impact on the
members of the community and
hospital staff. This was rare in
those days.
The election in 1969 ushered in a
committee with young blood and
spirit under the chairmanship of N.
T. Pandya. This committee framed
and adopted a constitution.
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NAVRATRI CELEBRATION:
With the advent of the the new
committee, it acquired the Vivian
Hall, at the Vivian Avenue, Wembley
on lease for a term of three years.
Here in 1969 the festival of
Navratri was celebrated for all the
ten days including the festival of
Dashera. Thus B.I.A. was the
pioneer body to celebrate the
festival on such a large scale. It
is noteworthy to remember that in
those days no grant from the council
was available and all the expenses
had to be met with from the annual
subscription which was .50p per
person per year!
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BRENT COUNCIL TAKES NOTE OF IT:
With the passage of time the
activities of B.I.A. were taken into
account by the Brent Council.
Consequently some of the members of
B.I.A. were appointed governors of
the primary and secondary schools.
The chairman N. T. Pandya found a
place on "Family Practitioners'
Committee". The same year Miss
Chandrika Shantikumar Thaker
received a first prize in the
"Girls' Fashions Parade".
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A LIBRARY WAS FOUNDED:
B.I.A. was committed to all-round
development for the benefit of its
members. and this was necessary to
allure more and more members. It
started a lending library with books
in Gujarati and English and
subscribed to Gujarati and English
news papers and magazines for its
reading room. Today the library is
well stocked with some 3000 titles
and dozens of newspapers, magazines
and periodicals. Books are the
chief carriers of civilization and
the message has reached home of its
users.
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TEACHING OF GUJARATI:
For the spread and propagation of
culture and religion the knowledge
of Gujarati is paramount. With
this view in mind a Saturday
Gujarati School was started at John
Kelly High School which was later on
shifted to Barham Primary School in
Wembley. The Gujarati School is the
flag-ship of the Association. The
students sit the examinations
conducted by the Gujarati Literary
Academy. The teaching staff is
well-qualified and devoted.
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ACQUIRES OWN BUILDING:
During this period B.I.A. was
awarded a grant of £56,500 under the
Urban Aid Programme which
facilitated to acquire the property
at 116 Ealing Road, Wembley. The
building was declared open by
Brynmor John MP Minister, Home
Office on September 19, 1976. The
other dignitary present was
Natwarsinhji, the then High
Commissioner for India. He
performed the opening ceremony of
the hall and named it "Sardar Patel
Hall", Mahesh Kothari, a social
worker from India presented the full
size portrait of the Sardar and a
bronze statuette of Mahatma Gandhi
which still adore the premises.
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HOSPITAL AT CHIKHODRA:
The period between 1976 - 1980
noticed a significant progress under
the Chairmanship of Manibhai D.
Patel. 25 voluntary organisations
affiliated with B.I.A. A luncheon
club was started for the senior
citizens. A cultural programme was
organised and the proceeds from it
was donated towards the construction
of a hospital for the blinds at a
town called Chikhodra in Gujarat.
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A PERIOD OF DESPAIR & GLOOM:
The happy period of progress and
prosperity soon ended like a dream.
The following years from 1980-1986
were wrought up with disaster for
B.I.A.. The Brent Council resolved
to terminate the lease to repossess
the building and the matter was
taken to court and it was won
successfully. But there were many
hazards ahead which were beyond the
human control.
Due to some mysterious reasons the
building was gutted down by fire.
It took nearly two years to renovate
it. During this time of crises a
great help in cash and moral support
was extended by many which proved
enormously helpful to sustain the
morale of the management of B.I.A.
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PHOENIX FROM ASHES:
The B.I.A. emerged from ashes like a
phoenix in 1986 and a new committee
was elected with D.D.Tanna at the
helm. The old constitution was
revised and a new one was adopted on
27 April, 1986 to meet the growing
needs of the community. The past
was buried deep and an era of
reconstruction was set in. The
number of affiliated organisation
rapidly rose to 46. Long-lasting
changes were effected to reap
benefits. Seminars on immigration,
education, housing, police and
welfare rights were regularly held
which attracted the active
participation from the community
members.
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WOMEN'S ACTIVITIES:
Equal stress was put on the
emancipation and participation of
women in the affairs of B.I.A. To
this end, the Mahila Mandal was
reorganised and subjects popular
with women folk were introduced.
Sewing classes were started which
are still running todate. Navratri
festival for ladies was celebrated
which has become the permanent
feature of the activities. Satsang
Mandal was also formed at this
period. This has also been a very
popular event with the ladies.
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RISE IN STAFF AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE
CENTRE:
In 1990 A.C. Patel took over from D.
D. Tanna. In may 1990 B.I.A.
created three new positions:
Manager, Community Worker and
Administrator to develop the
community centre. The three
appointees were: Amrit Desai
(Manager), Jayendra Shah (Community
Worker), and Meenaxiben Patel
(Administrator), Harish Bhatt and
Mahendra Patel were there as a
caretaker and an assistant care
taker..
The Manager was entrusted with the
development of the centre to be the
vanguard of the community
activities. The wheels of progress
were put into gear and an action
plan was prepared. To make the
progress known to the public some
immediate steps were taken which
included: Production of Manager's
monthly report, monthly statistics
of various services provided to the
public, production of a magazine,
wall charts, displays of daily news
clippings of national and
international news papers and
prayers at luncheon meetings. These
measures left a profound impact on
the general public.
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JAWAHARLAL NEHRU CENTENARY:
The year 1989 was the centenary year
of the birth of Jawaharlal Nehru the
first Prime Minister and marker of
modern India. It was celebrated in
conjecture with the Independence day
of India on 19th August
on a scale imparalled in t he
history of B.I.A. Special programme
was organised for youths and
children and a grand dinner at Brent
Town Hall where Shri M. Rasgotra,
The High Commissioner for India was
the Chief Guest and Cllr. Len
Williams, the Mayor of Brent
presided over the function.
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SILVER JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS:
The year 1990 proved a landmark in
the history of B.I.A. It was a
proud moment for a voluntary
organisation to survive and function
successfully for a period of 25
years working against all odds with
scarce resources and means at its
disposal. The silver jubilee was
marked with a huge procession form
the Ealing road to the Brent Town
Hall where it was warmly greeted by
the Mayor of Brent Cllr. Roger
Stone. In the evening a grand dinner
was held at the Town Hall, which
ended late with the musical
extravaganza.
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LAND MARK ACHIEVEMENTS:
Voluntary organisations like B.I.A.
flourish with the devotional
services of its members who put
"service above self". Since its
birth B.I.A. has been fortunate
enough to have a dedicated team of
such workers. During D. D. Tanna's
Chairmanship. B.I.A. emerged like a
phoenix from the ashes and he
steered the ship ashore safely from
the turbulent waters. Of course it
is a team work that merits. A. C.
Patel and his conscientious
secretary Ratibhai Kathrani and
Manager Amrit Desai strove hard to
project a new image of B.I.A. and
they were successful in achieving
the targeted results.
During these years the volume of
work increased manifold. In 1990
the services provided were under
1000 per annum which meteorically
rose to 15856 by September 1994.
This is not a mean achievement. All
the services were streamlined and
regularly monitored. This figure
15856 translated into value would
mean £1,58,560! The then Chief
Executive of Brent Council Mr.
George Benham commended this
achievement.
The development was alround.. It
crossed all the boundaries and
penetrated into the international
fields. During Gulabbhai Mistry's
time a very good rapport was
established with his personal visits
to British missions in Delhi &
Mumbai. This, to our much relief,
eased the visa and immigration
procedure.
The fame of B.I.A. by this time
reached the Continent and a film
unit from Holland made a contact
with us to make a film on B.I.A.
activities to show on their national
television for the benefit of the
voluntary organisations. The unit
arrived here and shot the
documentary for two days . This was
the apex time for B.I.A.
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GOLDEN JUBILEE CELEBRATION OF THE
INDIAN INDEPENDENCE:
The Independence day and the
Republic Day of India are the tow
most important events in the
calendar of B.I.A. Hence the Golden
Jubilee year marked the special
event and was celebrated in a most
memorable and splendid way
attracting hundreds of well-wishers
to join the procession from the
B.I.A. building to the Town Hall.
The procession included gaily
decorated floats, smartly attired
youths, folk dancers, a live band, a
two-horse drawn buggey where in
seated the four freedom fighters D.
D. Tanna, N. T. Pandya, Amrit Desai
and Narshibhai Mistry who had
contributed in their own way to the
freedom struggle of India. They were
decorated at the evening function
with medals by Shri K. N. Singh,
the Minister Co-ordination, High
Commission of India.
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CARING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT:
The ancient Indian culture glorifies
the nature and pays homage to it in
a most devotional manner. It
advocates the preservation of
vegetation, its flora and fountains
and prays VANASPATAYAHA SHANTI. In
footsteps of this great tradition,
the B.I.A. arranged a tree planting
ceremony on 16th August 1997 at the
Gladstone Park to commemorate the
golden jubilee year of the
Independence of India and to boost
the envioronment. His Worshipful The
Mayor of London Borough of Brent -
Cllr. Mark Cummins, The High
Commissioner for India - Dr. L. M.
Singhvi, The Chairman of B.I.A.- Mr.
Girishbhai Joshi, and Member of
Parliament -Mr. Barry Gardiner and
our Affiliated Organisations
enthusiastically participated and a
total of 50 seedlings were planted.
All the trees have nourished and
grown into a beautiful plantation
which is aptly known as the "Gandhi
Peace Grove" in memory of Mahatma
Gandhi.
A rock with a plaque bearing the
inscription of the event has been
raised in the Park which always
reminds the naturalists of the
efforts put in by B.I.A. towards the
preservation and enhancement of the
environment.
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FROM LEASEHOLD TO FREEHOLD:
The premises were leasehold form the
Brent Council. However Girish Joshi
immediately on the assumption of
the Chairmanship turned his eyes in
the direction of acquiring a
freehold. He and Vice-Chairman -
Ratibhai Shah, and Amratlal Sodha
the experienced and conscientious
Secretary General put concerted
efforts to procure the freehold
which was successfully negotiated
and today the Association could
boast of having their own premises
on the prestigious Ealing Road.
During this period, the B.I.A. got a
registered Charity Status too. It
also changed into a Company Limited
by Guarantee.
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LAUNCH OF A LOTTERY:
The demands and wants of the
community are ever increasing but
the means available to translate
them into reality are meagre. The
Sardar Patel Hall is not specious
enough to accommodate exceeding 90
people. The plans are on hand for
the extension but the amount
required is not available. To
overcome this, a lottery has been
launched to raise £100,000. The
response has been quite encouraging
so far and we appeal to all to
positively respond to our charity
call.
The tickets are priced £1 each in a
bunch of 5 costing £5 only. The
stake is low and the prizes are very
high and attractive. Tickets are
available at the B.I.A. office or
from the voluntary workers.
Alternatively it can be had through
post by sending your cheque for the
requisite amount or depositing the
amount in our following bank
account.
Please contact BIA for further
details on 0208 903 3019.
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CONCLUSION:
Today there are 70 Voluntary
organisations affiliated to B.I.A.
The figure is self- explanatory and
speaks for itself. From a small
seedling a vast bunyan tree has
grown enfolding thousands under its
shade. Immigration, Welfare Rights,
Legal Advice, Education, Housing,
Youth Activities are some of the
topics it deals with. For the senior
citizens, it runs a luncheon club
where lunch is provided at a
subsidised charge. Bridge club and
reading room provide them with
leisurely activities. Lectures and
Seminars, local and overseas
pleasure tours are also arranged.
These are some of the services
rendered to the public. Our efforts
are always there to add more and
more subject to resources available.
This is the story of B.I.A. It has
a very dedicated staff, Jagdish
Patel (Manager), Jayendra Shah
(Community Worker), Vrunda Adatia
(Administrator) and Bhadresh Patel
(Caretaker), who serve the people
with a smile. They are our asset.
Our voluntary workers are also a
source of great help. Thus with the
help of all, we try to serve the
community . We strive hard to meet
the aspirations of the members of
our community. Jointly we can make
it a success. Let us all work
together for a Better Tomorrow.
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