Revision 688550960 of "Altab Ali" on enwiki

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{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = 
| name             = Altab Ali
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| native_name_lang = bn
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| birth_date       = 1953
| birth_place      = [[Sylhet District]], [[Sylhet Division]], [[East Bengal]] (now [[Bangladesh]])
| death_date       = {{Death date|1978|4|5|df=y}} (aged 25)
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| ethnicity        = [[Bengali people|Bengali]]
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| occupation       = Factory garment worker
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'''Altab Ali''' (1953 – 4 May 1978) was a [[Bangladesh]]i factory garment worker who was murdered by three teenagers on [[4 May]] [[1978]] in a racist attack as he walked home after work. His murder took place at St. Mary's Gardens by St Mary's Churchyard, and near the corner of Adler Street and [[Whitechapel Road]] in [[London]]. The churchyard was later renamed [[Altab Ali Park]] in his memory.

==Death==
Ali was a 25-year-old factory garment worker who had recently arrived<ref name="Being Bengali">{{cite book |last=Chakraborty|first=Mridula Nath|title=Being Bengali: At Home and in the World|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DUgsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA178&dq=Altab+Ali+white+black&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBWoVChMIrMHJmIHtyAIVRLQUCh3SKQmg#v=onepage&q=Altab%20Ali%20white%20black&f=false|year=2014|publisher=[[Routledge]]|page=178|isbn=978-0415625883}}</ref> from [[Sylhet District]], [[Sylhet Division]], [[East Bengal]] (now [[Bangladesh]]) and lived in the [[East End of London|East End]] of [[London]].<ref name="UKIA">{{cite web |url=http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/09/381365.html|title=Indymedia: Altab Ali|publisher=Indymedia|date= |accessdate=19 September 2007}}</ref>

On 4 May 1978, on [[Tower Hamlets London Borough Council election, 1978|local borough election]] night and against a background of agitation by [[National Front (UK)|National Front]],<ref name="Being Bengali"/> Ali was making his way to the bus stop after finishing work<ref name="Muslims in Motion"/> at a sweatshop in [[Brick Lane]].<ref name="Being Bengali"/> He was stabbed and killed<ref name="Muslims in Motion">{{cite book |last=Kibria|first=Nazli|title=Muslims in Motion: Islam and National Identity in the Bangladeshi Diaspora|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RJeEFctj5PUC&pg=PA86&dq=Altab+Ali&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDQQ6AEwBGoVChMI-b_J9frsyAIVQrIUCh1ZJgqI#v=onepage&q=Altab%20Ali&f=false|year=2011|publisher=[[Rutgers University Press ]]|page=86|isbn=978-0813550565}}</ref> in a racially motivated attack<ref name="Education, Racism, and Reform">{{cite book |last1=Troyna|first1=Barry|last2=Carrington|first2=Bruce|title=Education, Racism, and Reform|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=k5DfVXjddHsC&pg=PA30&dq=Altab+Ali+white+black&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAGoVChMIota-qoXtyAIVi-0UCh37LAnn#v=onepage&q=Altab%20Ali%20white%20black&f=false|year=1990|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|page=30|isbn=978-0-415-03826-3}}</ref> at St. Mary's Gardens<ref name="After the Cosmopolitan?">{{cite book |last=Keith|first=Michael|title=After the Cosmopolitan?: Multicultural Cities and the Future of Racism|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vMt_AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA144&dq=Altab+Ali&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAmoVChMI-b_J9frsyAIVQrIUCh1ZJgqI#v=onepage&q=Altab%20Ali&f=false|year=2005|publisher=[[Routledge]]|page=144|isbn=978-0-415-34169-1}}</ref> by St Mary's Churchyard, and the corner of Adler Street and [[Whitechapel Road]].<ref name="UKIA"/><ref name="20thcenturylondon">{{cite web |url=http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/server.php?show=conInformationRecord.294 |title=Bangladeshi London|publisher=Exploring 20th century London|date= |accessdate=1 November 2015}}</ref>

Out of the three attackers, two were white and one was black.<ref name="Being Bengali"/> Ali's killers were Roy Arnold (aged 17) of Limehouse, Carl Ludlow (aged 17) of Bow and an unnamed mixed race male from Poplar (aged 16). It was the 16-year-old who did the stabbing and when police asked him why, his reply was "for no reason at all". He stated, "If we saw a Paki we used to have a go at them. We would ask for money and beat them up. I've beaten up Pakis on at least five occasions."<ref name="Muslims in Motion"/>

==Aftermath==
[[File:Altab Ali protest.jpg|250px|thumb|Protest march by Bangladeshis to [[Downing Street]] with murdered Ali's coffin, 1978]]
At the time, right-wing extremism was on the rise in [[east London]], with the National Front standing for election in 43 council seats.<ref name="standard">{{cite news |last= |first= |url=http://www.standard.co.uk/arts/architecture/new-park-life-whitechapels-altab-ali-park-6368641.html|title=New park life: Whitechapel's Altab Ali Park|work= |location=London|publisher=''[[London Evening Standard]]''|date=16 November 2011|accessdate=1 November 2015}}</ref> Ali's murder mobilised the Bangladeshi community. Demonstrations were held in the area of Brick Lane against the National Front.<ref name="After the Cosmopolitan?"/>

On 14 May 1978, 7,000 people took part in a demonstration against racial violence and marching behind Altab Ali's coffin from Adler Street, where Ali died, to [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]], [[Trafalgar Square]] and [[Downing Street]], to demand police protection for the Bengali community and to protest against the National Front and its campaign.<ref name="standard"/><ref name="lrb">{{cite news |last=Sandhu|first=Sukhdev|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n19/sukhdev-sandhu/come-hungry-leave-edgy|title=Come hungry, leave edgy|volume=25|number=19|work= |location=London|publisher=''[[London Review of Books]]''|date=9 October 2003|pages=10-13|accessdate=19 September 2007}}</ref><ref name="Racial violence in Britain">{{cite book |last=Panayi|first=Panikos|title=Racial violence in Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries|year=1996|publisher=Leicester University Press|page=200|isbn=978-0-7185-1397-9}}</ref><ref name="Struggle in Babylon">{{cite book |last=Leech|first=Kenneth|title=Struggle in Babylon|year=1988|publisher=Sheldon |page=86|isbn=978-0-85969-577-0}}</ref><ref name="Violent Racism">{{cite book |last=Bowling|first=Benjamin|title=Violent Racism: Victimization, Policing, and Social Context|year=1988|publisher=Clarendon Press|page=48|isbn=978-0-19-826252-7}}</ref> It was described at the time as "one of the biggest demonstrations by Asians ever seen in Britain".<ref name="Muslims in Motion"/>

Many Bangladeshis were drawn into political activity in the aftermath of the murder.<ref name="A People's History of London">{{cite book |last1=German|first1=Lindsey|last2=Rees|first2=John|title=A People's History of London|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7BN6m4LSkOQC&pg=PA248&dq=Altab+Ali&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEkQ6AEwCGoVChMI-b_J9frsyAIVQrIUCh1ZJgqI#v=onepage&q=Altab%20Ali&f=false|year=1988|publisher=[[Verso Books]]|page=248|isbn=978-1844678556}}</ref> This began a movement that eventually pushed the National Front out of Whitechapel, and helped affirm Bengali identity there.<ref name="standard"/>

The name Altab Ali became a widely known symbol of resistance against racism generally and is associated with the struggle for human rights specifically in defence of the Bangladeshis in the UK after Bengali the community mobilised in May 1978 to defend itself against racist attacks that were represented in the murder of Altab Ali. His murder was the trigger for the first significant political organisation against racism by Bangladeshis. That organisation soon became a movement against racism around the East End of London. The campaign against racism that took place after Ali's murder influenced the identification and association of the collective social and community image of British Bangladeshis in Tower Hamlets.<ref name="UKIA"/><ref name="After the Cosmopolitan?"/>

Altab Ali Foundation was later set up which holds the annual commemoration to all victims of racism, staged in the former St Mary's Churchyard that was renamed [[Altab Ali Park]] <ref name="eastlondonadvertiser2">{{cite news |last=Brooke|first=Mike|url=http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/altab_ali_s_racist_murder_in_whitechapel_remembered_37_years_on_1_4061835|title=Altab Ali’s racist murder in Whitechapel remembered 37 years on|work= |location=London|publisher=''[[Docklands and East London Advertiser|East London Advertiser]]''|date=6 May 2015|accessdate=1 November 2015}}</ref> by [[Tower Hamlets Council]] in 1979.<ref name="After the Cosmopolitan?"/>

Every year since Ali's death an annual Altab Ali commemoration has taken place in Whitechapel in Ali's memory.<ref name="eastlondonadvertiser2"/><ref name="eastlondonadvertiser1">{{cite news |last=Barnett|first=Adam|url=http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/anti_racists_and_bangladeshis_mark_altab_ali_day_in_whitechapel_1_3589309|title=Anti-racists and Bangladeshis mark Altab Ali Day in Whitechapel|work= |location=London|publisher=''[[Docklands and East London Advertiser|East London Advertiser]]''|date=7 May 2014|accessdate=1 November 2015}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[British Bangladeshi]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External Links==
*[http://www.sublimephotography.co.uk/eastendphotos/whitechapel/photos/big/altabali.jpg Altab Ali Park entrance]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ali, Altab}}
[[Category:1953 births]]
[[Category:1978 deaths]]
[[Category:Bangladeshi Muslims]]
[[Category:British Muslims]]
[[Category:Bangladeshi emigrants to the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:British people of Bangladeshi descent]]
[[Category:English murder victims]]
[[Category:People from Sylhet District]]
[[Category:People from Whitechapel]]