The Spectator, November 15, 1975

Who really is who?

There must surely be an easier way to make a living than compiling a Who's Who. When that task is to produce the first ever Who's Who of Asians in Britain - or the International Asian Guide and Directory (including Who's Who) to give the beast its full name - the problems are magnified. There is, above all, the question of creating a balance between the number of Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis (so far no neat word has been devised to describe the people of Bangladesh). Too many Indian entries would offend the Pakistanis, and an apparent bias in favour of Pakistanis would clearly upset the Bangladeshis, given the recent split up of the old Pakistan. An effort also had to be made to represent all the major immigrant conurbations, so that the Who's Who was not London-centric.

The man who had to exercise consummate diplomatic skill in keeping all the factions happy is Jasbir Singh Sachar, a thirty-eight year-old teacher at a school for the educationally sub-normal in London. But Mr Sachar is a Sikh, and it is difficult to resist the no doubt unworthy thought that this may not be totally unconnected with the fact that thirty-six of the 170 entries are turbaned gentlemen. I am willing to bet my bottom rupee that the Who's Who in India presents a somewhat less flattering portrait of Punjabi brain-power. Mr Sachar, however, is a considerate man, and if he has erred on the side of generosity, it is in order to avoid giving offence to friends and acquaintances.

It would not come as a surprise if Baldev Singh Chahal were one day to pass into Sikh legend as the man who went into a British prison to defend the right of motorcyclists to wear the turban instead of crash helmets, as is required by the law of the land. He has been booked nearly forty times for the offence, and has single-handed kept the bobbies of his native High Wycombe in business. But it would be useless to pretend that his wife, Baldevinder Chahal, is a household name, even if she is doing a wonderful job in community relations in High Wycombe. So, if she has been given a place of honour alongside her husband, it is probably in the cause of domestic harmony.

The Punjabi community is nothing if not generous in its treatment of strangers, a point well illustrated by the inclusion of Manjeet Kaur in the book. For the benefit of those who have not met the good lady, she is otherwise known as Mrs Pamela Margaret McCormack (Mrs Wylam before her second marriage). A Briton, who was impressed enough with Sikhism to accept it as her own faith, she has taken to editing the Sikh Courier, a religious monthly.

But the overpowering presence of the Punjabis should not be allowed to detract from the other groups. One is the Ugandan Asians, who arrived in Britain as penniless refugees only three years ago. Their drive and business acumen are legendary, and some have already been able to establish businesses and otherwise show their individuality. In fact, the idea for an Asian Who's Who was thought up simultaneously by Kanti Nagda, who was among the refugees expelled by Amin. He and Sachar sensibly decided to pool their efforts when they discovered they were working on the same project.

The innovation of including photographs with the text is not new, The West Indians, who have been surprisingly ahead of the Asians in this field, brought out the third edition of their Who's Who earlier this summer in a flamboyantly produced book full of pictures inside of cricketers, pop singers, steel bands and mysterious gentlemen in dark glasses, and a beaming Lord Pitt, swathed in red robes, on the cover.

The one Asian who has got his picture in twice is Dr Akram Sayeed, once in the preface in his capacity as chairman of the Standing Conference of Asian Organisations in the UK (why do Asian societies always have such long names?) and once inside as an individual. Dr Sayeed - hobbies include "Photography, stamp collecting and gardening, enjoys reading and playing with children" - has made a great many statements lately as chairman of the Overseas Doctors' Association.

The qualifications of some of the doctors in the book should be enough to dispel all the nonsense about Asians being medically incompetent. Even if there is a tendency among Asians to flaunt all their paper qualifications, the list after, Dr Satyen Saran Chatterjee's name - OBE, JP, MBBS, FRCP, FRCP (Ed), FCCP (USA) - and after that of Dr Sirdar Niranjan Singh Mangat - MBBS, RGN, DOMSI, DORCS, Eng, RCP Lond, ARCGP Lond, FRSH, Lond - should explode the myth so assiduously put about that Asian doctors are only good enough to do the jobs that no on else wants.

I have been fortunate in seeing many of the entries - incidentally the less important submitted the longer entries - before they were edited. Judging by the fact that some listed attendance at the Queen's garden party as the height of their business and social achievement, it does seem that a British sense of values is being imbibed by Asians. In any case, they are not the stuff of which revolutions are made.

The directory is full of other useful information. Good Muslims can find out which councils provide special cemeteries so that the orthodox can be buried with their face pointing towards Mecca. One can also have a lot of fun studying the names of Asian accountants and tax consultants (with special skills, no doubt), travel agents (most of them sell cut-price tickets to the sub-continent to defeat the artificially high prices fixed by that international cartel, IATA), astrologers and palmists (an Indian has already predicted that Mr Thatcher will be the next Prime Minister and that Hubert Humphrey will displace Ford as US President), car dealers (are they any more honest than their British brethren?), cinema and film distributors (Bombay movies are big business despite being indescribably bad), and marriage bureaux (could an Englishman who fancies a bit of Asian crumpet register, and not could the offending bureau be taken to the Race Relations Board?).

Mr Sachar has his own ideas of who should get into Who's Who and who should not. The choice of names must be a contentious issue. He has included some women in his collection as a concession to International Women 's Year and to give the book a bit of sex appeal. As a warning to intending suitors, I must reveal that some of the women who claim to be single are, in fact, married, no doubt to enhance their appeal.

The book will be very useful to British readers because a careful reading reveals more than is apparent on the surface about the Asian community. Admittedly, the English occasionally owes more to Chandigarh than London but that is nothing that a good sub-editor cannot put right in a subsequent edition.