This is a translation version of the original video documentary which was than transcribed and translated from Bengali to English. A book with the title of History of Bangladeshis in Greater Manchester has been published and it will be distributed to the libraries, schools and universities. The interview took place on 24 June 2010, so information about his personal family information may have been changed.
8.19 Alhaj Mohammed Nasir Ali
8.19.1 Life in Bangladesh and Other Places:
Alhaj Mohammed Nasir Ali was born in 1931, in the Kadipur village of Bishwanath, Sylhet. At that time Bangladesh was under the control of the Pakistani government and was known as East Pakistan. His father was called late Md furkan Ullah, he was a farmer and earned his living by cultivating crops and was living a happy family life.
Mr. Ali completed his primary education from his local primary school which was called ‘Shamspur Primary School’ and in 1952 he migrated to Malaysia with the hope of earning a living. His uncle used to live in Malaysia and he helped Nasir Ali with his immigration. He was accompanied by a friend of his uncle during his journey.
When he was living in Malaysia, he used to work at a mining factory, and according to him, life in Malaysia at that time was quite similar to life in Bangladesh. The weather in Malaysia was also similar to Bangladesh; the weather was amazing in Malaysia, there were mostly sunny clear days throughout the whole year.
From 1952-1954, after living for nearly 6 years in Malaysia, he went to Singapore. He used to work with a ship’s crew and after living for another 2 years in Singapore; he :went to Bangladesh for a holiday and then again returned back to Singapore.
It was a very long time ago; people didn’t have gas lines or gas cylinder as source for cooking, people used to use dry wood as the source for their cooking and they had to bring packed lunch from home for work every day. In Singapore lunch for the ship’s crew were cooked by the ‘Special Chef’ on board, they had him there so that the other staff and workers didn’t have to bring their own lunch.
As Nasir Ali was working with a ship’s crew, he had the chance to see many countries; his role on board was as the assistant of the ships chief engineer. There were small cabins in the ship, each cabin with two bam beds where the staff slept. Nasir Ali said that when he was working in Malaysia, he used to get wages of 150-200 ringgit (Malaysian currency) per month and whilst he was working in Singapore as a part of the ship’s crew, he used to get wages of 250-300 ringgit (Malaysian currency) per month and the food was also provided by the company for free. Therefore he basically was able to save more money in Singapore.
8.19.2 Journey to the UK & Immigration:
He decided to move to the UK because of the advice from relatives and friends, when he went to Bangladesh he heard rumours that people were migrating to UK for work. He also learnt that the husbands of his both sisters had also migrated to UK, in that time there wasn’t a very good tele-communication system, and people didn’t have telephone and mobiles like we have in our day.
It was said that only some of the richer people in Bangladesh had telephone systems in their houses, therefore sending and receiving letters by post was the only way to communicate with people who were living abroad, the husbands of his sisters sent letters to him encouraging him to come to the UK, also mentioning that there was also good wages for work in the UK.
It is said that Nasir Ali wanted to migrate from Singapore to the UK in 1959, but in the meantime Nasir Ali went to see his maternal cousin in Kuwalalampur which was 5-6 miles away from where he used to live. They offered the Magrib prayer together and after prayer they sat down for a little chat. His cousin was quite a religious person and told him that it is quite hard to live under the shade of Islam in the UK’s varieties of culture, with regard to his experience of living in the UK.
He shared his story with Nasir Ali, he told him about his embarrassing experience when he was living in the UK. During that time the workers in the UK were able to have a bath once a week as they had to go to the public bath. So basically the only time he was able to wash himself would be with his day off, which was on Saturday.
He told that due to this, he sometimes couldn’t take a shower even when he had wet dreams, which was really embarrassing and uncomfortable. It is mandatory to take shower if someone had a wet dream according to Islam. He gave much more advice to Nasir Ali. He took his maternal cousin’s advice and decided that he will think about it later and that he won’t rush into any decisions.
Then in 1960, his brother-in-law suggested again that he should come to the UK. He was also told that there were many mosques built in UK and many Muslims were also living in the UK, and hence he can also live his life under Islamic regulations. After hearing this news Nasir Ali decided to migrate to UK. He sorted everything out that was necessary for immigration by 1961; he sorted out his passport and gained permission from the Pakistan High Commission for immigration. Many Bangladeshi’s who were working in Singapore were also migrating to UK as there were rumours that there were good opportunities for work and also good wages.
During that time, there were rumours that cleaning roads and cleaning toilets and bathroom was the only work for Pakistani’s who migrated to UK, basically it was said that cleaning was the only work for the Pakistani people (Both East and West Pakistan) but when he came to UK, he saw that people were doing many good and respectful jobs.
He sent letters to his friends and said that those rumours were only made up by people and was said to criticise the people who were living in UK. He also suggested to his friends that if they wish to come to UK, then they should also come. About 80% of Pakistani’s and Bangladeshi’s who was living in Singapore migrated to UK but those who had a good job in Malaysia didn’t wish to lose their job, so they didn’t migrate to UK.
He was travelling from Singapore to UK by Ship. He described that it was a Huge Ship, with a football field, swimming pool, a cinema hall, and some shops as well. The ship passed through Sri Lanka, Mumbai, then Africa, then Suez Lake and then after a long journey of 23 days, the ship arrived at Marseille City of France.
The travel cost including the ships ticket cost him about 260 ringgit’s (Malaysian Currency). From there it took 4 hours on the train and 8 hours on a small ship then another 8 hours on the train, he then finally arrived at London Victoria station. He was accompanied by Mr Surot Khan, who was a close neighbour of his. Mr Surot Khan’s Brother lived in Brick Lane in London. They both went to Mr Surot’s Khan’s Brother’s house and stayed there.
The next day in the morning, while they were having breakfast, Surot khan’s brother asked Nasir Ali if there were any places that he wanted to see in London. Nasir Ali said that one of his nephew lives in South Hall and asked him if he can take him there, Mr Khan replied that if his nephew works during the day, then he may not find him at home, also if he lived in a rental house that belongs to ‘Shikh’ people, then it is most likely that they open the door if its someone they don’t know.
At that time many Shikh people used to live in South Hall. Therefore he asked if there were any other places he wanted to go. In reply, he asked if he could take him to Bradford, Mr Khan agreed and took him to Bradford. Nasir Ali stayed there for two weeks and since he couldn’t find any job, he moved to Blackburn. One month had passed and he still couldn’t find a job. Then he decided to Move to Sheffield where one of his sisters was living with her husband. He still couldn’t find any jobs there either.
8.19.3 Employment:
After two weeks he started to work in Leeds at an engineering factory as a learner. This was his first job in UK. He worked 5 days a week and he used to get wages of £6.08 per week. He then rented which cost 10 shilling per person/ per week and expenses for food per week were 15 shilling. He saved the rest of the wages that was left, many Bangladeshi people were also working in the factory but they were mostly English people.
Nasir Ali knew a little English; therefore he didn’t have any trouble in working with his colleagues. His manager showed him his work; therefore it wasn’t really necessary to know the English language properly. Two weeks later he went to Sheffield to visit his sister and luckily found a better job, wages of £10-£11 per week. In this Job, he worked six days per week.
The work was at a factory. After working there for 3 months, he had injured one of his toes and was unable to work. Since then there was too much pressure of work in the factory, and since he was unable to work, he was replaced by another employee, therefore he lost his job. He then moved to Burnley. It was winter, and it was really hard for Nasir Ali to work in this cold weather. Then after one month, he moved to ‘Little Borough’ in Rochdale and started working at a cotton mill.
He used to work at the ‘spinning section’ of the cotton mill. His wages per week was £7.50 per week including his 4 hours of extra work on Saturday. He worked there for about 3 months, and then with the help of a friend he was able to get a job at ‘Tyre Company’. He changed his job because he was getting more wages in Tyre Company.
He worked during the night, 6 days a week and his wages was about 13 pounds per week. He worked there for 6 years continuous. Working there was very beneficial to Nasir Ali. With the help from his boss, he was able to bring his brother to the UK by Factory Boucher. After that he was also able to bring his 2 nephews and his brother-in-law to the UK also.
At that time Nasir Ali was working at ‘Di Mill’ in ‘Show’ in the welding section. His work was during the night, 5 days a week and 12 hours every night. After that He worked at several more factories.
In 1981, whilst he was working at ‘Lees Road’, the Mill was shut down and he couldn’t find any more work and he also reached the age of pension, hence he retired from work. At the end of 1982 he was living with his wife in a town where there were about 250 more Bangladeshi families were also living.
8.19.4 Housing:
He started living with his wife in Oldham. With time, he then move to Milton Street, and then to Waterloo Street. He bought a house at Marlboro Street and £350. Finally he bought another house at Park Road in Glodwick area of Oldham, where he is residing now.
8.19.5 Social & Family:
In 1969 he went to Bangladesh and got married and returned to UK with his wife. Nasir Ali has two sons and two daughters. His eldest son graduated in the UK and is now working and his younger son is studying at a high School. His eldest daughter has also graduated and is married and his younger daughter is studying law in her final year at university.
There wasn’t any mosque when he first came to Oldham. Then a mosque (Pakistani) was built at Churchill Street. That time there were more Bangladeshi’s compared to Pakistani’s in Oldham. Mr Majful Hussain of Manchester was an educated Bangladeshi man who was selected as the chairman of the Community, and Khoddus Bakt was his secretary.
In 1962 the ‘Pakistani Community’ was also created. Since the number of East Pakistani’s was greater, the Bengali people claimed for a ‘Bangladeshi Community’ as well. In 1971 after Bangladesh was an independent country, the Bangladeshi people hesitated to go to the old mosque which then belonged to the Pakistani people. After that another mosque (Bengali) was built at Middleton Road.
As the number of Bangladeshi’s started to increase another mosque was built at Orme Street in Glodwick, Oldham. This was mainly built to make it easy for young children to go to the mosque so that they can learn Arabic. At that time Mr Abdul Latif was selected as the Chairman of the Mosque community.
At a later time Mr Mofajjul Hussain joined the community. Nasir Ali said that he was the treasurer of the Mosque committee right from the beginning. When Syed Makhon Miah (Mutalli of the mosque) left Oldham and moved to London, Nasir Ali took the role of ‘Mutalli’ (caretaker of the mosque) and fulfilled his role for about 14 years for the benefits of the mosque and its community. This mosque was probably built in the 1978 or 1979.
After that he resigned from his job for personal reasons. He was elected as the president of ‘Glodwick Bangladesh Society’ two times in a row (four years). The main duty of the society was to help and serve the community. This included- immigration advice, benefit advice, and social advice. Besides if anyone needed help to complete an official form, help was given by the ‘Glodwick Bangladesh Society’.
They also started a ‘Bangla School’. It is said by Nasir Ali that the office was once at a good running condition and there were also about 5 teachers, but now it has been closed for refurbishment for about 5 years now. At present this old social worker is working in Tabliq to feed his own desire to be involved in helping people and its community, and to invite people to offer Salah. This religious and peaceful man first went at Hajj at 1984 and has performed Hajj 19 times in his lifetime.
8.19.6 Conclusion:
He still misses his beautiful old days spent in Bangladesh. He loves his mother and his mother country very much; he went to Bangladesh for holiday once a year to see his mother. After his mother passed away in 1996, he didn’t feel like going there anymore. At present one of elder brothers are living with his family in Bangladesh. His wish was to get his son married in Bangladesh.
As he is working for the community in the group – ‘Tabliq’ he is very respected for being one of the most eldest and senior in the group. Whenever he went to Bangladesh for doing his community work, he is often respected everywhere. There are poor people in the poor country of Bangladesh but their love for this social worker is priceless.
This successful man is now living his life in his own house in Oldham. He spends this retired time by praying, working for the community and his Tabliq group by inviting people to offer Salah. In conclusion Nasir Ali said that it was very beneficial to him by coming to the UK, he had accomplished many things in his life and it may not have been possible if he didn’t come to the UK.
