Mohammed Bashir’s story – from Mirpur, Pakistan to Bradford

Mohammed Bashir was born in 1925 in a small village called Tangdew in Mirpur, now an area of Pakistan. His father and grandfather before him were farmers and they had owned land and a water well, so they were able to help all members of their community – a community that was poor in material terms. Mohammed himself had set up his own business selling groceries in Tangdew when he was old enough, but a business partnership resulted in the loss of a lot of money from the business – about 5,000 Rupees – and Mohammed had then to travel with his brother, Abdul Rehman (born in 1933) to work in the textile industry in Multan, near Lahore, to clear the business debt.

After a time, his brother saw some advertisements asking for men to travel to Bradford, England to work in the textile industry there. It was the 1950s and Bradford was short of skilled workers in this industry. He had a difficult time raising the money for his ticket to travel to England and had to sell his family’s silver jewelry to help towards the cost. He was helped by a retired soldier friend who also sold some of his wife’s jewels to get the whole cost of a ticket.

After four years working at Whitehead’s mill, he wrote to his brother, Mohammed Bashir and suggested that he should also travel to Bradford to work in textiles. Mohammed Bashir realised that this may be a good idea and he decided to have a go.  At first, both brothers like many of the men who migrated from Mirpur and other areas in Pakistan thought that they would only stay a few years to raise some money and then go home again to live.

When Mohammed Bashir arrived, he also couldn’t speak English but he had close family members to look after him and care for him.  Not long after his arrival, his brother began to talk about the problems that men like themselves were having in finding food that was familiar to them in this cold Yorkshire city.  Although Mohammed had learnt to cook a little in Tangdew, most of the men who came from Pakistan could not cook and none of them could buy chicken or meat that was Halal killed in the proper Islamic way so that it was all right to eat.

Mohammed Bashir’s story continues in a separate post (available from 27 April 2019).