When it comes to the historic contributions of Muslims in Bristol there is still so much that has been ignored by the history books. But one Bristolian is hoping to change that after researching his own family.
Umar Ali Khokhar has discovered that his maternal great-grandfather arrived in Bristol in 1925 from the undivided Punjab region of what is now split between Pakistan and India. The man who he describes as a ‘pioneer’ worked as an eye specialist on Cheltenham Road and married a Bristolian woman.
Having studied a history short course at Bristol University in 2018 and after researching academic accounts of Muslims and their contribution to the city, he felt that his maternal great-grandfather who he believes was the first Muslim to be buried in Bristol had been forgotten.
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Dr Bashir Fazel came to Bristol in 1925 as a qualified eye specialist and set up a private opticians which he ran until his retirement. Two years later he married a local Bristolian woman, Gladys Amelia Fazel (formally Cox).
Twenty-five years later after the partition of British India, he visited the newly formed Pakistan. He took a ship from Liverpool to Karachi and then continued on to Lahore by train. He was keen to reunite with loved ones and see the new Pakistan as an admirer of the country’s prominent founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
After returning to Bristol he successfully campaigned for a Muslim section at the Avon View Cemetery where he was buried after his death in 1965. His British wife who remained a devout Christian was buried at Arnos Vale Cemetery in 1974.
During World War One and World War Two, British colonialism meant that many countries in the world were under rule of the British Empire. Many people from countries that were colonised by the British were called up to fight in the British Army in both world wars.
Doctors and medical professionals, many from what was at that time called, ‘British India’ were also required to help the British in their war efforts. A small minority of those doctors who served in World War One, ended up settling in Britain during the inter-war period.
Umar’s maternal great-grandfather was one of those doctors who settled at that time. Often the history of migrants from the Indo-Pak subcontinent during this period are completely absent from history books and where they are mentioned, they are described as insignificant due to the small number who chose to settle in that brief period prior to 1930, before their medical degrees were deemed invalid by British authorities.
Umar’s fascination for his heritage and where that fits into British history, is what has motivated him in trying to uncover the life of his maternal great-grandad. In discovering this missing part of his own and Bristol’s history, he realised the extent of Euro centricity in the mainstream accounts of British history he encountered throughout his education.
Umar said: “After I graduated from university in Swansea with a BA (Hons) Automotive Design degree back in 2011 I started to question a lot about my background, my roots and my faith. As I started to learn more about history, I found out untold parts about colonialism and empire; that’s when I started to ask, ‘how did he come in that time period?’
“There was a double standard and hypocrisy with all these issues that are being raised. Even with the [recent] Jubilee when they were showing the troops, there wasn’t so much of a representation of people from the Indo-Pak sub-continent and North Africa who played their part.
“You need to be fair, they played their role and it wasn’t just in a military sense. My maternal great-grandfather was a doctor, an eye specialist. He was educated before he came here, so when he arrived he was already competent in English. He opened an Opticians when he came here in 1925 and two years later, he married a local woman, a Bristolian.
“Which is another interesting thing because there’s this whole stereotype of how interracial marriages take place, that they came slowly and steadily and many years later. The history of my maternal great-grandfather calls into question many things.”
Five years ago Umar discovered that his great-grandfather's grave was in a state of disrepair and the Muslim section of the St George based cemetery was completely overgrown. He took it upon himself to clean up the grave and cut the overgrown grass surrounding his maternal great-grandpa's grave.
He has now set up a fundraiser to pay for the full restoration of the tomb stone and a plaque to highlight his role in bringing about the first Muslim cemetery section in Bristol. Umar is now on a mission to have his maternal great-grandad formally recognised as part of the history of Bristol and hopes for him to be recognised in academic historical accounts.
He recently gave a presentation at Easton Jamia Mosque and would like to see his relative given space in the Bristol Museum or M Shed. “I would like to see his portrait hung in the Bristol museum. It’s not just a personal thing, it’s also a community thing," added Umar.
“It’s not just a Muslim thing, it’s a whole Bristolian and UK thing. If we’re talking about history and we’re being fair then we need to make mention of others. “In three years it will be a hundred years and a whole century isn’t a joke. It calls into question a lot of things.”
Umar has set up a crowd funder to raise £10,000 towards restoring the lettering of all the Muslim gravestones at the cemetery, after several decades of neglect. To donate to the cause please find the just Giving page here.
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