UK Indians pass Tebbit test at last

Rashmee Z. Ahmed / TNN / Jun 21, 2004, 19:26 IST

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It's truly 'Altogether now' as Brit Indians weld themselves to England in anthem and spirit.

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">LONDON: As India and much of the world focuses on Euro2004, it''s truly ''Altogether now'' in anthem and spirit for multi-cultural Britain as Asians dare to become fully paid-up supporters of the England football team for the first time ever. In a remarkable launch of a rainbow coalition of support for Beckham''s boys, second and third-generation Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have dared to become conspicuous at Euro2004''s Portugal venues, as bonafide ''English'' fans. Though they''re seen to be dramatically different from the traditionally hard-drinking, jingoistic and culturally distinct white English footy fan, the Asian ''Englishman'' is defiantly wearing the St George''s cross on his white team replica shirt and painted on his face. In itself, this is seen as a giant leap across the chasm of racism.The St George''s cross, which is a thin red cross on a white field, is the English flag and has increasingly been flashed by the far-right, neo-Nazi British National Party. Now, Asian ''English'' fans from Portugal, such as Leicester''s Ebrahim Patel, have boldly made known that they want to "reclaim" the English flag and make it their own. Many at the Football Association (FA), which boasts it is the "home of English football", are quietly chalking it up as a victory. Just last month, the FA decreed that England''s official anthem for Euro2004 would be the inclusive, welcoming "Altogether Now". Next Page: <a href="http://www.thetimesofindia.online/articleshow/msid-748722,curpg-2.cms">Support England if you are black and Asian</a> </div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"> Its singer, Peter Hooton, commended the message. "They (the FA) wanted to be inclusive, to say you can support England if you are black or Asian", he said. Many British Asians, it seems, took the message, quite literally to heart. But it could shake the very foundations of Norman Tebbit''s so-called cricket loyalty test. Analysts say it could put Britain''s several-million South Asians firmly at the heart of a very English passion in almost the way that Gurinder Chadha''s Bend it like Beckham cinematically welded Asian immigrants to England''s national game. Patel and his three Leicester friends, Hitesh Tosar, Mukesh Raichura and Paresh Parmar, are seen to represent a new wave of visible British Indian soccer patriotism, which dares to be seen and heard in a sea of white English faces. It''s a message the FA has been at pains to send for a whole decade, ever since it helped launched England''s ''Kick Racism out of Football'' programme in January 1994. Many say the British Asian wave of visible soccer madness could be one of the more unlikely successes of a long campaign to make English football look more like the ethnically-diverse UK.</div> </div>

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