A number of people will know and may have read my articles on the history of the Lohana community.
Along with my friend Hasu Manek, we continue to study this history with a great deal of interest and have hired the professional help of Professor Gijsbert Oonk of Netherlands University so that we build up an authentic record of this very fascinating history. One day we hope we can reveal to the public.
Our interest in the history of Lohanas started from discussions that we used to have with one of our community leaders, late Shree Haribhai Samani. We even tape recorded our interviews with him. We recruited services of Dr Katherine Prior from Oxford University, who extracted records about Lohanas from the British history library. We also hired, Professor Rohit Barot of Reading University to translate some Gujarati books on Lohanas in to a summarised English report.
So we have been busy finding more about our history. This is a beautiful history which many young Lohanas or Louis may not be aware of. I hope this article will give some flavour to what deserves a book or even a documentary. The Lohanas of Great Britain are today a very proud and well established community. In many ways they have demonstrated great leadership in the wider communities in the sectors of business, politics and philanthropy.
This is the community that has made enormous economic progress in the last 50 years of existence in the UK. The Lohanas of UK are around 60,000 and largely hail from Uganda having been part of the Uganda exodus in 1972. This is the community that has been praised by both Houses of Parliament as a model immigrant group in Britain‘s history.
Lohanas have worked tremendously hard in establishing businesses and achieving a great deal of success. Initially these businesses were shops that opened for long hours 7 days a week. Indeed Sunday opening was started by this community which eventually was adopted by the large chains. They made money despite competition from the big chains! Some powerful examples of amazing successes include the Dhamechas cash and carry, V B and Sons, Popat stores, Thakrars with HT Group, the Jatania brothers with their fragrance business and Thakrars of Tilda Rice. Many have ventured outside the old trading businesses and made great strides. These include Ramesbhai Sachdev, the Popat family and Sai Ram Nursing homes and hotels. In the pharmaceutical industry, we have Nitin Sodha with Lexon Group, the Karias with Chemlines Group and the Chotais with heir Waremoss Group. In the hotels sector we have the Bhatessas and Chatwanis. Of course the Madhvanis and Mehtas are legendary business houses with their worldwide presence.
Many Lohanas have also benefited from best of educations and progressed to being part of large banking and professional groups. Amongst the notable achievers are Lord Jitesh Gadhia and Baroness Vadera in banking, Sunil Gadhia in the legal profession, Professor Sir Nilesh Samani and Bhikhu Kotecha in the medical sector. There have been so many successes in all professional areas which are quietly very successful. These range the accounting, legal , dental, pharmaceutical and medical sectors.
In philanthropy, Lohanas today provide clear leadership in various Hindu organisations and temples. For example, we have Narendrabhai Thakrar who heads the Hindu Mandir of Wembley, Piyoosh Chotai at the mandir of Crawley, Rashmi Chatwani at the Jalaram Mandir London, Pramod Thakkar with the Leicester Jalaram mandir, Vinubhai Bhatessa and Nitin Palan OBE, with BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir of Neasden, just to name a few. Then there have been veterans like late Manubhai Madhvani , Gopalbhai Popat and Dhanjibha Tanna who have led many charitable organisations over many years when they have been active. Also, the name of Nanji Kalidai Mehta is renowned with philanthropy in India and his pioneering venture in to East Africa at a very young age.
In the political arena, we have stalwarts like Lord Dolar Popat, Lord Jitesh Gadhia, and prospective politicians like Kishan Devani as well as Resham Kotecha. In the entertainment sector, there is Nitin Ganatra who is making great strides. I feel that leadership, entrepreneurship and philanthropy runs in the blood of Lohanas of today. Their ability to adopt to any environment gives them great strength. These qualities , in my opinion, have come from their past history.
Some 500 years ago, Lohanas were the warrior class who defended the old Bharat in northern regions of today's Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. They represented various kingdoms which were named after many of the surnames of Lohanas today. These included Thakar, Unadkat, Sachdev, Chandarana and others.
Lohanas and King Porus fought against the invasion of Alexander the Great from Greece. His other name was Sikandar. It is a fact that Alexander never conquered India and many of his soldiers stayed back and interacted with the Lohanas. The modern day scientific proof is that Lohanas are amongst the only Gujarati community who are carriers of the blood disorder called thelesimia. Even bigger carriers of this condition are the Greeks. So there must have been some blood connection. Lohanas also have a different physique and skin complexion from other Gujaratis. Lohanas are hardly big landowners or in agriculture. This is because Lohanas are immigrants in Gujarat where they have adopted themselves to being modern day Gujaratis !
When I checked out my DNA it was interesting to note that 8% was African as is common for most humankind, but 25% Mediterranean which indicates the Greek connection. The rest of the DNA was Asian. I urge readers to check out their own DNAs and let us know what they find.
Lohanas migrated from the north to today's Multan region of Pakistan where they protected a fort called Lahorghat from where they became known as Lahoranas which has changed to modern day Lohanas. Even today there are Lohanas living in Pakistan and know themselves as Luvanas. Sadly a number of them have had to convert in to Islam.
All the Khojas and Memons are all converts from Lohanas. It has really amazed me on why Lohanas ever did feel like converting to Islam in those days. One leading example was the father of the nation in Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Zina, whose family are Khojas converted from Lohanas. I have been asking this question to a number of historians like Dr Hari Desai, Professor Oonk and Professor Palan to get a handle on this.
Plausible explanations are that some 400 years ago, India was ruled by the Moguls. The Lohanas had started to lose some of the battles in the north and started to migrate south where they finally settled in the Kutch and Saurastra regions of Gujarati. Their warrior profession was no more useful and many decided to become vaishyas i.e. business class. This was the time of extreme poverty in the community as it never is easy for soldiers to get a job or have ability to start a business. So they had to survive economically. This made them convert so that they would be looked at favourably by the then rulers. This was also the time when there was hardly any difference in teachings and guidance of an Imam or a Guru. So whoever they met first and felt impressed with, they followed. In later years it was this poverty that forced many Lohanas venture in to new shores of Africa. Here again they were able to adopt and settle as well as succeed in business.
The above demonstrates great ability of Lohanas to adopt to any new environment. This remains a notable quality even today. Often, one would see Lohanas amongst the first members of the community to get involved and adopt to the habits and pleasures of the new society they live in. This includes joining clubs as well as enjoying high end pleasures of cars and big houses. Of course not all of these are commendable or good.
Given the royalty or warrior class background the community is naturally more philanthropic even today as such qualities are always embedded in royalty. One can only look back in fascination to what is a unique and fascinating history of a community which now sits proudly in the UK society as British Gujarati Lohana.
Let us know each other a little better!
Asian Voice is the voice of British Asians. British Asians are UK residents with origins from the Indian subcontinent- now called South Asian. It includes the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives. This piece by Subhash Thakrar is not only informative, but also inspiring. Let us all take a leaf out of his book and start an initiative; an initiative to know and understand each other better. Shine a light on your community and its history. No charge. Those interested,please contact CB Patel at [email protected], and send in a little introduction about yourself and your community.
Subhash V Thakrar
Founder, Charity Clarity
Former Chairman, London Chamber of Commerce
Non Executive Director in Various companies and Charities.
