The Turban Bus Dispute
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2018
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera returns to his home town of Wolverhampton where a battle raged over the right to wear the turban on the buses in Enoch Powell's constituency at the time he made his Rivers of Blood speech.
In 1967 Sikh bus driver Tarsem Singh Sandhu returns from his holidays wearing a turban and a beard, both against the uniform regulations. The Wolverhampton Transport Committee insists rules are rules and there will be no exceptions, so Mr Sandhu enlists the help of a Punjabi political party, the Akali Dal, who employ radical tactics. They bus in Sikhs from around the UK for the biggest march in Wolverhampton since the war, and one of their leaders, Sohan Singh Jolly, announces that he will set himself on fire if their demands are not met.
Right in the middle of the dispute, Enoch Powell makes his infamous Rivers of Blood speech, specifically citing the Sikh campaign as a dangerous example of communalism, where religious or ethnic groups seek special rights that threaten the very fabric of society.
Sathnam Sanghera discovers the real story behind the dispute with surprising revelations that shed light on the history of race relations in the UK.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the Maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:40.0 | Hi, I'm Riana Dylan, and this is seriously. |
| 0:43.7 | If you have to die, Mr Jolly, it's due to happen on Sunday. |
| 0:47.3 | Are you not in any way frightened at all by the prospect? |
| 0:50.2 | It's the late 1960s, and in the West Midlands of England a protest has erupted and |
| 0:55.5 | so Hans Singh Jolly has announced he will set himself on fire if their demands are not |
| 1:00.9 | met. Well I'm not fighting for nothing I am not frightened for nothing. |
| 1:03.6 | I'm not frightened for anything. |
| 1:05.2 | This is, I shall find it my privilege |
| 1:08.0 | to sacrifice for the sick community. |
| 1:10.6 | It's a clash over bus drivers and their uniform, but it's also about Sikh men being allowed to wear their turbines and do their jobs. |
| 1:19.0 | We've got about 23 nationalities, and I couldn't count how many religions that we have to cater for |
| 1:27.0 | and those people of course who cannot comply with these regulations would probably have to find him |
... |
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