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{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = Haji Shah
| name = Abdul Majid Qureshi
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| native_name = শাহ আবদুল মজিদ কোরেশী
| native_name_lang = bn
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1915|9|25|df=y}}
| birth_place = Quresh Bari, [[Patli Union|Patli]], [[Jagannathpur Upazila|Jagannathpur]], [[Sylhet region|Sylhet District]], [[Assam Province|Assam Province]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{death year and age|2003|1915}}
| death_place = [[United Kingdom]]
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| nationality = [[British Bangladeshi]]
| citizenship = [[United Kingdom]], [[Bangladesh]]
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| occupation = Businessman, social worker
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| organization = Indian Seamen's Welfare League
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| known_for = One of the early founders of the [[British Bangladeshi]] community
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| family = Qureshis of [[Patli Union|Patli]]
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'''Shah Abdul Majid Qureshi''' ({{lang-bn|শাহ আবদুল মজিদ কোরেশী}}), also known by his [[daak naam]] '''Moina Meah''' ({{lang-bn|ময়না মিঞা}}), was an early [[British Bangladeshi]] restaurateur and social reformer.<ref name=open>{{cite web|title=Shah Abdul Majid Qureshi - Making Britain|url=http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/shah-abdul-majid-qureshi|publisher=[[Open University]]}}</ref> He is notable for being involved in the early politics of [[British Asians]] and pioneering social welfare work for the working-class diaspora in the [[United Kingdom]].<ref name=journals>{{cite book|title=Bengali Journals and Journalism in Britain (1916-2007)|last=Ahmed|first=Faruque|page=33|date=2008}}</ref> He was the first ever [[Sylhetis|Sylheti]] to open up a restaurant in the United Kingdom, and his restaurants were one of the earliest [[Indian restaurant]]s at the time.<ref name=adams>{{cite book|last=Adams|first=Caroline|title=Across Seven Seas and Thirteen Rivers|location=London|date=1987}}</ref> Another one of his restaurants, ''India Centre'', often provided facilities and was a location where important meetings were held by the India League attracting the likes of [[Subhas Chandra Bose]] and [[V. K. Krishna Menon]].

==Early life==
Qureshi came from a traditional [[Bengali Muslim]] family claiming descent from the [[Arab tribe]] of [[Quraysh]].<ref name=lascars>{{cite thesis|title=Lascars, c.1850 - 1950: The Lives and Identities of Indian Seafarers in Imperial Britain and India|last=Fidler|first=Ceri-Anne|publisher=[[Cardiff University]]|year=2011}}</ref> He was born in the [[Patli Union|Patli]] village of [[Jagannathpur Upazila|Jagannathpur]] in the [[Sylhet region|Sylhet District]] of the [[British India]]'s [[Assam Province]] on the 25th of September 1915. He was the eldest child and had two brothers and a sister. The family residence in Patli was known as Quresh Bari and his father owned some land. However, his father's main goal was to educate his children which was extremely expensive leading to him sell nearly all his land. This led to Qureshi being well educated during his youth. Qureshi decided to become a lascar after being inspired by many other [[Sylhetis|Sylheti]] men and moved to [[Calcutta]] in 1934. He believed that seafaring was a historical inheritance of Sylhetis due to many Sylhetis being descendants of foreign traders and businessmen.<ref name=lascars/> During his stay in the port city, he attempted to jump on ships going to the [[United States]]. In 1936, at his early 20s, Qureshi successfully attempted to jump on a ship on its way to [[New York City]].<ref name=ansar>{{cite book|title=Bengalis in London's East End|url=https://www.swadhinata.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Bengalis-in-Londons-East-End-Book.pdf|author=Ansar Ahmed Ullah|date=2010}}</ref> However, he failed but ended up at the [[Tilbury Docks]] in [[Essex]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America|last=Bald|first=Vivek|year=2013}}</ref>

==Career==
Qureshi's first job in the [[United Kingdom]] consisted of selling chocolates. After getting into contact with other [[British Asians]], he began working in [[South Asian cuisine]] restaurants such as Bengal Restaurant in Percy Street. After two years of living in the United Kingdom, Qureshi opened his first restaurant, Dilkush, which was located in [[Soho]]'s Windmill Street.<ref name=record>India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, [[British Library]], [[St Pancras, London|St Pancras]]</ref> This was the first restaurant to be opened by a Sylheti person.<ref name=adams/> The restaurant, located near [[Tottenham Court Road]], was destroyed by a bomb in 1940.<ref name=glynn>{{cite book |last=Glynn |first=Sarah |year=2015 |title=Class, Ethnicity and Religion in the Bengali East End: A Political History |publisher=Manchester University Press |page=32 |isbn=978-1-84779-959-3}}</ref>

In 1943, Qureshi, alongside his acquaintance [[Ayub Ali Master]], founded the Indian Seamen's Welfare League with a purpose of promoting the social welfare of lascars.<ref>{{cite book |last=Glynn |first=Sarah |year=2015 |title=Class, Ethnicity and Religion in the Bengali East End: A Political History |publisher=Manchester University Press |page=13 |isbn=978-1-84779-959-3}}</ref> Based in Christian Street, the organisation ensured the rights of Asians and made it easier for them to communicate to their family abroad.<ref>{{cite book|last=Visram|first=Rozina|title=Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History|url=https://archive.org/details/asiansinbritain40068visr|url-access=registration|location=London|date=2002}}</ref> On 14 July 1943, the first meeting took place, in King's Hall, [[Commercial Street, London]].<ref>{{cite book|script-title=bn:বিলাতে বাংলা সংবাদপত্র ও সাংবাদিকতা (১৯১৬ -২০১৬)|year=2018|language=bn|last=Ahmed|first=Faruque}}</ref> The meeting attracted mostly [[Bengali Muslims]] but dozens of Europeans were also present. Later, the organisation was renamed to the Indian Seamen's Welfare League to sound less political and Qureshi was made president of the welfare league.<ref>{{cite book|title=South Asian Resistances in Britain, 1858 - 1947|editor1=Sumita Mukherjee|editor2=Rehana Ahmed|page=79}}</ref>

The following year, Qureshi opened another restaurant off Charlotte Street which came to be known as the India Centre. The ''India Centre'' was frequently visited by British Asians, in particular politicians, who held important communal and political meetings there. Qureshi also assisted and attended [[V. K. Krishna Menon]]'s India League and Surat Alley's Hindustani Social Club meetings.<ref name=journals/> He was also involved with the [[Indian National Congress]] and was in contact with the likes of [[Subhas Chandra Bose]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Glynn |first=Sarah |year=2015 |title=Class, Ethnicity and Religion in the Bengali East End: A Political History |publisher=Manchester University Press |pages=33–34 |isbn=978-1-84779-959-3}}</ref> Later on, he became a member of the [[All-India Muslim League]].

In 1946, Qureshi returned to Sylhet, where he married and lived for over two decades before returning to the United Kingdom with his family in the 1970s.<ref>{{cite book|title=Roots and Routes: Ethnicity and Migration in Global Perspective|author1=Reuven Kahane|author2=Shalvah Vail|year=1999}}</ref>

==Legacy==
His sons continue to own [[ Cuisine of the Indian subcontinent|Indian cuisine]] restaurants in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite book|title=Oral History|publisher=University of Essex, Sociology Department|volume=18-20}}
</ref>

==See also==
* [[Aftab Ali]]
* [[I'tisam-ud-Din]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qureshi, Shah Abdul Majid}}
[[Category:British restaurateurs]]
[[Category:1915 births]]
[[Category:2003 deaths]]
[[Category:British Muslims]]
[[Category:Bangladeshi emigrants to England]]
[[Category:Bangladeshi people of Arab descent]]
[[Category:British chefs]]
[[Category:Bangladeshi businesspeople]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from London]]
[[Category:British chief executives]]
[[Category:British company founders]]
[[Category:Chefs of Indian cuisine]]
[[Category:20th-century British businesspeople]]
[[Category:20th-century Muslims]]
[[Category:21st-century Muslims]]
[[Category:All India Muslim League members]]
[[Category:20th-century English businesspeople]]
[[Category:People from Patli Union]]

Shah Abdul Majid Qureshi - Revision history

->SalamAlayka: −Category:English Muslims; −Category:People from Jagannathpur Upazila; +Category:People from Patli Union using HotCat