A third imperial parallel lies in the discrimination Sikhs faced, along with other people of colour, in housing. In Amritsar in 1919, the British lived away from the ‘native city’ behind the ‘civil lines’, while elsewhere in India Britons talked about Indians living in ‘Black Town’ or the ‘native quarter’, reflecting a widespread attitude across empire that the ruling race should not mix with ‘darkies’ – an attitude that immigrants of my parents’ generation found themselves facing in Wolverhampton.
