[2] In 1965, the human rights activist Malcolm X was invited by Avtar Singh Jouhl of the Indian Workers' Association to visit one such pub, the Blue Gates in Smethwick, near Birmingham, to experience this discrimination and protest against racial segregation in the town.
[2][3] Three years earlier, the first known landlord of Asian origin in a British pub, Sohan Singh, had taken over the Durham Ox in Leicester.
[2] In 1968, Hans Raj Dhanjal became the first Indian publican in the Black Country when he leased the Heart of Oak, a Mitchells & Butlers pub in Whitmore Reans, Wolverhampton.
[2][8] Desi pubs also appeared further afield, including the Glassy Junction in Southall, west London, which accepted payments in Indian rupees as well as pounds sterling.
It explored how the pubs had helped to bring diverse communities in the West Midlands closer together, and commented on alcohol-related illness among South Asian men.