Decolonising Anglo-Indians: Strategies for a Mixed Race Community in Late Colonial India during the First Half of the Twentieth Century (original) (raw)
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Anglo-Indians are a mixed-race, Christian and Anglophone minority community which arose in India during the long period of European colonialism. An often neglected part of the British ‘Raj’, their presence complicates the traditional binary through which British imperialism in South Asia is viewed – of ruler and ruled, coloniser and colonised. This book looks at how Anglo-Indians illuminate the history of minority politics in the transition from British colonial rule in South Asia to independence. The book analyses how the provisions in the Indian Constitution relating to Anglo-Indian cultural, linguistic and religious autonomy were implemented in the years following 1950. It discusses how effective the measures designed to protect Anglo-Indian employment by the state and Anglo-Indian educational institutions under the pressures of Indian national politics were. Presenting an in-depth account of this minority community in South Asia, this book will be of interest to those studying South Asian History, Colonial History and South Asian Politics. Available worldwide from https://www.amazon.com/Anglo-Indians-Minority-Politics-South-Asia/dp/1138847224/ or in the UK https://www.routledge.com/Anglo-Indians-and-Minority-Politics-in-South-Asia-Race-Boundary-Making/Charlton-Stevens/p/book/9781138847224 or https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anglo-Indians-Minority-Politics-South-Asia/dp/1138847224/ To request a free copy to use for a magazine, journal, TV or Radio review please fill out this form: http://pages.email.taylorandfrancis.com/review-copy-request quoting the ISBN: 9781138847224
Outside in the Stereotype: Anglo-Indians' Passage from Community to Singularity
South Asian Review, 2014
Postcolonial India casts itself as a nation-state with a normative "Hindu" identity. This identity sustains itself by othering the racially-mixed Anglo-Indian via a stereotype that represents her as sexually dissolute and racially "impure." This stereotype in fact birthed the Anglo-Indian "community" qua community in mid-nineteenth century India. However, because Indians who had converted to Christianity often passed themselves as racially-mixed Anglo-Indians, I argue that the Indian state's categorization of a monolithic Anglo-Indian "community" defined solely by racial intermixture falls apart. This locates Anglo-Indians, racially mixed or otherwise, as members of an open-ended singularity outside /within statist categories of power/knowledge and by extension outside/within the stereotype. This "outside within" is, however, a space of exception, allowing the epistemic violence of the stereotype to assume new and unpredictable forms.] T he postcolonial Indian nation is essentially a loosely-held melange of communities with apparently self-evident features. After the decolonization of India, the structures of authority constituting the Indian state, by integrating these communities within its bureaucratic structures, tried to unify them into a cohesive national body-one that was dominated by a "normal" majoritarian "Hindu" identity defined against "other" racial and religious minorities' (Chatterjee, Fragments 200-39). I assert that, apart from the Muslim population of India, Anglo-Indians i.e. Indians of part-Indian and part-British blood, were
Immigrants, Refugees, or Both? Migration Theory and the Anglo-Indian Exodus to Great Britain
International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies, 2015
following Independence, traditionally classified as 'immigrants', might also be categorized as 'refugees'. Those approximately 50,000 Anglo-Indians who left India to emigrate to England in what I term the 'First Wave', give credence to Lionel Caplan's findings from his research carried out among Anglo-Indians in Madras (now Chennai). Caplan states that Anglo-Indians could be seen as 'transnationals'-"not by virtue of migration across political boundaries, but through experiencing profound displacement in terms of belonging: by residing in one location but adjudging themselves only at home in another" (2001, p.129). In espousing close affinity to Great Britain, Anglo-Indians were affirming Benedict Anderson's assertion that "nation" and "nationality" are largely cultural constructs. Anderson advocated the position that "nation" and "identity" start with one's affiliation to one's family and closest friends that form the center of human belonging. From this core, one's consciousness moves outward (1983). Since their sense of identity came from family bonds comprising mixed descent, Anglo-Indian sense of nationality was associated with Europe in general and Great Britain in particular. Indeed, being classified as an Anglo-Indian provided employment in British-run institutions in India irrespective of the European nationality of one's paternal lineage. (This explains why vast numbers of Anglo-Indians in South India were employed on the Railway network even where their antecedents were clearly Portuguese.) Thus, although it is true that the mixed racial heritage of India's Anglo-Indians stems from Portuguese, Dutch, French and British presence in India, the provisions of the British National Act, 1948, were perceived by large numbers of the community as offering an opportunity to all of India's Anglo-Indians to attempt to relocate to Great Britain. That Britain as an avenue for immigration was seized by Anglo-Indians in India who did not descend from a paternal British line was borne out by interviews I conducted in the UK in 2008-2009 when many respondents revealed the near-impossibility of emigrating to Britain precisely because as progeny of the Portuguese, Dutch or French in India, they were unable to produce documents confirming British paternal descent. This, however, did not stop them from trying to enter-and indeed making it into-Britain as settlers. This attachment to Europe was facilitated by the idea of hegemony as postulated by Antonio Gramsci who explored the concept of subordination as it had existed in former
Is the Anglo-Indian ‘Identity Crisis’ a Myth?
2021
Anglo-Indians traditionally identified with their Western paternal forebears through their practices of language, dress, food, and religion, and in their worldviews. Since India gained its independence from Britain many have migrated from India to Western countries, but there is a sizeable population residing in India. Discussion of their identity is increasingly following a familiar pattern, with a supposed ‘identity crisis’ being asserted. My research suggests that while Anglo-Indian identity is fluid and changing, it is not in a state of crisis. This chapter’s focus is an exploration of ideas around Anglo-Indian identity, drawing on both published and ethnographically sourced data. It looks at what it means for a group to experience an identity crisis, arguing that Anglo-Indians form a strong and distinct ethnic group in India.
Uther Charlton-Stevens presents an extensive review essay on Rochelle Almeida’s recent book, Britain’s Anglo-Indians (Lexington, 2017). He considers her work on first generation Anglo-Indians who migrated ‘home’ to Britain both important and heretofore understudied. Finding Almeida’s thesis persuasive, that these first generation migrants to Britain formed a hybrid sub-culture of British Anglo-Indianness in contrast to those who went to Canada or Australia, Charlton-Stevens highlights possible intersection points with other scholarship and new areas for further inquiry.
The Politics of Representation: Identity, Community and Anglo-Indian Associations in South Asia
Palgrave Macmillan, 2021
In the age of identity politics and competitive community assertion, many Anglo-Indians in India feel a sense of deprivation and alienation, which has not only distanced them from the mainstream of politics and active involvement in public life but also perturbs their socio-economic life. This chapter examines the group dynamics of the Anglo-Indian people in the politics of representation, particularly with regard to the genesis, organisational structure, functions and effectiveness of the Anglo-Indian associations and other groups that pursued the socio-economic and cultural interests of Anglo-Indians. It also assesses the role and performance of various Anglo-Indian associations in articulating the Anglo-Indian identity and safeguarding the interests of the community in colonial and post-colonial India.