·:1'

CHAPTER ONE

1.0. THE ANGLO INDIAN COMMUNITY IN INDIA-THE ORIGINS

The beginning of the colonial conquest of India and the creation of a sizeable

community of mixed European and Indian descent was heralded by the arrival of

Vasco da Gama in Calicut on the Malabar coast in 1498. By 1510 the Portuguese

were firmly entrenched on the subcontinent. They had entered into an alliance with

the Raja of Cochin, captured Goa, and set up a string of factories or warehouses

where they could store locally procured goods till the arrival of ships from home.

As the Portuguese settled in, they faced the prospect of a long and lonely life. The

cost of bringing women out from Europe was exorbitant and very few suitable

women \:~·ere willing to make the hazardous trip. The Portuguese governor Alfonso

d' Albuquerque established the policy of encouraging his men to marry native

women, thereby accomplishing a dual objective. These marriages helped to forge

close alliances with the natives and provided an impetus to the proselytising

mission. Further, for the Portuguese, as for most early European colonizers,

"hybridisation -in the sense of miscegenation -was often highly desirable as an

instrument of power."1 Albuquerque himself presided over some of the weddings

and rewarded the grooms with gifts and incentives. However, while some of these

marriages were contracted between Portuguese men of "proved" character and

"daughters of the principal men of the, land," many others were relatively informal

liaisons between ordinary soldiers and local women?

One of the reasons, for the prevalence of informal relationships, was the fact that

Christian marriages could only take place after the native girl had been baptised

and formally received into the Christian fold. In a country like India, dominated by

rigid concepts of caste, not many women were willing to convert to Christianity.

They feared ostracism by other members of their caste and even by their own

families, who were afraid that association with a half-caste could taint them as

well. The lack of any concept of a civil, non-religious marriage and the insistence

on recognizing only Christian marriages acted as a disincentive, and many women

preferred to enter into irregular relationships. Over the years, there was a sizeable

14

number of such unions leading to the creation of a hybrid community caUed the

Luso- Indians. "The members of this community, however, always had to contend

with a certain amount of discrimination as even those marriages, which were legal

according to Portuguese law, were considered illicit by the woman's people for

whom such a relationship was humiliating and "offended the ever present sense of

masculine chivalry-and possibly ego"(Maher, These are the Anglo-Indians; 30).

Children were denied any legal claim to inheritance from their mothers side nor

were they encouraged or permitted to follow the traditional 'native' trades and

occupations. Gradually, therefore, they came to depend primarily upon the

Portuguese for employment and survival. Many of them were employed. in the

warehouses and armouries of the Portuguese and later joined the East 1.ndia

Company as 'topasses' or artillery men.3

With the decline of Portuguese rule, and the arrival of the Dutch, the fortunes of

the Luso Indians commonly known as mestizes, feringhees or tapas declined

further. 4 Many of them were reabsorbed into Indian society, others joined the

armies of the newly arriving European powers as soldiers and could soon be found

in sizeable numbers in areas where the Dutch, British and French assumed power.

In 1595 the Dutch established themselves in the Pulicat region near Madras and

gradually took over most Portuguese territories. Unlike the Portuguese, the Duteh

soldiers were permitted to take European wives so instances of intermarriage with

the natives were relatively rare, though they did occur. At the end of the

seventeenth century any Dutch soldie~r who married a native was rewarded with

three month's salary. Despite this incentive, the number of such relationships seem

to have been quite small and there ar'e relatively few Anglo-Indian families with

Dutch names. 5 The Dutch did not extend their sphere of influence too far inland as

they were more interested in consolidating their hold over Ceylon and Southeast

Asia. Though they continued to maintain trading posts in Bengal and some other

areas they ultimately withdrew from India leaving the field clear for other

European powers. Nevertheless, as the importance of the Portuguese and the Dutch

diminished and they capitulated to the superior might of the British and the French

they tried to secure the future of the "mixed population" or the feringhees, as they

15

/ were called at the time, by including specific clauses regarding their welfare in the

deeds of surrender (Moore, The Anglo-Indian Vision 9).

The French East India Company was established in India during the 1660's. It soon

expanded its sphere of influence by establishing cities such as Chandarnagore and

Podicherry and entering into economic alliances with local rulers. Later it began to

take a more active part in armed and political conflicts and achieved a great deal of

eminence and power especially during the time of Dupleix. Inevitably this brought

the Company into conflict with their old rivals, the British, who were also trying to

gain a foothold, not merely in trade, but increasingly in the political events of the

time. The French were finally dealt a resounding defeat by the British, led by

Robert Clive, at the battle ofPlassey. The treaty of Paris was signed in 1763 ceding

1 all French territories in India, retaining only five concessions: Chandernagore,

Pondicherry. Yanon, Karikal and Mahe (Vincent, The French In India 62). These

settlements contained a reasonably large population of people of mixed heritage,

who in due course of time united with other similar minorities or assimilated into

the local people.

The French exhibited little colour or racial prejudice and freely intermarried with

the natives and with women of Portuguese descent. Dupleix himself married the

extremely beautiful Jeanne Albert, widow of his friend Jacques Vincens. Her father

was the Surgeon of the India Company and her mother, Rose de Castro, was the

daughter of a Portuguese father and a Tamil mother. Considered to be "the most

beautiful woman in India"(Vincent 50), Jeanne also had the reputation of being

extremely intelligent and ambitious She had been well groomed by her father "in

the language and manners of his country" and in Persian, "the court language of

neighbouring princes" (Vincent 43 ). Jeanne played an important role in the

shaping of France's India policy in the first half of the 18th century. Her

understanding of local politics and behaviour was an invaluable asset to her

husband. She was one of the earliest women of mixed descent to attain a position

of' such prominence and the influence that she wielded, along with her social

prominence, illustrate the relative lack of prejudice against people of mixed blood

in the French territories.

16

1.1 BRITISH ANTECEDENTS

Looking at the early history of colonial presence in India, it is evident that the

fortunes of the Anglo-Indian community, as it is known today, were inextricably

connected with the fate of all those European powers which, in the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries, were attempting to gain a foothold on the Indian

subcontinent for reasons of trade or political dominion. It is equally evidlent,

however,, that its destiny was most closely associated with the establishment of

British rule over India and was influenced by the attitudes, beliefs and! compulsions

of the colonisers. The British East India Company received its charter to trade with

India on New Year's eve 1600 from Queen Elizabeth and its first factory was

established in Surat in 1612. Thus began the long and profitable association

between the Company and India and soon trading centers were establisl:ed at

Madras and Bombay. In 1698, Job Charnock founded the city of Calcutta by

aquiring the zemindari rights of th1! villages of Sutanati, Kalkatah and Gobindpur

from the Suvarna Raychaudhuries of Barisha, for the sum of 1600 rupees (Nair,

Calcutta in the Eighteenth Century 6).

1.1.1 WOMEN, MARRJAGE AND 'HALF CASTE' CHILDREN- THE

EARLY YEARS OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY

During the early years, while the Company was consolidating its position in. India,

its writers, factors and merchants were expected to live a celibate and isolated life

in collegiate settlements, interacting to a limited extent with the natives, and

maintaining a typically British lifestyle. Englishwomen were not encouraged to

undertake the long and hazardous journey from England, a fact which is borne out

by Mandelslo' s account of the toast which was drunk on Fridays by the merchants

of the company to "Our absent wives-God bless them."6 Nevertheless, some

women were presumably rich, adventurous or influential enough to obtain

permission to come out, and there are references in contemporary accounts to

ladies travelling in coaches and palankeens to church and other social

engagements. Their number was, however, quite small and, according to an

eyewitness, "an Englishwoman in India could be sure of a succession of wealthy

17

and choleric husbands" (Spear, The Nabobs 13). The men who were not wealthy or

lucky enough to obtain an English wife did not always adhere to norms of

rigorously ascetic behaviour. Whereas some officers of the company remained

single during their tenure in India, many others married women of French and

Portuguese descent, brought native women into the factories, or set up house

outside.

One of the areas of concern for the company officials, at this time, was the

ordinary British soldier who could not afford to bring out his wife and family and

who had to spend long stretches of time without any feminine company. Initially,

there were some official attempts to bring batches of women over from Britain.

These were, however, soon stopped due to paucity of funds and suitable candidates

(Gaikwad, The Anglo-Indians 16).All th~1e factors ultimately contributed to the

company policy of encouraging their soldiers to marry native women. In 1684, its

Directors wrote a letter to the President of Madras, suggesting that soldiers who

could pay for the passage of their wives should be permitted to do so and those

who were single should be prudently induced "to marry Gentues, in imitatio~ of ye

dutch polliticks, and raise from them a stock of Protestant Mestizees" (Gaikwad

16). In order to provide further encouragement, the Board of Directors decided that

the sum of a 'pagoda' was to be paid to the mother of any child born of such a

union, on the day the child was christened. The directors claimed that this incentive

was offered because the "marriage of our soldiers to the native women of Fort St.

George, formerly recommended by you, is a matter of such consequence to

posterity, that we shall be content to encourage it with some expense" (Stark 18)).

However, as Geoffrey Moorhouse points out, in the caste conscious society of

India:

to have been the Hindu mother of an Anglo Indian .... was to have

paid a heavy price, for the first and last act of her family on hearing

that she had formed a liaison with a European was to 'put her out of

caste' and have nothing whatsoever to do with her again. The early

18

\

British on the subcontinent treated her, as well as any children she

bore much more kindly than that"(Jndia Brillanica 183).

This became one of the main reasons why the growing number of ~:hildren of

mixed marriages were more easily drawn to the culture, society and language of

their fathers, though they did assimilate attitudes and habits of Indian society as

well.

Herbert Stark, the Anglo-Indian historian, claimed that the decision to support

marriages between their soldiers and Indian women made the British, "directly

responsible for the results of a deliberate policy of bringing into being a mixed

population," which would be loyal to them(18).A contention which is supported by

the observations of L. De Grandpre, who travelled through India in the eighteenth

century, and suggested that such marriages should be encouraged "as a generation

would thereby be produced, which, descending from English blood, would feel

towards England a national attachrnent"(Nair 243). Christopher Hawes however

suggests that the company policy of encouraging marriages with natives by

offering incentives, which continued till 1741, was motivated less by a conscious

efifort to create a mixed community loyal to the British and more by the desire to

"prevent wickedness" (Hawes, Poor Relations 3). The authorities saw it as a means

of maintaining control over the soldiers, in accordance with the belief that married

men with families were likely to be better behaved and socially better adjusted than

unfettered bachelors. Another relevant factor was the fear that, unless the children

of marriages with women of Portuguese and French descent were duly recognised,

they would be brought up in the Roman Catholic faith of their mothers and this

would lead to a steady decrease in the number of Protestants.

By the end of thel7th century, the three presidencies of Madras, Bombay and

Calcutta were well established and were fast becoming the "nuclei" of small Indian

towns inhabited by native merchants attracted by business opportunities. In places

such as Fort St. George in Madras the ordinary British soldiers interacted, and in

many cases intermarried or lived with the local women. These included women of

mixed Portuguese descent with whom there would inevitably be a certain amount

19

of cultural consonance. There was now a growing population of children born of

legal and irregular relationships between the British and the Indians or the

mestizes.7 However, the nature of this interaction was, to a considerable extent,

governed by the exigencies of employment and rank. The covenanted officers of

the East India Company, and those belonging to the higher strata of society, were

generally expected to arrange for their wives to come out from Britain or marry

women of Portuguese Indian descent, who came from an appropriate social

background. Many of these extremely wealthy gentlemen, however, were a law

unto themselves and had long standing relationships with native women, some of

which were marriages in all but name.

1.2.THE FISHING FLEET

·'i:

The slackening of rigid morality and social norms among the British in India,

which was evident during the early years of the company's presence in India, was

the result of a number of factors. These included the lack of a "stringent code of

public opinion"(Stark22), the distance from England as well as the high possibility

of early mortality.8 Stark however suggests that this moral laxity was also a

reflection of the "low ebb at which British morality ran in England itself after the

high flood of Puritanic austerity in the days of the Commonwealth" (Stark 23).

Another important reason, for the continuation of liaisons with the mestizes and the

natives, was the paucity of suitable young British women, though some intrepid

souls did make the effort to undertake the long and uncomfortable sea journey to

India. In 1781, the Madras correspondent of Hickey's Bengal Gazette reported

that, "a bevy of eleven young women who had come to India to make some rich

men put on the matrimonial crown of thorns, disappointed their friends when they

got through the surf off that port" (Vernede, British Life in India 5). These ladies,

instead of dazzling local swains with the latest British fashions, had indulged in so

many scraps during the long journey that, "they could not show a single

undamaged hat between them. Clothes had been torn to shreds"(Vernede 5). Many

of the more discerning men of the time were also quite sceptical about the claims

of gentility made by these new arrivals. John Stewart, a surgeon working in

Calcutta, dismissed many of them as "mere adventuresses from the Milliners shops

20

on Ludgate hill and some even from Covent Garden And Old Drury. They possess

neither sentiment nor education"(Hawes 6). This opinion was echoed by other

visitors of the time, who attributed the general predilection to scandal in the

settlements of Madras and Caleutta to the presence of young women, "who arouse

suspicion about their antecedents by their boldness in making the long voyage

alone and unchaperoned" (Nair 136 ). Though there were other young ladies of

impeccable background including Rose Aylmer and Emma Wrangham, who

journeyed to India and married here, they were too few in number to make any real

difference to the general assumption.9 Reservations regarding the antecedents of

most new arrivals, combined with the prohibitive expense of supporting a British

wife, contributed to the widespread prevalence, amongst the civil and military

officers, of forming relationships with Indian women or those: of mixed descent. '~

.')

.... \·3 RANK AND PRIVILEGE-EARLY ATTITUDES TO MIXED PROGENY

.. /Many officers in the Military, who were posted in districts far from the

presidencies, found companions among the natives or the Anglo-Indian daughters

of their fellow officers. The children of these alliances were generally treated well

and most officers, who could afford it, sent their daughters to school in England or

in the Presidencies. On their return, these young ladies were often married to other

officers. Christopher Hawes notes that, "an important aspect of the military social

situation was its generation of an almost self-contained supply of wives from

within its own ranks. The Eurasian daughters of officers married other officers.

Daughters of the rank and file returned to the Company's army :as wives to British

soldiers or to the soldier's Eurasian sons"(5). These marriages served to blur the

lines between the British and the Anglo-Indians. Fathers with means did all they

could to ensure a secure future and an acceptable social position for their sons and

daughters. Even in the rapidly stratifying society of large cities like Calcutta, social

acceptance was still dependent on class and economic status rather than on race,

which came to be one of the determining factor in the years to come.

There was, therefore, a clear and marked difference between the fate and social

status of the Anglo-Indian or Eurasian children of officers and ordinary soldiers.

21

The British soldiers were not permitted to take the children of local liaisons, or

even of marriages to Anglo -Indian women, back home to England. Lacking the

financial capability of educating or supporting them in any way the soldiers left

them to fend for themselves. Growing up under such unpromising circumstances,

these children joined the ranks of the army or looked for empioyment as keranees

or clerks. Many of them assimilated with the local population or mixed with the

poor whites. These "European vagabonds," as they were popularly known, existed

in considerable numbers beyond the fringes of polite society and "were responsible

for much of the ill repute in which Europeans as a whole were held by

Indians"(Spear, The Nabobs 59). As the number of Eurasian children increased

they were frequently accused of representing the worst qualities of both races.

Unbiased observers like Abbe Dubois, however, while accepting the charge of "I:

delinquent behaviour, attributed it to neglect and an inimical environment rather

than to any inherent weakness of character.

Officially, the Company was not willing to acknowledge any irregular alliances.

Even Job Charnock's extremely devoted relationship, with the Hindu lady he is

said to have rescued from committing sati, invited a certain amount of censure

from one of his superiors who referred to it as "ye great scandal of our

nation"(Hawes 3). But despite occasional official disapproval, such liaisons were

an accepted part of the lives of the British in India during these early years of the

company's existence. They were socially condoned, to the extent that, it was quite

acceptable for respectable ladies and gentlemen to call on women such as James

Hickeys' beloved companion Jamdanee. Nor did these liaisons constitute a bar to a

subsequent marriage with a suitable British woman. The newly married British

wife, in fact, sometimes even took on the responsibility of looking after her

husband's earlier offspring and there were relatively few instances of overt

discrimination within the upper strata of society.

Like the children of military officials, the sons and daughters of high ranking

civilians, illegitimate or otherwise, were openly recognised by their fathers They

were baptised, and readily accepted as members of British society.10 Many of them

were sent to schools in England for higher studies. The popularity of this custom is

22

proved by the fact that at one time, "one boy in ten in the schools was coloured,"

though those who were light skinned enough to be "almost as fair as English

children" were definitely more acceptable (Spear 63). 11 On their return to India,

many of them were absorbed into the company's service:, due to the influence

wielded by their fathers. The daughters of rich and influential civilians were

frequently provided with lavish dowries and married into good British families.

Anne, Elihu Yale's daughter by his Anglo Indian wife, was married to Lord James

Cavendish, younger brother of the second Duke of Devonshire. One of Job

Charnock's daughters, Mary, married Sir Eyre Coote, the fmmder of Fort

William.The beautiful Catherine Varle travelled to France where she married the

powerful Prince Talleyrand. The scandalous Begum Johnson, whose grandson

Lord Liverpool became the Prime Minister of Britain, dominated Calcutta society I

despite having married four times, and being "a garrulous dark featured old lady"

whose mother had an "ominously Portuguese name" (Woodruff 160:11.

As Frank Anthony and most historians have affirmed, the years between 1639 and

I 791 were times of reasonable prosperity and influence for the Anglo-Indian

community, as it is called today. There was relatively little discrimination on

grounds of mixed heritage, and Anglo-Indian sons of British fathers were

frequently accepted in th1:: covenanted services. During th:: second half of the 17th

and the earlier part of the I glh century there was a series of wars in India as the

Mughals, Rajputs, Marathas and Sikhs fought for primacy over territory. This

continual warfare led to an increasing demand for soldiers and generals in the

armies of local rulers. The British were embroiled in many of these battles, as their

trade concessions were dependent upon privileges granted by the native rulers. The

company's army was hard pressed for soldiers due to heavy mortality and the wars

with the French at home, and this led to a larger concentration of Anglo-Indians in

the British armies than before.

This period saw a significant increase in the numbers of the community, partly as a

result of relationships be:tween Indian women and British soldiers, whose numbers

rose" from a few hundred to 30,000"(D'Cruz, In Conversation !).Gradually, the

community came to outnumber the British in India, and also had an increasing

presence in commercial organizations. This situation was watched with growing

alarm by the company, and it contributed to the initiation of a series of repressive

measures, which had far reaching consequences on the social and economic

condition of the community.

1.4 THE LATE 18TH CENTURY- WINDS OF CHANGE

Until the late 18th century there was little official distinction between the Anglo

Indians and the British. The Regulating Act of 1773,which established the concepts

of 'British Subject' and the 'Native of India,' failed to clarify the status of the

Anglo-Indians. Thi~i led to a situation where they were often ,tacitly accepted as

British subjects by the Company. In 1775, Charles Weston, a prominent Anglo­

Indian, and another member of the community were co-opted as members of a

British jury in the trial of the Maharaja Nuncomar (Hawes 56). Like other

Britishers, Anglo-Indians were not permitted to buy land within the company's

dominions, nor were they permitted to live further than ten miles from a

Presidency town or Company settlement without prior permission of the Chief

Secretary. 12 However, the lack of a clearly delineated legal status subsequently

placed the Anglo-Indians in an ambivalent situation where their membership of a

racial category was frequently determined by political and practical exigencies.

1.5. EDUCATION AND THE STATUS OF THE WOMEN OF THE ANGLO

INDIAN COMMUNITY

A school for Anglo-Indian children was established in Fort St. George, Madras in

1645. However, it was only with the setting up of The Military Orphan Society in

Calcutta in 1782, that the authorities began to pay some attention to the welfare of

the children of impoverished officers and soldiers. The society was set up by

Major-General Kirkpatrick and was financed, with the sanction of the company, by

monthly subscriptions from commissioned officers. The scheme was later extended

to the sons and daughters of non-commissioned officers and privates for whom a

24

Lower Orphanage was set up, which would provide basic education and vocational

training.

The children in the Upper Orphanage were given a good basic education. The giFls,

in particular, were taught the social graces and housewifely accomplishments

necessary for the wive:; of gentlemen, which included ballroom dancing,

needlework and embroidery. Right up to the 1830's, public dances were held

annually where eligible young men including cadets and writers, who were coming

out from Britain in increasing numbers, could come and choose suitable brides

from among the wards of the orphanage. In fact, it was not unknown for officers

from the Upper Provinces to "journey 500 miles to obtain a wife in this fashion

"(Stark 64). This had the unusual effect of creating a divide between the future

prospects of an Anglo Indian girl and her male relatives. Anglo-Indian men rarely

married European women, whereas for the young women, there was always the

possibility of attaining a higher status in an increasingly stratified society by

marrying a European of their own class (Hawesl9). Mrs. Nathaniel Kindeiisley,

writing in 1768, gives an account of the relatively bright future prospects of y:oung

ladies of mixed parentage:

these country born women are the descendents of an European

father, and what is called a Portuguese mother ... the boys we

seldom hear an)thing about; but the girls, who are sometimes born

in wedlock and sometimes not as they are fairer than their mothers,

are fond of being called English, French, &c; and, if pretty, often

marry to Europeans, who sometimes arise to be people of

consequence: their children being another remove from black, do

not like to have their descent remembered, and nothing is so great

an affront as to class them amongst the Portuguese; although from

education and example, and perhaps from constitution, they often

retain the indolence and cunning peculiar to the natives of this

country (Nair JA5).

25

This passage is remarkable in that it reflects all those incipient prejudices of class,

race, colour and morality which would influence the opinions of future visitors to

the country and which would subsequently be repeated in numerous stereotypical

portrayals of Anglo-Indians in fiction.

1.6 PREJUDICE AND STEREOTYPING

As the 181h century drew to a close, society in the Presidencies became more

stratified. There were greater pretentions to aristocracy, despite the largely middle

class background and origins of its members and gradually, it divided into a

number of classes whose definition and distinctions grew sharper with the passage

of time. Stereotype~, such as the vulgar boxwallah and the pretentious half- caste,

which would later acquire an almost unassailable omniscience, were ~!ready in the l'

process of being created. Money was still accepted as the great leveller and "even

the Eurasians could find highly placed friends if they were sufficiently affluent"

(Spear 57). However, there were an increasing number of dandified young Indo

Britons, as they were called after 1827, who despite having received a gentlemanly

education, were left without support once the fathers sailed for home. Collingham

points out that, in most instances, " a patriarchal concern that Indian families

should not undermine the British family unit"(76), ensured that only children from

a legitimate British marriage remained the heirs to their father's estate, thus

ensuring a racially pure line of succession. While the daughters of mixed parentage

were frequently reintegrated into colonial society by being married to soldiers,

officials and army officers, the sons were often forced to join the ranks of the

'krannies,' between whom and the 'real gentlemen' of the covenanted services,

there was an ever widening gap.

Some members of the community, particularly those with Portuguese ancestry

lived in enclaves close to the European community and worked as gunners or as

writers for them. A contemporary observer noted that many of these "black writers

are descendants of Portuguese, who having married native women, their offspring

have lost the colour of their fathers and received that of their mothers; but they

retain the religion of the former" (Nair 165). However, it is evident that there was a

26

distinction between individuals with Portuguese blood and the 'half-castes' with

British antecedents. Writing towards the end of the 18th century, Monsieur

Grandpre suggested that marriages between the British and native women should

be encouraged as they, "afford the means of keeping up the white race at Bengal,

and prevent the portuguese cast from increasing so fast as on the coast"(Nair 243).

He also pointed out that the children of such marriages considered themselves to be

"greatly superior in blood to the portuguese race"(Nair 243). This statement is

notable for its unquestioning inclusion of children of mixed English and Indian

blood within the white race. Newspapers and periodicals, however, already

reflected growing reservations and prejudices about 'half-castes,' and it is during

this period that the journalist, William Hickey, wrote the little doggerel about,"

Pretty little looking Glasses I Good and cheap for Chee-Chee Misses," which

marked the earliest Jse of the term 'chee-chee' in Iiterature. 13

1.6. DISCRIMINATORY POLICIESAND THEIR IMPACT ON THE

COMMUNITY

On the 14th of March 1786, the Company issued an order prohibiting the children

of officers from going back to Britain unless they were the legitimate offspring of a

marriage between two Europeans. The wards of the Upper military Orphanage,

most of whom were Anglo-Indians, were thus denied the opportunity to acquire

educational qualifications essential for entry into the covenanted se:rvices. 14 There

had always been some objection to the practice of sending children of mixed

parentage to England for studies. The grounds for this reluctance were: rather

flimsy and included the assumption that these children would not be able to

tolerate the climate of England. Now, it was also suggested that they had inherited

flaws due to their mixed blood. It was, therefore, not advisable for them to study or

settle in England as their imperfections," whether bodily or mental, would in

process of time be communicated by intermarriage to the generality of the people

of great Britain, and by this means debase the succeeding generations of

Englishmen"(Stark 65).

27

The order was received with indignation by Anglo-Indians, especially as the

Orphanages had been financed under the patronage of the Court of Directors of the

East India Company. The Upper Orphanage had been financed by monthly

subscriptions from officers, while the Company helped to fund the Lower

Orphanage, which was meant to educate the wards of non commissioned officers

and privates. These institutions were primarily meant to provide education to

children whose fathers had died fighting for the company. However, the separation

of these young wards from their Indian mothers, not only distanced them from

Indian culture, but also resulted in their being reclassified, "in the language of

philanthropic social morality as "illegitimate" or as "orphans", terms that continue

to haphazardly permeate the contemporary historiography of the Anglo-Indians"

(Carton, Beyond Cotton Mary n. pag.). When these institutions were set up the 'T

committee of officers, who had drawn up the regulations, had hoped that in course

of time these orphans "may be enabled to render essential service hereafter in the

military and Marine departments, not to mention other branches of the public

service"(Abel 16). However, the only appointments now readily available to the

community were at a subordinate level and the sought after covenanted services

were completely out of their reach. Woodruff suggests that "jobbery" or a system

of appointment on personal recommendation was quite rampant and it may have

been one of the contributory factors which led to· the initiation of this policy of

exclusion. "Nepotism was rampant; ... more often than not any legitimate or

illegitimate brother or half brother of somebody was landing from England and had

to be appointed to a higher post on the basis of the orders he brought"(Spear 9).

The prevalence of appointment by preference is also confirmed in the writings of

Indians like S.C. Dutt who gives the following account of his office:

A nice appointment-that is for an uncovenanted officer-has become

vacant. There are many candidates for it -one amongst them par

excellence the best of the whole lot, being a man of education,

station in society, and much official experience. Another candidate

is a very young man, of no official aptitude whatever, but very well

connected, and personally known to Sir Henry Hardinge, with

28

whose daughter he has danced in England! Will you bet who wins

the prize? The man of parts was sanguine, but did not get it." 15

After the India Act of I 784, the British government began to take a greater inten~st

in the Indian possessions of the East India Company. Lord Cornwallis, the

Governor General appointed in I 786, proceeded to revamp the entire bureaucracy,

initiating the setting up of a civil service which offered a choice career to many

Englishmen. This appointment marked the beginning of a tradition of politically

appointed. Governors General. Many of them were not old India hands, and

therefore, were not as familiar with, or sympathetic to, the ground realities of life

in British India. The repressive measures taken against the Anglo-Indians were a

reflection of a new philosophy of domination with increasing emphasis on racial

qualities. The officers of the East India Company were no longer merchants or

traders, they were now part of an increasingly elite and exclusive civil service.

These officials saw themselves as uniquely fitted to rule due to their inherently

superior moral qualities, character :and physical prowess. In order to preserve these

qualities, moral contamination from eastern religions had to be avoided and a wide

social and behavioral distance had. to be maintained from all that was native. This

philosophy did not necessarily exdude Anglo-Indians, but they were regard<ed with

a sense of unease because of their mixed blood which threatened to bridge the gap

between the two races. Gradual changes in the socio-political environment, and in

the policy regarding interaction with Indians, combined with the desire to increase

the availability of posts for their own wards. These were some of the factors which

prompted the Directors of the Company to pass The Standing Order of 1?91. The

Order disqualified Anglo-Indians from admission into the covenanted services of

the East India Company, and stated that no person born "the son of native India",

that is no one whose parent was a native of India, would in future be employed in

the Covenanted services (Gaikwad 22).

In I 795, another order was passed debarring people of mixed blood fmm joining

the European branch of the military service except as drummers, fi.fers or other

musicians. This destroyed the: careers of the numerous Anglo-Indians who were

29

serving in the army and demoted them to the lowest level. According to Geoffrey

Moorhouse:

The shabbiness ofthis treatment was emphasised within a few years

when, needing all the manpower it could muster to fight the

Marathas and Hyder Ali in Mysore, the Company drummed up

every Anglo Indian it could lay its hands on to fight alongside full­

blooded Britons and Indian sepoys; then disbanded them the

moment the last shot had been fired- a process that was repeated

regularly upto the mutiny, whenever battle was to be done (II).

Excluded from the rank of officers in the forces of the East India Company, many_

Anglo- Indian soldiers were forced to offer their services to native princes such asr \.

the Scindias, Holkars and the Gaekwar of Baroda and many of them were

associated with regiments which achieved almost legendary status. Lt. Col. James

Skinner, known to his troops as Sikander sahib, was the founder of the famous

Skinners Horse. Skinner was ultimately made a Knight of the Order of the Bath,

despite his mixed blood. However, he did have occasion to protest against the

treatment meted out to him by the British, who had persuaded him to give up his

service with the Scindias and join them. In 1825, when the strength of Skinners

Horse was reduced arbitrarily, Skinner wrote a letter of protest to the authorities.

He drew their attention, to assurances given to him by Lord Hastings, that his

command would not be reduced "by a single man"( Anthony, Britain's Betrayal in

India 27). Referring to his disillusionment with the discriminatory practices of the

Company, Skinner pointed out that during his service with the Mahrattas he was

never subject to any professional constraints due to his mixed blood:

In the Maharatta service from 1796 to 1803, I had always a well

grounded hope of rising in rank and fortune; no question was ever

raised as to my birth there. When I entered the British service, I

believed that I had found a field in which the fruits of zeal and

fidelity would be matured and reaped in perfection; and no

exertions on my part were spared to forward this object. I imagined

30

myself to be serving a people who had no prejudice against caste or

colour. But I found myself mis.taken. 16

Skinner did not receive the emoluments he felt he deserved. He also found that,

owing to increasing racial prejudice, new regulations were introdueed some of

which left him, "liable to be commanded by the youngest subaltern in the army." 17

The vicissitudes that James Skinner faced during his career, despite being widely

acknowl·edged as one of the outstanding soldiers of his time, were indicative of the

inconsistency and unfairness of British policy towards Anglo-Indians.

There were other famous Anglo-Indian soldiers including Henry Foster, Gl~neral

Jean Baptiste Filose, Hyder Jung 1-Jearsey, and many who were often classified as

being European by British historians. As G.J.Moore points out, there was a very .,. thin dividing line between the Europeans and the Eurasians as they were called at

the time and many soldiers who were listed as being Europeans were in actuality

Anglo Indian. She says :

Confusion over identity, a desire to neatly categorise people, a slronger

desire to augment one's numbers in deeds of national heroism, are all

hallmarks of British Indian history to this day. What those living in India

always knew, that Anglo Indians were often described as European and

East Indian or Eurasian simultaneously, is something someone living

6000 miles away reading history could never have known. Historians

enthusiastically exploited this lack of knowledge. Anglo-Indians were

the losers as history was distorted. 18

In 1808, the majority of the Anglo-Indians were once again dismissed summarily

from all ranks of the British Army. Despite their evident loyalty to the British, they

faced increasing restrictions. In 1813, the company issued regulations classifying

them as natives, though they were still not permitted to purchase or hold land or

live further than 10 miles from a company settlement withom permission.

Ironically, the argument finally used to overturn this decision pointed out that

"subjecting this class ... to the same laws as the natives, we could not easily refuse

31

the right of attaining property in the soil"(Gaikwad 23). However, the very fact that

such an anomalous situation could arise clearly illustrates the incoherence and lack

of clarity in the British response to the community.

1.6.1 MOTIVATION FOR DISCRIMINATORY ORDERS

The three successive orders had an enormously negative impact upon the socio­

economic condition of the Anglo-Indians. They were motivated by nepotism and

incipient racial prejudice as well as by fear of the numerical superiority of the

community, which made the Company uneasy. This wariness was intensified by

the native and mulatto uprisings agai~st Spanish and French rule in the Caribbean

and by the setting up of the Black Republic in Haiti in 1791 (Abel

18).Contemporary newspaper reports echo these fears and the editor of the "\·

Calcutta Chronicle writing in 1792 warns that, "If forthwith drastic measures are

not put into operation to keep down the East Indian race, they will do to the British

in India what the mulattoes have done to the Spaniards in San Domingo."19 These

sentiments were fully endorsed by Viscount Valencia who was commissioned by

the East India Company to visit its possessions between 1802 and 1806. In his

account of his travels he states that:

The most rapidly accumulating evil of Bengal is the increase of half

- caste children. . .. In every country where this intermediate caste

has been permitted to rise, it has ultimately tended to its ruin.

Spanish American and San Domingo are examples of this fact.

Their increase in India is beyond calculation: and though it is

possible there may be nothing to fear from the Hindus and the

rapidly declining consequence of the Mussalmans (sic), yet it may

be justly apprehended that this tribe may hereafter become too

powerful to contro1.20

Valencia's solution to the problem was to permanently banish all half ~aste

children to Europe, where they could no longer pose a threat to the colonial

project, or challenge the supremacy of the colonizers.

32

...

The fear of incipient revolt was compounded by the emergenc·e of the Anglo­

Indians as the largest group of European descent in British India due to the

restrictions placed on the entry of British non-official residents into India by the

Company. These apprehensions appear to be rather unjustified given the oft proved

loyalty of the community. Nevertheless, according to Anglo-Indian historians, they

combined with other practical considerations and contributed to the adoption ofthe

series of repressive measures meant to initiate the process of decisively

discriminating between the Anglo-Indians and the British. The measures had far

reaching consequences, and managed to deprive the community of "the means of

livelihood. Deprive them of education. Deprive them of arms," (Stark 62) thus

reducing them to social and political impoverishment.21

1.7.0 THE 19TH CENTURY-GROWTH OF RACISM AND ITS IMPACT ON

THE COMMUNITY

As the 19th century advanced, there was increasing disapproval of liaisons between

the British and native women, and fear and mistrust of children of mixed blo(!)d

whose legitimacy was often considered questionable. Collingworth points out th~t,

"The disappearance of the native mistress and the exclusion of the Eurasian formed

further vectors of a prote:ctive racial barrier which was developing around the

British body in India, assuring the separation of the colonizing soc~iety from that

which it had colonized"(77). The Anglo-Indians thus slowly came to occupy a,

"Social and racial no mans land, spumed by Indians and shunned by the

European"(James 219).The increasing emphasis on adherence to conventional

concepts of morality also influenced attitudes towards the conummity which was

perceived as being tainted by illegitimacy, a factor which also contributed to their

gradual exclusion from European society. In 1813 George Spilsbury noted that:

I heard the other day that Lady Landon had refused to invite half­

casts to her house. This seems to have caused a great sensation as I

suppose a third of the people in this country are either married to

this race or have children grown up by Hindoostani women. Should

the example be set below of not receiving them no doubt it will be •

33

followed. The two refused at least left out in a general invitation are

two ladies that have hitherto moved in the highest rank. It has

d . . h 22 cause a great sensatiOn m t e army.

While this remark constitutes one of the earliest records of growing prejudice, it

also confirms the fact that till the early nineteenth century Anglo-Indians, and

especially the women, of the community had access to the highest echelons of

colonial society.

Initially, these instances of discrimination were rather uneven and were often

influenced by the class and the reputation of the individuals concerned. However,

slowly such distinctions became an accepted part, not merely of social life, but also

of official policy. According to a Company rul~, adopted in 1804, the half caste '

wives of British officers were granted only half the living allowance given to

British wives, on the debatable grounds that, "their wants and wishes are much

more confined than those of a European woman" (Stark 27). Eurasian widows of

soldiers were initially denied any pension benefits, and these were only granted to

them during the 1820's. Adrian Carton notes that:

One of the first major Eurasian petitions was that of the widows of

European soldiers in Madras, starting in 1825, who were excluded

from the benefits of the Lord Clive's Fund, on account of their

being "country born". In order for a widow of a European soldier in

the Company's armies to be entitled to a pension, an affidavit was

required stating that the woman's parents were of unmixed

European blood. This petition was successful and resulted in the

affidavit being withdrawn as a requirement in the funding process

(5).

Eurasian wives and their children were also forbidden to accompany the soldiers to

Britain, a decision which not only caused emotional trauma, but also served to

augment the number of indigent Eurasians or Anglo-Indians who existed on the

fringes of European society (Stark 27).

34

The company's decision, in 1813, to permit missionaries to travel officially to

India also played an important role in bringing about a change in attitude towards

relationships with Indian women and towards the children of such haisons.

Christopher Hawes attributes the change in British attitudes, "to the new ideas of

British national identity, public behaviour, and a philosophy of colonial rule ...

buttressed by the moral coneepts generated by the Protestant revival in

Britain"(l5). Thus, the church and the state combined and collaborated in the

project of asserting the racial superiority of the British rulers on the basis of their

Christian morality. This moral racism necessitated the rejection of or, at least, a

distancing from individuals whose very existence often can·ied the taint of

illegitimacy and challenged British assumptions of racial and moral superimity and

exclusivity. Even an eminent man like Col. W. L. Gardner thus found it necessary

to publicly establish the legitimacy of his \narriage and offspring. In the: March

1835 issue of the Mufassil Ukhbar he wrote:

Allow me to assure you on the very best authority, that a Moslem

lady's marriage with a Christian by a kazi is as legal in this country

as if the ceremony had been performed by the Bishop of Calcutta. ..

. The respectability of the females of my family amongst the natives

of Hindustan has been settled by the Emperor many years ago, he

having adopted my wife as his daughter, a ceremony satisfactorily

repeated by the Queen on a visit to my own house at Delhi. My only

daughter died in 1804, and my grand-daughters, by the partic:ular

desire of their grand-mother are Christians. 23

Though it was possible for upper-class families with mixed blood to establish thdr

antecedents and respectability, many others had to contend with the dual handicaps

of a questionable legitimacy and racial impurity.

The inconsistencies of Victorian ethnology, and its linking of race with moral an.d

physiological attributes, have led to its being perceived today 8IS "the great

intellectual dead-end of the Victorian age" but, in the mid 19111 c:entury, these

beliefs often acquired the stamp and validity of acceptable scier:ttific theories

35

(Robb, The Concept of Race 170). These theories were closely debated and

disputed in Britain but they were widely accepted in India where they "stood

supreme and virtually unchallenged as representing obvious social scientific truths.

They lay at the core of the hegemonic ideology of the Raj"(Ross, Racism and

Colonialism 157). The currency gained by these beliefs is an indication of the

manner in which scientific theory became, "an alibi for legitimizing processes of

inferiorization, exclusion, subordination and inequality," rather than a neutral

impartial mode of accessing knowledge. (Brah and Coombes, Hybridity and its

Discontents 6). These beliefs became a part of the current cultural discourse,

reinforcing notions of colonial. superiority and the relative moral and physical

shortcomings of the colonised and the 'mixed breeds'. A report in The Friend of

India, about wife abuse among poor East Indians, attributes their behaviour to a .,t

"lack of reverence for the female sex which animates the inhabitants of the western

nations" thus emphasising their difference from the colonisers.24 The lllustrated

Encyclopaedia of Peoples and Cultures of the World refers to the negative moral

attributes shared by the Hindus and the Indo- European 'half- castes' "even when

well educated and brought up in European customs and under European

influences" (Brown 200).The Encyclopaedia, also, subsequently reveals the extent

to which such sweeping generalisations were impacted by a conflation of race and

class by claiming that, " it is only the lowest class of European adventurers who, in

modern times, at all events, marry or cohabit with native women; and that,

therefore, in addition to the hereditary evil qualities which they might have

inherited from the Hindoo race by their mothers, they are in addition infected by

those of their sires; in most cases by no means a characteristic specimen of the race

from whence he springs" (Brown 200).

In a country where the question of race had such a crucial role to play in the

distribution of power, the Anglo Indians, with their mixed heredity, stood at the

fringes of both Indian and British society. Their presence became an

embarrassment for the rulers as it raised uncomfortable questions about their

supposed moral superiority. Further, the tie of blood and the cultural proximity of

the Anglo-Indians to the rulers made them potential claimants to a share in the

36

hierarchies of power. Metissage always evokes strong responses in colonial

situations as it blurs the lines of distinction between groups and mediates in the

supposedly binary opposition between the ruler and the ruled. It is a cause of

concern to the coloniser, who has to maintain a fayade of aloofnes~• to underscore

his superiority and therefi>re his justification to rule. In her essay on metissage in

the Indies and Indochina, Anne Stoler maintains that people of mixed blood were,

generally, seen as a dangerous source of subversion, "a threat to white prestige and

a visible embodiment of European degeneration and moral decay" ("Sexual

Affronts" 20). Newly emerging 'scientific' theories were, therefore, used not

merely to reinforce the id!ea of the superiority of the colo:nisers, but also to raise

questions about the physical and moral attributes of those belonging to the mixed

races. Irrespective of whether they were illegitimate or the children of regular

unions, the 'half-castes' were seen as "physically marked and mora!Jy marred with

the defaults and mediocre qualities of their (native) mothers"(S1:oler, •'Makiing

Empire Respectable" 56). Dr. H. N.Ridley, speaking in 1895 at a conference in

Malaysia, claimed with all the assurance of a man of science, that Eurasians were,

as a race, "weak in body, short lived, deficient in energy and feeble in morals

... Even a little admixture of native blood seems to result in an individual who

possesses the bad qualities of both races".25

Authorities such as Herbert Spencer also believed that any unions between, what

he called, unequal races should be "positively forbidden". 26 He asserted that, "it is

at root a question of biology." However, instead of any conclusive scientific proof,

he offered the opinion of a well known authority on horses, cattle and sheep, who

claimed that any interbreeding between widely dissimilar :species would lead to a

"chaotic constitution."27 That the same would apply to human beings is, according

to Spencer, demonstrated by the Eurasians in India and the half-breeds in America.

Writing nearly 30 years later Dr. J. W. Gregory acknowledges that, '''the doctrine of

the inferiority of hybrids has not been established as a biological principle" (The

Menace of Colour 234). He, nevertheless, asserts and accepts the: physical and,

more importantly, the moral inferiority of the 'hybrid,' which he also attributes to

. the effect of social and educational handicaps on the offspring of very different

37

parents. This emphasis on the cultural and moral shortcomings of mixed races, like

the Anglo-Indians, was an indication of a deep seated fear of breaching those

"interior frontiers" which marked the "moral predicates by which a subject retains

his or her national identity" (Stoler, 20). Stoler believes that metissage became a

trope for "internal contamination and challenge conceived morally, politically and

sexually"("Sexual Affronts" 20).

In a society increasingly concerned with racial purity, "hybrids were seen as

potential polluters of genetic stock and culture besides having the potential to

disrupt hierarchical social structures of class which were necessary adjuncts of

colonial rule (Brah and Coombes 2). This was not an isolated opinion, as is proved

by J.W. Gregory's portentiously titled book, The Menace of Colour, which,

according to its informative subtitle, is "A study of the difficulties due to the

association of white and coloured races, with an account of measures proposed for

their solution & special reference to white colonization in the Tropics." Though his

book was published in 1925, Dr Gregory's discussion of the issue of racial

intermarriage indicates a continuing concern with the issue and with the range of

opinions in favour of and against it. Whereas some ethnologists supported

interbreeding on the grounds that, blending 'under favourable circumstances' could

produce a race culturally and physically superior to either of the parents, they also

tacitly accepted the existence of 'higher races' which could influence and improve

their more primitive neighbours through intermarriage. Gregory also admitted that

hybrids, such as the Cape Boys of Africa, could be politically useful due to their

attachment to the "European cause" and provided "cheap labour which was locally

suited to the conditions"(226). Evidently, colonial preoccupations with the

question of hybridity, under the guise of objective and scientific enquiry, were

closely connected to political expediency. They were also linked to strategies of

assimilation and segregation which could be used to avail of an economical

workforce in the colonies.

Colonial pragmatism also determined the attitudes of the British towards the Anglo

Indians, whose services were utilised by the authorities during times of war and

rebellion, but who found themselves in socially and economically straitened

38

circumstances at other times. Dr May Shaeve, in an article in The Anglo-Indian

Review dated March 1929, affi.rmed the common interests shared by the ''border

line" races of the world and referred to "other mixed races, who are labouring

under disadvantages greater than ours- to take one instance-those 'Cape Boys' who

died so gamely in the great war, going into battle as into a game, with a laugh upon

their lips instead of sullen resentment against the people for whom they were called

to die"( 6).The ability to utilise the services of the subject races and the socially

marginalised 'mixed breeds', for the economic and social well being of the empire

as and when the need arose, was evidently one of the conspicuous features of

colonial rule.

In India, racial discrimination, and a contemptuous attitude towards the Ang:lo­

Indians, gradually becan1e a paq of life in nineteenth century British society. Lack

of sympathy for a community, which did not wholly belong to either race, slowly

relegated the Anglo-Indian to the fringes of society. The social divide widened

considerably and Cadets arriving in the country were warned to be on their guard

against the charms of Anglo-Indian girls (James 219). There were exceptions like

Philip Meadows Taylor who married Mary Palmer the Anglo-Indian granddaughter

of General William Palmer and a princess from Oudh. Taylor 's tolerance o:f racial

differences was not, however, shared by most of his compatriots. Any officer, who

made such an unsuitable marriage, found himself socially ostracised in a country

where British society was rapidly becoming hierarchical and insular. This was a far

cry from the days when young men would travel for days in order to attend the

annual ball at the military orphanage in order to choose a suitable Anglo-Indian

wife. In the early 19th century, Mrs. Bessie Fenton wrote of her mortification on

discovering that a cousin was married to a half caste: "As I had not supposed I had

a single connection in the country of that colour which seemed so unfashionable". 28 Bishop Heber, who travelled through India in 1824-25, also lamented the

increase in the half caste population fearing that they are a source of "present

mischief and future danger "to the peaceful life of the colony (Woodford 226).

39

By the1830's, there were almost two to three thousand children, many of them

Anglo- Indians, in charitable institutions in the three presidency towns. They,

along with many others not fortunate enough to find place in these institutions,

formed part of a growing body of poor white and mixed breed children, whom the

promoters of schooling for the poor wished to convert into useful members of

society. Unlike Britain, where a similar attempt was being made to educate the

poor and integrate them into society, in India these children also had to learn to

exist and function within the parameters of a strictly hierarchical colonial society.

Thus, the missionaries envisioned the Anglo-Indians as merely "filling an

intermediate station between the European employer and the native labourer" as

they could never presume to occupy the position of the ruling community (Hawes

28).

The attitudes and aspirations of the Anglo-Indians themselves, however, proved to

be a drawback to this scheme. John Shore, a civil servant who later became the

Governor General, remarked on their "obsession with gentlemanly status whatever

their rank at birth"(Hawes 53). Anglo-Indians, evidently, felt that government jobs

and economic prosperity were a means of bringing them closer to the increasingly

exclusive British society to which they aspired to belong. This was patently true, as

even during this period, written and unwritten rules were defied quite often at the

highest levels of society, indicating that class often superceded racial purity in

determining the quality and extent of interaction and acceptance. Thus, the few

wealthy Anglo Indians like James Kyd and Charles Weston had entree into the

most select British circles. James Metcalf, the son of Charles and his Sikh mistress,

was appointed aide -de-camp to Lord Dalhousie in 1848. Robert Warburton,

whose mother was an Afghan princess, became a colonel and was knighted for his

services as late as the 1870's.

40

1.8.0 COMMUNITY AWARENESS

Exceptions, however, in no way reflected the plight of the majority of the

community, who had gradually been deprived of all their traditional avenues of

employment rendering them nearly destitute. The dire straits in which the Anglo­

Indians found themselves had the salutary effect of arousing community feeling.

Some prominent and well educated Anglo-Indians of Calcutta. were motivated to

get together, not merely to protest against increasing discrimination, but also to set

up their own educational institutions for the betterment of the young people of the

community. John William Ricketts, a product of the upper Military Orphanage,

was at the center of the community's efforts. In 1823, along with other prominent

members of the community, he set up the Parental Academy, This was the first

AnglO'-Indian school to be administered by Anglo- Indians themselves. This was

followed by other institutions such as the Commercial and Patriotic Association

and a Marine school set up to train young Anglo-Indians in various trades andl

commercial pursuits. Many of these schools later closed down due to financia.l

constraints, though the grants were often utilised to fund other prestigious

institutions, such as La Martiniere College and St Xaviers College which were

established in 1836 and 1834, respectively.

1.8.1 RICKETTS' PETITION

In 1829, Ricketts was selected as agent of the East -Indians, as the community tl'len

called itself, and sent to England to place a petition before the members of the

Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Affairs of the East India Comp;my.

The petition apprised the members of the unfair exclusion of the community from

all superior services, as well as from many subordinate appointments in Judicial

Revenue and police departments, which were open to natives. It also drew their

attention to the fact that there was no uniform civil law applicable to the members

of the community, though Regulation VIII of 1813 of the East India Company had

included them among the "native subjects of the British government" (Gaikwad

23). There was no law governing matters relating to succession to pmperty,

41

especially in case of intestacy, and in the interior areas they were subject to

Mohammedan criminal law which often operated in an arbitrary and even

barbarous manner.

1.8.2 LEGAL ANOMALIES REGARDING STATUS

The anomalies regarding the legal status of the Anglo-Indians, were a practical

reflection of the lack of any clear policy regarding their status. The Europeans

considered them to be, "Europeans with some Indian blood; the Directors of the

Company considered them to be native Indians with some European blood; and

Parliament included them along with "natives of India" in the Charter Act of

1833"(Moore28; Gaikwad 29). In a social environment which was becoming

increasingly insular and intolerant, they w~re regarded with prejudice. Various

reasons were assigned for their exclusion from the prestigious services. Members

of the Standing committee told Ricketts that one reason for denying Anglo-Indians

entry into the covenanted services was the belief that they were not respected by

the natives( Abel 30; Hawes 62 ).It was true that Indians, with their antipathy to

miscegenation and suspicion of the half-caste, resented the Anglo- Indians' claim

to racial superiority as well as their servile attitude and cultural proximity to the

rulers. Ricketts, however, strongly denied this assumption and gave the example of

Skinner and other respected members of the community to refute the allegation.

1.9.0 THE RAILWAYS AND THE MUTINY-REWARDS OF LOYALTY

The Petition may not have had any major impact on government policy, but in

1833 the Company's charter was renewed and redrafted. Under Section 87 of this

new Act it was decreed that, "no native ... shall by reason only of his religion,

place of birth, descent, colour or any of these, be disqualified from holding any

place, office or employment under the East India Company"(Moore 42). Despite

this amendment, conditions did not change and people from India were not

permitted to compete in England for admission to the covenanted services for

another 20 years. Anglo-Indians and Indians were primarily recruited for

subordinate posts and here the Anglo -Indians had a slight advantage, due to their

42

knowledge of English, which had replaced Persian as the official language. The

introduction of a railway network, the telegraph system and the Postal Service

further helped to ease the economic situation of the community. Many Anglo­

Indians were recruited in these services, partly in an effort to address some of the

grievances of the community, and partly due to expediency. In the railways, as in

other fields, engineers belonging to the superior grade were imported from

England, but as the great bulk of technical manpower had to be produced in the

country for the sake of economy, Anglo-Indians were among the first to be

recruited (Abel 47 ). Anglo-Indian commentators later pointed out that their, so

called, privileged position in these services was dependent on various factors,

including the fact that, " at the time we were the only people: willing and able to

perform certain kinds of work."29 Their familiarity with English also helped them

to act as interpreters ben-veen the superVising officers, engineers and the ordinary

labourers.

At the time of the Great Mutiny of 1857, Anglo-Indians were employed

extensively in various services of the Company, including the Military, where

some of them held senior positions. They proved their loyalty to the British, quite

conclusively, dispelling any lingering doubts regarding their fidelity. In 1860 L0rd

Canning, the Viceroy of India, not only appreciated the role played by the Anglo­

Indians, but also acknowle:dged their claim upon the goodwill of the British.:

The Eurasian class have a special claim upon us. The presence of a

British Government has called them into being. They serve the

Government in many respects more efficiently than the native can

serve it, and more cheaply and more conveniently than a European

can(Anthony 86).

The community was thus duly rewarded with preferential employment in most of

the vital working positions in the communication networks. Their domination of

the Upper subordinate posts in the railways is indicated by the fact that more than

half the numerous raihvay institutes, which became a focal point of social life for

these employees, had almost exclusive Anglo-Indian or European membership.

43

Until 1878, every branch of the telegraph department was manned, almost

exclusively, by Anglo-Indians or Domiciled Europeans. Though competition from

educated Indians was on the rise, the government made it an official policy that the

number of Anglo-Indians and Domiciled European employees should not fall

below two-thirds of the entire workforce. Until the introduction of the 1919

reforms, an Anglo-Indian could be appointed in a Government job if he had a

Senior Cambridge degree. The minimum educational qualification for an Indian,

however, was a university degree, as it was felt that Indians required more

education to acquire fluency in English.

As greater stress came to be laid on the knowledge of English, Anglo-Indian

schools became famous for the quality of education they imparted, not only to

members of the community, but abu to Indians who soon clamoured for

admission. A number of Anglo-Indians rose to occupy fairly high positions in the

British official hierarchy though th~ntinued to occupy an anomalous space in

colonial society. Press reports, of alleged threats of sexual molestation in the

1880's, clubbed European and Eurasian women together as victims and wrote of

their being insulted by "by lower class native men"(Sen, Women and Empire 22).

However, at a social level, there were innumerable instances of discrimination.

Jemima Allen refused a dinner invitation extended to her, in 1880, by the Vernede

family whose blue blood, she felt, had "grown rather black in its downward

flow. "30

1.10.0 COLOUR AND MARGINALISATION

Despite a relatively higher level of economic prosperity, the post mutiny era was

one which saw an increasing social distance between the British and the Anglo­

Indians. Intermarriage between the communities was no longer acceptable and

though, unlike South Africa, there was no specific legal restriction on marriages or

sexual relations across the colour line any such relationship was discouraged and

could lead to social ostracism. As a result of this increasing social marginalisation

the Anglo-Indian community slowly became almost entirely endogamous. During

the 19th and early 201h century skin colour became an important visible marker of

44

belonging and there was a strong colour bar in colonial India. There had always

been a preference for fair skin, among the colonisers as well as the Indians. Emily

Eden, writing in the early half of the: 19111 century, refers quite ironically to the

consternation caused by her suggestion of asking wives of uncovenanted officers to

send contributions to a fancy sale. 'This was rather a shock to the aristocracy of

Shimla and they did suggest that some of the wives were very black. That I met by

the argument that the black would not come off on their work"( Up the Co uniTy

159).

The colour of the skin is "the most visible of fetishes, recognized as 'common

knowledge' in a range of cultural, political and historical discourses, and plays a

public part in the racial drama that is enacted everyday in colonial

societies"(Bhaba, The l{JCation of Culture 78). In the Raj it not only became the

most visible and "key signifier of cultural and racial difference" but was also

linked to morality and sexual temperament. (Bhaba 78). Flora Annie Steele

observed in one of her stories that, "the difference between a brown and a white

skin was the outward sign of the vast difference between sentiment and sheer

passion"(The Potters 'Thumb 45). The 8ignificance of colour, as a demarcator in

colonial society grew, especially after the opening of the Suez Canal made tht:

journey to India less cumbersome for white women, and increased the numbers of

the 'fishing fleet'.

By the 1880's, colour had become a matter of such consequence, that the Anglo­

Indian community itself requested the implementation of a new racial

classification. This was based on the degree of admixture with 'native' blood,

presumably to be determined by the colour of the complexion. The colour bar

gradually hardened in the early 20111 century and an observer later commented that,

"conditions in those days strongly resembled present conditions in Sou1h Africa

with this difference, that while in South Africa it is imposed by the government, in

India it was accepted by mutual arrangement and by tacit concensus" (Allen 105).

The anonymous speaker, quoted by Charles Allen, gives no indication, however, as

to who were the parties to this 'mutual' agreement regarding racial segregation on

the basis of colour. Nor does he concern himself with the impact of such

45

discrimination upon those who were excluded. The situation of the Anglo-Indians

was analogous, in many ways, to that of the coloured population of South Africa.

They formed part of the non-white base upon which white privilege was

dependent. But they had to contend with a form of social apartheid, despite the

absence of legally sanctioned segregation. The situation was fraught with

complications, due to the fact that sometimes the variety of colour found in one

single family made it impossible to classify even that particular family in terms of

colour. Thurston in 1898 noted that," in colour the Eurasians afford, as is natural in

a mixed race, examples of the entire colour scale from sooty black through sundry

shades of brown, yellow, to pale white and even as a very rare exception, florid or

rosy."31 Sujit Mukherjee suggests that, in such a situation, the fair Anglo-Indians or

Domiciled Europeans faced the worst dilemma. They could, and often did, hide ·'i:

their antecedents in order to gain entry into the upper reaches of colonial society,

and into a world of economic privilege and power (Mukhe~jee, Forster and

Further 172).

1.10.1 STRATEGIES OF SURVIVAL-PASSING

An editorial in The Anglo-Indian Review, even as late as 1928, found it necessary

to point out that many so called Domiciled Europeans, also referred to as 'country

born', were in the habit of remaining "aloof from their darker brothers ... squeezing

into clubs from which if their coloured relations were known, they would be

excluded". 32 This statement brings into focus some of the basic strategies of

colonial rule, which increasingly involved the rulers and their subjects, in the

establishment and perpetuation of a racist, divisive social order. The clandestine,

and at times, illegal breaching of social barriers of race, ethnicity and colour

becomes almost inevitable when these divisions are permitted, or designed, to

become socially and economically restrictive. This is commonly known as

'passing' and was one of the tropes most frequently used in colonial literature, and

life, to signify the lack of moral fiber and general unworthiness of the Anglo­

Indian, male or female.

46

The valorisation of whiteness (;ould lead to piquant situations. There were

instances where two members of the same family drew dissimilar salaries merely

because one of them was fair enough to pass for a European. Thus, a pecking order

based on the degree of fairness came into existence within the community itself.

Gloria J. Moore points out that in such a fluid situation the, "question of

identification could be a matter of choice. The more scrupulously honest families

identified themselves as Anglo-Indian, whether or not this was obvious, or brought

them a lower salary"(73). Others, however, virtually disowned the darker members

of their family. One of the interviewees in The Anglo-Indian Vision tells of

"Another family I knew, (who) had a son and a daughter who were ~;lightly

swarthy-they just disowned them, since they were passing as 'pure'

European!"(73) The link between economic status and colour, which evidently

signified 'purity' of race, was a major factor in in~ucing many individuals and

families to hide any Indian connection. They denied their Indian roots, not merely

for fear of social ostracism, but also because it would affect their financial status.

The 'passers' not only invited the censure of their o~m community, but also lived

in constant fear of discovery by an increasingly stratified and exclusive British

society. The existence of a sizeable number of such individuals and families is

proved by the frequent refenences in the Anglo-Indian Review to such

'emasculators' of the community who were depriving it of its 'best men'. An.

article dated September 1932, while censuring these, so called deserters, highlights

some of the imperatives which motivated such subterfuge. The article refers to

those:

Anglo-Indians who have fortunately, escaped the colour handicap

and live their lives concealing their identity, lest the European firms

look down upon them and hopeful that they may, in time be

mistaken for the imported covenanted article; lest European clubs

black ball him and lest European ladies ignore him as many of them

are wont to do with hybrids, such as we are, and last but not least,

lest railway officials refuse them the Lee concessions which some

47

of them have managed to squeeze into and their leave and pay be

reduced (6).

Reginald Maher, referring to the days when admittance to European clubs

depended on pigmentation, cites the instance of two sisters one of whom was

blonde; "Her flaxen hair, light eyes and Caucasian complexion provided her

passport into a club where her own sister, black haired, dark eyed and sable

skinned could obtain no entry"(104).

In The Wretched of the Earth Frantz Fanon states:

When you examine at close quarters the colonial context, it is

evident that what parcels out the world is to begin with the fact of

belonging to or not belonging to a given race, a given species. In the

colonies the economic substructure is also a superstructure. The

cause is the consequence, you are rich because you are white, you

are white because you are rich (30-31 ).

Whiteness equalled prestige, if not wealth, m the colonies and it was these

underlying structures of precedence and power, which the 'passers' were trying to

access. The conflation of race, class and colour created a complex situation where

the Anglo-Indian was, at times, granted special benefits and a limited identification

with the rulers, and at others was pushed aside, so that he would pose no threat to

the economic and political framework of Empire. The multi-tiered system of

appointments and salary structures was an important strategy of colonial

administration, as well as a means of perpetuating divisions between races. In a

society where race and colour denoted social and economic mobility, it inevitably

encouraged unscrupulous Anglo-Indians to try and take advantage of the higher

salaries and better career prospects available to the Europeans. An article titled

"The Communal Award," published in The Anglo-Indian Review, refers to these

"camouflaged hybrids" and wonders whether they concealed their true identity

"lest Railway officials refuse them the Lee concessions which some of them have

managed to squeeze into and their leave and pay be reduced?"33 Many Anglo-

48

Indians feel that some of the more sensitive members of the community became

'passers' in order to escape the 'libelous images' of their community, which

abounded in contemporary literature, rather than purely for material or social gain.

This belief merely confirms the impact which the frequently pejorative imaging of

the community had on the psychology of the individual. 34

1.11.0 ANGLO-INDIANS AND THE INDIANS

The relegation of the Anglo-Indian to the lowest levels of the system of privilege

and power in the European hierarchy inevitably affected their economic and social

status The Anglo-Indians were handicapped, by their colour and their racial

antecedents, which were portrayed and accepted as being questionable by the

British and the Indians-setting up an unusual synchronism of thought behveen the I

coloniser and the colonised .. What is interesting, however, is the fact that British

writers often accused the Indians of being prejudiced against the Anglo-Indians,

without admitting to any bias on their own part. Referring to the exdusion of

Anglo-Indians from positions of responsibility, Emma Roberts claimed, ''It cannot

be too strongly impressed upon the reader's mind, that these exclusions originated

in the prejudices of the natives, who, while professing their willingness to be

governed by Europeans, absolutely refused to submit to persons springing from

outcast females". 35

Indian, and especially Hindu, society was undeniably rigid and caste conscious.

The British were also treated as outsiders, though this fact did not trouble them as

it did not impinge on their supremacy or their rule. With regard to the Anglo­

Indian, however, Indians were especially biased because of their reservations about

the intermingling of two races. Such a marriage or liaison inevitably broke

important caste taboos and also raised doubts about legitimacy. In fact, Nirad C.

Chaudhuri, in The Continent of Circe claims that even "Contemporary Hindus

have certainly not outgrown this ancient prejudice, and no Hindu c<m, for he

remains basically genetic in all his social outlook: a believer in blood and birth.

Moreover he was not taught to think differently by his British mlers"(290).

49

The Anglo-Indian community was in the unenviable position of being liminal to

both British and Indians society, notwithstanding the porosity of its own borders.

Noel P.Gist and R.D. Wright contend that the Anglo-Indians despite, or partly

because of their growing community feeling found themselves on the fringes of

colonial society. Prejudice, according to Philip Mason implies," a judgement based

on a fixed mental image of some group or class of people and applied to all

individuals of that class without being tested against reality"(Race Relations 52).

Anglo-Indians were culturally and socially marginalised in relation to the Indians

because of differences of religion, dress, customs and language and, despite their

cultural similarity to the British, they were socially marginalised by the colonisers

due to prejudices based on racial lineage, ethnicity and colour. The stereotypical

image of the Anglo-Indian community, which was built up over the years of "\:

colonial rule, therefore, gradually became the dominant mode of portraying and

encountering members of the community in literature.

The Anglo-Indians slowly found themselves pushed into a social no mans land, a

situation compounded by factors such as the uneasy relationship between the

community and Indians. Anglo-Indians were caught between two highly stratified

societies and the situation was further complicated by their desire to associate

themselves, as closely as possible, with the colonisers on whom they felt they had

a legitimate claim. This desire distanced the community from other Indians as it

was perceived as being motivated, at least partly, by the wish to minimize the

influence of, presumably inferior, 'native' blood. On the one hand, Anglo-Indians

faced rejection by caste conscious, high class, Hindu society. On the other hand ,

their own superior attitude made them constantly seek proximity to the British,

who were the centre of power and with whom they could legitimately claim links

of language and culture. The general belief was that the Anglo-Indians took pride

in their European blood whereas they had great disdain for the Indians. This was a

fact acknowledged by some members of the community who felt that, "having a

separate system of schools to those for Indians gives rise to an invidious

distinction" especially as "there is no denying that our schools inculcate in us a

thorough contempt for Indians". 36 Others drew attention to the fact that their

50

European education paid scant attention to Indian history and literature. It choked

"the memory of the Anglo-Indian with the Tag-rag and bobtail of English

literature," and reinforced his belief that he was an Englishman pure and ::;imple.37

This appears to be a rather simplistic explanation for a very complex and deep

rooted sociological dilemma. Frank Anthony attributed the arrogance,, \Vhich the

Anglo-Indian often exhibited towards other Indians, to a kind of "defense

mechanism"; the inverse snobbery of the marginalised. He claimed that such an

attitude was to be found primarily among the " lesser-educated Anglo Indians who

referred disparagingly to 'Indians' apparently as the last psychological booster to

which they clung in a morass of ignorance and often ofpoverty"(375).

The situation was further complicated by the fact that the Anglo-Indians. due to

legal restrictions :md social reasons, had a very marginal presence in rural India. 1

This distancing from the land was also considered to be responsible for giving rise

to a sense of rootlessness. The Anglo-Indian community im;reasingly

acknowledged that its absolute dependence on British supremacy for its livelihood

had given rise to a situation by which it:

alienated itself from the soil and all those industries which are

intimately connected with it. This has been facilitated by the unique

conditions attaching to the Indian social structure, so much so, that

with the lapse of years, the Anglo-Indian has become a stranger in

the land of his birth, and is in fact looked upon in this light by the

masses.38

1.12.0 THE VOLUNTEER ACT-DIVIDE AND RULE

Racial segregation and the divide and rule policy of the British further ensured that

there was very little consonance of thought between the Indians and the Anglo­

Indians. Any bids for economic, social or political mobility made by the Anglo­

Indians often conflicted with the demands of the Indians, a situation which arose

partly due to the ambiguous status of the Anglo-Indians in British India. Anglo­

Indians, especially in the railways, were paid higher salaries than Indians doing the

51

same jobs. The British also created a rift between the two communities by policies

such as the mandatory drafting of Anglo-Indians into the Auxiliary force, which

was often used against Indian demonstrators participating in the freedom struggle.

Mrinalini Sinha indicates that, due to the imperatives of colonial strategy,

"volunteering m India was deliberately promoted as an exclusive

privilege"( Colonial Masculinity 72 ). The fact that it was accepted as such by the

British and Anglo-Indian members of the force, is clearly indicated by their

protests against the recruitment of Indians despite there being no legal barrier to

their joining up. The British could thus maintain a neutral stance without fear of

any substantial change in the primarily European composition of the force. The

ambiguities of the Volunteer Act of 1857 were indicative of colonial strategies by

'i which Anglo-Indians were selectively admitted into structures of privilege

encouraging them to consider themselves, at least temporarily, as part of the

'ruling' classes. However, this limited admittance also had the inevitable effect of

strengthening the existing oppositionalities between the IndiaJ?.S and the Anglo­

Indians. These are very evident in a letter, published in 1880 in The Anglo-Indian

Guardian, which accuses Eurasians of not siding with the 'natives' in an agitation

"for the good of their country." It also criticises another letter, by a Eurasian

correspondent, as being "only an expression of the spite which men of his

community bear towards the Bengalis. "39 Resentment against the British was also

frequently channeled toward the Anglo-Indians who were more accessible

physically. In An Unfinished Autobiography Sucheta Kriplani writes about how,

after the Jallianwallah Bagh incident, she and her sisters. "vented our anger on

some of the Anglo-Indian children who played with us, calling them all kinds of

names."40

As demands for independence gathered momentum, there was a greater effort on

the part of the authorities to "do full justice to the claims of the natives of India to

higher and more extensive employment in the public service"(Abel 36). Due to

increasing emphasis on Indianisation of services, following the Montague

Chelmsford reforms of 1919, there was a lot of resentment among Anglo-Indians

whose employment prospects were adversely affected. With greater emphasis on

52

competitive examinations and educational qualifications, Anglo-Indian men and

women faced increasing competition for jobs. The women of the community had

so far been distinguished from their Indian counterparts by the fact that a

substantial number of them worked as teachers, nurses and stenographers and were

financially independent. Frank Anthony mentions that right up tdl Independence

Anglo-Indian women, "free from caste and communal inhibitions" made up, "80%

oflndia's nursing services, military and civilian" (Introduction xi). Now they faced

competition not only from Indian women, who were becoming more emancipated,

but also from the growing numbers of Indian men who were willing and able to

take over some of these jobs.

1.13.0 SHIFTING LOYALTIES-TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE AND THE 20m

CENTURY

As India moved towards independence, Anglo-Indiarts found themselves in an

increasingly difficult situation, unwilling or unable to belong to the world of the

native or the sahib. They had to deal with the problem of deci.ding whether they

wished to identify themselves with the natives of India or demand a status similar

to that of the Europeans. This decision was fraught with difficulties due to their

close affiliation with the interests of the rulers and their derisive attitude towards

anything Indian. Living in a country which was theirs and yet alien, because of

their own desire for assimilation and identification with the culture and nationality

of their fathers, the Anglo-Indians remained peripheral to the eoncerns of both the

colonizers and the colonised. This situation was not resolved ltill the 1930's when

the Anglo Indian Community took the conscious and pragmatic decision to align

itself with the people of the country. The beginning of the 20th century saw the

founding of a number of Associations and Organisations of Anglo-Indians, as well

as the emergence of some charismatic leaders from within the Community.

However, as many members of the community were government employees these

organisations initially maintained their distance from national politics. Changes in

policy, such as the 1919 Government of India Aet, made it imperative for the

Anglo-Indians, who had finally been designated as such in the 1911 census, to

make their voice heard in the corridors of power.

53

The most popular representative of the community was Sir Henry Gidney, an

ophthalmic surgeon of international repute, who as a member of the Legislative

Assembly. He drew the attention of the authorities to matters pertaining to the

welfare of his community and specifically referred to the discrepancy between the

wages given to Anglo-Indian nurses and the Europeans matrons who were doing

the same job but drawing three times the salary.41 The confusion was further

compounded due to the existence of Domiciled Europeans, who were earlier

known as the 'country gorn,' and consisted of Europeans, some of whose families

had lived in India for generations. Gidney also apprised the government of the

dilemma regarding their legal status, to which the Secretary of State replied that:

For the purpose of employment under the government and inclusion

in schemes ofTlndianization, members of the Anglo-Indian and

Domiciled European community are statutory natives of India. For

the purpose of education and internal security, their status, in so far

as it admits of definition, approximates to that of European British

subjects. 42

Even in matters of defense Anglo-Indians had a dual status as they were not

permitted to join the British army though they could be compulsorily enrolled in

the Auxiliary force. This "duality of status" as Gidney calls it, did little to clarify

the legal and political position of the community nor did it endear them to Indians

against whom these forces were frequently used.43 It also had a psychological

effect on the members of the community, who were conscious that did not belong

wholly either to the East or to the West, "a people without a country and

consequently lacking that vitality which springs from national and racial pride, so

necessary for success".44

During the years between the two world wars, the political situation in India

became increasingly volatile and a number of political and social reforms were

introduced, a sure sign of the imminence of freedom. The rapidity of these reforms

forced the Anglo-Indian community to reassess its loyalties and decide whether it

wished to be linked to the British or to the hopes and aspirations of millions of

54

Indians. The decision was not an easy one as the community, from the earliest days

of its birth, had been almost entirely dependent on British supremacy for its

livelihood. It had thereby almost completely alienated itself from the soil, and all

those industries connected with it. Nevertheless, a reassessment and realignment of

earlier loyalties had already begun and in 1926, H.A. Stark stated that:

If England is the land of our fathers, India is the land if our mothers,

We naturally identify ourselves with the social, economic and

political development and aspirations of our m"bther country We

would live amicably and on terms of mutual trust and respect with

our Indian fellow countrymen, and would have them reciprocate our

sentiments (145).

·~·

In 1931 Gidney attended the Round Table Conference as the President of the All

India Anglo-Indian Association. He again put in an appeal for job reservations

citing the steady increase in unemployment and consequent eeonomic

emas,culation of the community. He also extended his support to women's suffrage.

While appreciating the fact that "the purdah system is still the chief difficulty

facing any great extension of the franchise to Indian women" he put in a request

for the granting of voting rights to Anglo-Indian women. He used the grounds that,

"The women of any community in India, if sufficiently advanced ar4d able to

undertake such work a awaits them in the legislatures should not be penalised

because the women of other communities may be less advanced".45

Gidney's demand for a separate state for Anglo-Indians was not accepted, but the

communal Award of August 1932 allotted 12 seats in seven Provincial legislatures

to the community (Gaikwad 31). With the death of Sir Henry Gidney in 1942 the

mantle of leadership passed to Frank Anthony who succeeded him as president of

the association and was appointed to the Central Legislative Assembly by the

Viceroy. Like Sir Gidney before him Anthony also drew the attention of the

Assembly to the issue of Europeans being paid a substantially higher salary than a

non-European who was doing the same job.

55

1.13.1 POLITICAL REPRESENTATION IN INDEPENDENT INDIA.

On the eve of independence, the major battle Anthony had to fight, on behalf of his

community, was for political representation and statutory recognition. The 1946

Cabinet Mission headed by Sir Stafford Cripps rejected the community's demand

for a single seat in India's Constituent Assembly. Feeling 'betrayed' by the British,

Anthony ironically found the Indian leaders to be more sympathetic to the cause of

his community, despite protests against any concessions being granted to them.

Noel.P. Gist quotes a vitriolic pamphlet written in1946 in which the writer says of

the Anglo -Indians:

no, we do not want them. We never did and we never shall ... Their high

sounding platitudes now must not decieve us, The very fact that they are

now willing to change allegiance and come over to the other camp should

be enough to betray them for what they really are-a freak of humanity,

opportunists of the first order and traitors to the very core of their half caste

hearts.46

Despite such protests, the India Independence Act of 1947 recognised the Anglo­

Indians as one of the six politically recognised minorities of India. The Indian

constitution, which came into effect in 1950, made them "perhaps the only

community anywhere in the world defined in a national constitution.'.47 Under this

constitution two seats in the Lok Sabha were reserved for the Anglo-Indians,

besides which they were given representation in the legislative assemblies of the

major states under Articles 331 and 332. They were also given guarantees

regarding job reservations in certain services and educational grants which were to

be reduced gradually over the years and would finally cease in 1960. Post

independence a major issue which exercised the community was that of preserving

English as the medium of instruction in their schools, in the face of increasing

demands for a switch to Hindi. Frank Anthony successfully fought for the

recognition of English as an Indian language, on the grounds that, it was the

'mother tongue' of a recognised Indian minority, the Anglo -Indians. He thus

56

succeeded in establishing his community as an integral part of the diverse culture

of modern India, without sacrificing its unique identity.

1.14. 0 IDENTITY

Given their complex and varied history, and the umque position which they

occupied within the rigid social and official hierarchy of Imperial India, it was

inevitable that the question of identity would be one of great importance to the

Anglo-Indians. Naming was important, not merely for delineating and establishing

the parameters of the community, but also because the nuances of terminology

often reflected the manner in which the Anglo-Indians were perceived and

represented in society, history and in literature. The variety of names by which the

community has been known, during its relatively short existence, is an external but c\

very significant marker of the diversity of its antecedents, and an indicator of the

ambivalent position occupied by it in colonial society. Adrian Carton points 'OUt

that:

People of mixed- race in India have been known by, and have

described themselves as, a differing range of names which reflect

the changing cultural and political circumstances in which they

found themselves and the varying importance of the imperial

connection in the development of community self-consciousness.48

The term Anglo-Indian was, reportedly, first used to refer to the community by

Major General Sir John Malcolm in 1826 though Cedric Dover refers to it as a

'"filched cognomen"(Ha/f- Caste 139). G.J. Moore contends that, even during the

tenure of Lord Cornwallis, those Anglo-Indians fair skinned enough to pass into

European society were addressed by this name, whereas those who were 'Indian

looking' were designated countryborn, eurasian, hollandez and in the case of those

of Portuguese descent, topasses, kintals, luso indians and kala firenghees.ln its

January J. 886 issue, The Anglo-Indian, suggested the following categorisation

based on skin colour and a rather dubious assessment of the admixture of native

blood:

57

"'Anglo-Indian': Applied to those who have either no or very slight

admixture with the native races: 'Eurasian': Those in whom the

European and native descent are more evenly balanced: 'East

Indian': Those of remote European descent and approaching more

closely to the native type".49

As the years passed the community was also referred to as Indo-Briton but its

members ultimately preferred to adopt the term Anglo-Indian. which was chosen

as it clearly delineated the dual heredity of the community. It also did not carry any

of the pejorative connotations associated with the other commonly used terms

including, chee-chee, blacky white and Eurasian. The last of these, which was in

popular and official use, was rejected because the term, as Sir George F. Macmunn

stated: ."

was an unpleasing one .. .it had become connected in popular

estimation with the less reputable fag- end of a worthy community.

The phrase Anglo -Indian was therefore adopted to cover both those

of pure European parentage born and living in India and those of

mixed descent This however desirable in itself has the disadvantage

that the same phrase is loosely though inaccurately used in general

conversation to apply to those Britons who spend their lives in the

service of India or who otherwise are residents. 50

The term Anglo-Indian was used officially for the descendants of Europeans and

Indians for the first time in the census of 1911. It was later formally adopted under

the Franchise rules of the India Act of 1935, which defined an Anglo -Indian as:

a person whose father or any of whose other male progenitors is or

was of European descent but who is domiciled within the territory

of India and is or was born within such territory of parents

habitually resident therein and not established there for temporary

purposes only.51

58

It is in this sense that the term is used throughout my thesis.

Naming has evidently been a contentious issue for the community and Gloria J.

Moore quotes Oliver Everett to prove that that, "the term Anglo-Indian applied

only to those of mixed parentage and not to those who had merely been born

there"( 167). A correspondent in The Anglo -Indian Vision points out that during

the period 1911 to 194 7 there were in fact three distinct classes in India:

European, Eurasian or Anglo -Indian (with much passing) and

Indians of every variety'. Imagine my surprise when I arrived in

England after the war to find a whole body of history and literature

growing, the Europeans describing themselves as Anglo- Indian. I

suppose they wished to keep the friendship of the new nation, India,

or cash in on the romance. I could scarcely believe my ~~ars when

someone told me, 'you should call yourselves Eurasian, it was the

wholly British who are Anglo- Indian' 52

Even today, the term is frequently used in literature, critical works and histories

dealing with the Raj, to refer to former British officers of the East lndia company

and the British Government and their families. This indicates a continuing

theoretical marginalisation of the community and a lack of concern with its

perceptions of identity. Anglo-Indian commentators, such as Eriea Lewin, draw

attention to the discursive periferalisation of their community. This includes the

frequent eliding of the Anglo-Indian woman from feminist discourses that "speak

of woman of the coloniser vs. women of the colonised" or use dif£erences of skin

colour as markers of experience. 53 This lack of engagement with the Anglo-Indian

woman's complex and often contradictory response to the colonial experience

reinforces the rigidity of binary oppositions, denying any significance to this third

inhabitant of the colonial space. The frequent occurrence of situations, where

Anglo-Indian women came up against prejudices or preconceptions of the

community, are also indicative of the extent and manner in 'Nhich literary

representations, beginning with the colonial era, have influenced or reinforced

popular responses to the community.

59

NOTES

I. Tabish Khair, Babu Fictions:Aiienation in Contemporary Indian Novel (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001) S9.

2. Christopher Hawes points out that the policy of encouraging marriages between European soldiers and Indian women encountered significant cultural and religious difficulties. Due to the reluctance of the women to convert " conventional morality was ignored by Europeans of all nations, occupations and degree. The consequence was visited on the progeny of the unofficial unions of European men and Indian women. Their Eurasian children were illegitimate in Western eyes." Poor Relations The Making of a Eurasian Community in British India 1773-1833 (Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996) 1-2.

3. People of mixed heredity were invariably placed at the lowest rung of a society which privileged white skin colour and 'pure' Portuguese descent. The French explorer de Laval noted in the seventeenth century, that the people who are esteemed the most "are those who have come out from Portugal, and are called "Portuguese of Portugal"; next are those born in India of a Portuguese father and mother, and called "Castiri", that is of their caste and blood; the least esteemed are the offspring of a Portuguese and an Indian parent, called Mestices, that is, Metis, or mixed. Quoted in Adrian Carton, " Beyond 'Cotton Mary': Anglo-Indian Categories and Reclaiming the Diverse Past," The International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies 5.1 (2000):n.pag. Online. Internet. 21 Oct. 2003.

\ 4. By 15SS the word mestizo was commonly used for someone who was "halfe an Indian and

halfe a Portugal!" Hobson Jobson, 1903.

The term feringee was used by the British to describe "all the black Mustee Portuguese and Christians residing in the settlements as a people distinct from the natural born subjects of Portugal." Quoted in Adrian Carton," Be-yond 'Cotton Mary': Anglo-Indian Categories and Reclaiming the Diverse Past," The International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies 5.1 (2000):n.pag. Online. Internet. 21 Oct. 2003.

Indians apparently adapted the term and referred to 'half- castes ' as 'Kala Feringhis.' I. Ghosh, Memsahibs Abroad: Writings by Women Travellers in 19'1' Century India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 199S) 209.

Writing towards the end of the IS'" century L. De Grandpre mentions that people descended from the Potuguese are "called here tapas, from the word topi, which signifies in the Portuguese language a hat." P.T.Nair, Calculla in the 18'" Century (Calcutta: Firma KLM 19S4). 243:P. Spear, The Nabobs :A Study of the Social Life of the British in /81

h

Century India (London : Oxford, 1963), 62.

5. Dutch soldiers, unlike the Portuguese, were1 permitted to bring their wives along, this together with the prevalence of a stricter moral code limited the number of alliances with 'native' women though there were some marriages with Eurasian women of Portuguese descent. Evelyn Abel, The Anglo-Indian Community: Survival in India (Delhi: Chanakya, 19SS) 10.

6. Quoted in H.A. Stark. Hostages to India or' The Life Story of the Anglo-Indian Race. (Calcutta: The Author, 1936) 19. Albert De Mendelslo, a traveler from Holstein who visited Surat in 163S, wrote about the "collegiate and usually celibate" life led by the British in these settlements. Quoted in Philip Woodruff, The Men who Ruled India : the Founders (London: Jonathan Cape, 1953) 53. However, as Woodruff points out, such a, strictly regimented way of life was difficult to enforce and there were instances of British men living with Indian women outside the precincts of the fort.

7. Percival Spear observes that," There was no very lasting colour prejudice in the early IS'" century, and marriage with coloured women was accepted as the normal course" P. Spear 13.

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8. Woodruff notes that "It was a small world, linked closer by marriage, almost weekly contracted by death .... The funeral bells toll through Hickey's pages as steady as the hours in a cathedral's close" Philip Woodruff 160-161.

9. Women like Rose Aylmer and Emma Wrangham were the exceptions and commanded the attention of numerous eligible me:n in Calcutta society. Rose was "one of the first of these young ladies of fashion who for a hundred years or so were to be sent out by their parents to seek the right husband or avoid the wrong one." Woodruff 152.

I 0. The large number of irregular relationships in the 18111 century is indicated by the fa:ct that, "Over half (54%) of the children baptised at St. John's, Calcutta between 1767 and 1782 were Eurasian and illegitimate.·" Hawes, Poor Relations 4. However Hawes also points out the practical reasons which prevented the regularisation of many of these relationships. He says " It was one of those paradoxical things that if there had been, as there is now, a civil marriage possible they (the children) wouldn't have been illegitimate. lf an Indian woman was not a Christian, and most were not, then her child was illegitimate." Quoted in Glenn D'Cruz, "In Conversation with Christopher Hawes" The International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies 3 .I ( 1998):n .pag. On I ine.lntemet. 2 7 March 2003.

II. Until the beginning of the 18d' century there was no real prejudice against children of irregular or mixed unions, though it is evident that the colour of the skin often determined the future prospects of the child. William Palmer writes about his 'natural children' that, "all are good and sensible and have been educated in England". He also ref~;rs to his brother Julius' children of whom i:O.: says two "almost as fair as English children" were to go to England: but the third was "too dark to escape detection and although the strongest, was therefore to be educated in Bengal." Quoted in P. Spear 63.

12. "It was not till 1835 that it was legal for British subjects to acquire landed property within the Company's dominions''' Stark 67n.

i 3. Bengal Gazelle, March 1781. Quoted in M. Edwardes, British in India 1772-1947 ( London : Sedgwick and Jackson, 1976 ) 314.

14. Covenanted positions gradually became the exclusive preserve of Englishmen and were so called because "members of the service were required to sign covenants with the East India Company under very specific terms." Evelyn Abel 17.

15. S.C Dutt Bengaliana: A Dish of Rice and Curry, and Other Indigestible Ingredients (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and CO.l885) 66.

16. Quoted in FrankAnthony, Britain's Betrayal in India: The Story of the Anglo-Indian Community (Bombay: Allied Publishers, 1969) 27-28.

17. Quoted in Frank Anthony 28.

18. Most Anglo- Indian writers refer to the appropriation of their heroes and achievers by the British partly due to !;he difficulty of locating their identities by their 1~ames. G.J.Moore refers to the fact that one Lawrence Gomez Allard (alias Gomez Lawrence) was only detected to be a person of mixed blood by historians because of the discovery of records pertaining to" the salary paid him which never reached more than Rs.90" G.J.Moore, The Anglo- Indian Vision (Melbourne: AE Press, 1986) 38.

Frank Anthony, addressing the annual General Meeting of the All India Anglo~Indian association in I 958, said," the community has lost the luster of the achievements of many of its great sons and daughters, because the credit for them has been filched by British historians or the British people." Quoted in V.R. Gaikwad The Anglo-Indians (Bombay: Asia Publishers, 1967) 41. However, Anthony also acknowledge~ the fact that some Anglo-Indians are themselves guilty of denying their true identity in order to gain economic and social acceptability.

19. Quoted in Noel P.Gist and R.D Wright, Marginality and Identity (Leiden: E.J.Brill, 1973) 12.

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20. Quoted in H.A.Stark 72.

21. Christopher Hawes disagrees with Anglo-Indian writers like Howard Stark and Frank Anthony who "postulate a deliberate policy of destruction, formulated by the British and aimed at eroding opportunities for the ·Anglo-Indian community." He feels many commentators also ignore the extent to which Eurasians "overlapped with the British the whole time." Quoted in Glenn D'Cruz, "In Conversation with Christopher Hawes" The International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies 3.1(1998): n.pag.Online. Internet. 27 March 2003.

22. Quoted in E.M.Collingham, Imperial Bodies: The Physical experiences of the Raj,c./800-/947 (Cambridge: Polity Press, 200 I) 76.

23. Quoted in Lawrence James, Raj The Making and Unmaking of British India (London:Little Brown and co., 1997) 218.

24. Husbands and Wives Again" The Friend of India Vol. 36. July 1870: 794.

25. Reginald Maher, These are the Anglo-Indians (Calcutta: Swallow Press, 1962) 38.

26. J. W.Grgory, The Menace of Colour (London: Seely, Service and Co., 1925) 233.

27. J.W.Grgory, The MenaceofColour(London: Seely, Service and Co.,l925) 233.

28. Quoted in Evelyn Abel 22. ·~·

29. The Anglo-Indian Review, April 1944: 8.

30. Quoted in E.M.Collingham. Imperial Bodies: The Physical experiences of the Raj,c.I800-1947(Cambridge:PolityPress,200 I) 178.

31. Quoted in V.R.Gaikwad, The Anglo-Indians: A Study in the Problems and Processes Involved in Emotional and Cultural Integration (London: Asia 1967) 45.

32. The fact that Anglo- Indians were themselves quite exercised about members of their community who tried to 'pass' is evident in the numerous articles which address the subject. The editorial of The Anglo-Indian Review, September 1932 refers to "camouflaged hybrids" who attempt to conceal their true identity and asserts that "It is this denial of nationality, this leakage from the top that has emasculated the community by depriving it of its best men" (16). Dr May Shaeve also points out that, "Of Anglo-Indians, the prosperous and well educated are constantly being lost to the Community because they are ashamed to admit that they are of mixed race and determined that the odium shall not cling to their children. "The Anglo-Indian Review, March 1929:5.

33. The Anglo-Indian Review, September1932:17. Also see Laura Roy Chaudhuri, The Jadu House: Intimate histories of Anglo-India (London:Doubleday,2000) I 03.

34. Anglo- Indian commentators frequently refer to the psychological impact of stereotypical images. Maher 38: Moore 165.

35. Qtd in Indira Ghosh, Women Travellers in Colonia/India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998)p149.

36. "The Inferiority Complex" The Anglo-Indian Review, August 1932: 4.

37. Revd. W.A.Hobson, "The Vocation of the Anglo-Indian" The Anglo-Indian Review, August 1928:2.

38. The Anglo-Indian Review, September 1928: 2.

39. The Anglo Indian Guardian, April3 1889: 772-773.

40. Quoted in Women's Voices: Selections from Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century Indian Writing in English, ed. Eunice de Souza and Lindsay Pereira ( Delhi: Oxford, University Press, 2002)297.

41. The Anglo-Indian Review, May 1932:23.

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42. "The Evidence given in public by the Deputation of the Anglo-Indian and Domiciled European Community bt!fore the Simon Commission at New Delhi on 26 Nov. 1928" The Anglo-Indian Review, January 1929:2.

43. The Anglo-Indian Review, April 1929:17.

44. "The Domiciled Community" The Anglo-Indian Review, Aug.l928:5

45. The Anglo-Indian Review, March 1932 : 12.

46. Quoted in Noel P.Gist and R.D Wright, Marginality and Identity (Leiden : E. J. Brill, 1973)p.44.

47. The Review, October 2000:8.

48. Adrian Carton, "Beyond Cotton Mary" The International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies.5.1(2000) :n.pag Online. lntemet.21 Oct2002.

49. The Anglo-Indian, January 9 1886:19.

50. George McMunn " 'Mixed Marriages' Its Romance and its Problems" The Anglo-Indian Review, Xmas 1828:19.

51. Quoted in Kuntala Lahiri Dutt In search of A Homeland: Anglo-Indians and McCiuskieganj (India :Minerva, 1990)p.I6.The same definition was late'r adopted in The Constitution of India (New Delhi: Government of India Press, 1 949) Para366, pg. 2526.

52. GloriaJ. Moore, The Anglo-Indian Vision (Melbourne: AE Press, 1986) Jt~7.

53. Erica Lewin, "Anglo-Indian Women: Identity l.ssues." The Intc>.rnational Journal of Anglo­Indian Studies.l2 (1996): n.pag. Online. Internet 14 July 2001.

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