Anglo-Indians Documentaries and Research Papers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS8KOsUeWRAu0026t=10s

This documentary (which can watched by clicking the image above) should be compulsory viewing to study the disgraceful manner in which the Anglo-Indian community was appeased and accorded benefits that ordinary Indians couldn’t even dream of! Frank Anthony to whom a substantial part of this documentary is dedicated, agitated and had a special provision inserted in the Indian Constitution (Article 337) that required the Union and State Governments to give special grants to the Anglo-Indian community, regardless of the fact that the first loyalty of the community was to our British Colonial Masters! Although what remains of that community has been defenestrated, it did exercise power out of all proportion to any contribution it was making.

Wilfred Joseph McMahon (Mac), about whom several Pages are documented in this blog, was very much part of such a community and, for 19 years had the time of his life in a school whose head, K.I. Thomas ignored the dreadful example Mac was setting by the former abrogating his responsibility of being a ‘Housemaster’ and leaving the care of his wards to 16 year old thugs. In any institute, education, business or social, Mac would have been booted out for bringing that institution into disrepute. Throughout my Blog, I have made references to Railway Colonies. Mac’s origins, and those of his close relatives were in such Colonies. His father Vernon spent all of his working life as a humble Telegraphist in such a Colony on a salary of 50 bucks a month but Mac kept that well hidden, not once giving a clue relating to his family. Instead he led people into believing that he was a sophisticated person from the upper echelons of society.

It is worth highlighting the following extracts from the documentary:

• The Anglo-Indians were regarded as pillars of British Imperialism. They were deliberately brought into existence to serve the Imperial interest.
• They were then made the ‘best politically hated community’ in the country.
• Whereas they should have been chased out with the British, Anthony got leaders such as Gandhi, Patel and Nehru to accept them and give them a special place in the Indian Constitution.
• Anthony claims that the contribution the community made was out of all proportion to their size. This is, of course utter nonsense. The only reason for the ‘contribution’ in certain fields (Railways, Telegraphs, Customs and other middle jobs) was because jobs in those fields were reserved for Anglo-Indians.
• Educated or uneducated, Anglo-Indians could get jobs as guards, drivers or firemen on the railways.
• The Anglo-Indians wanted preferential treatment!
• Frank Anthony regarded the Anglo-Indians as a ‘Forward Class that didn’t want to be identified as untouchables!
• (What Frank Anthony fails to realise is that a very substantial number of the Anglo-Indians were the product of liaisons between British fathers and ‘untouchable’ mothers as it is unlikely that any upper cast women would have willingly liaised with the British.)
• Frank Anthony supported Indira Gandhi’s Emergency and indeed defended her in Court proceedings

Melville De Mellow is perhaps the most articulate and realistic Anglo-Indian. His analysis of the community fits in exactly with what is now regarded as a given:

• The Anglo-Indians were a buffer between the British and Indians with jobs in the police, customs and railways being given to that community.
• The Anglo-Indians were kept in a ‘closed jacket in a vacuum’.
• The community imitated the masters, thus where there was a club for the British, there were Railway Institutes for the Anglo-Indians.
• The Anglo-Indians had such pastimes and pleasures as dances and Whist Drives
• The Anglo-Indians used such expressions as Kent Cantonment and Sussex Cantonment to describe their respective places of abode. They were under a big delusion!
• The Anglo-Indians had ‘Champaign taste’ but earned beer income. At the time of the documentary, 1986, they couldn’t even afford beer!
• Many Anglo-Indians fled the country as they could not visualise their daughters marrying good looking Sardars!

The documentary goes on to articulate the History of the decline of the Anglo-Indians and in my opinion evidences that those who blended in with the Indians had no problems at all but those who didn’t were taken down a catastrophic realisation of the reality that they were not superior to other Indians, viz:

• There was no retaliation against the community
• The Armed Forces in particular welcomed the contribution the Anglo-Indians were making and members were able to reach the uppermost echelons of the three branches of the forces
• In the documentary it is worth listening to Jennifer White who speaks with a perfect British accent.
• Many who migrated had ego problems and returned. Obviously, the British wouldn’t see them as the superior race the pre-Independence and early post-Independence Indians were obliged to see them as.
• One problem the Anglo-Indians had was that it was endogamous, i.e., they would marry among themselves.
• Among other matters set out by the Anglo-Indians themselves was: They lacked a sense of belonging, many were thinking of emigration, they lived for the day, whatever is earned in the day is spent, they don’t fit in, they depend on charity and vegetate, in particular, Mother Teresa is mentioned, they won’t do degrading work, they are too lazy, they depend on wives with whose earnings they take to drink and drugs, many are wife beaters, their children don’t go to school.

By far the most profound example of the pathetic but deserved decline and the virtual obliteration of the Anglo-Indian community is evidenced by the section of the documentary relating to LINGARAJAPURAM, a slum area of Bangalore where:

• The Anglo-Indians live without basic amenities, no water, no sewerage, 6 families share 1 toilet or practice street defecation.
• The Community consists of the unemployed and retired.
• Where the Anglo-Indians are unemployed, they remain unemployed
• Alcoholism and drug abuse are the norm
• Prostitution is rife with men pimping for their own wives
• Christopher Bastion, a male prostitute himself as well as being the son of a prostitute is featured as is his aunt Poppy, also a prostitute. Christopher, a ‘cabaret artist’ (whatever that means) when work is available suffers the terrible humiliation of rape, torture by cigarette burning etc and sees no future in his debauched life. In tears he talks about the only way out being suicide. It is unlikely that he has survived at the time this Page is published.

The Anglo-Indians excelled at sports and in many cases they didn’t need to do anything ‘other than play Hockey’. In the real world though, A.E.T. Barrow, Secretary of The Inter-State Board for Anglo-Indian Education put matters in perspective:

The Anglo-Indians were taught such irrelevant phrases as Durham Durham on the Wear, Newcastle Newcastle on the Tyne, London London on the Thames and their History lessons consisted of learning about Alfred burning the cakes etc. The Community set out to preserve their culture the basis of which is the English Language.

William St. J. Marley, the then MD of Indian Oxygen put matters in more perspective by saying that the Anglo-Indians always depended on somebody else and when Independence came, they were caught with their backs against the wall.

It is worth noting that William St John Marley made clear that ‘you cannot go into a kindergarten as a teacher’s assistant without an SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate). Yet the attitude of the Anglo-Indians was ‘Why should I’? Note: Two Anglo-Indians, unqualified, were teachers in the school until the I left in 1968 and beyond; Mrs Enos and Mrs Brown –see prospectus of 1965.

William St John Marley didn’t want his own daughters to marry outside the community as ‘they would lose their identity’ and their job would be in the kitchen. (Quite wrong as evidenced by Indian ladies who were in charge of the successful Mars Mission known as Mangalyan, and there have been all women crews flying passenger Jumbo jets from USA to India). Other Indian ladies such as Indira Nooyi and Naina Lal Kidwai have reached the uppermost echelons of the business world.

The last sentence of the documentary is worthy of note where the Indian Women’s Hockey Captain says ‘We are not Indians!’

The above docu-drama was produced by Australian Anglo-Indians and Sir Henry Gidney is played by Dr Richard Johnson, a member of the community. The clip has been taken from YouTube which is a public platform. In the context of Lawrence School Lovedale, the following points must be noted:

Like a number of other characters who ruled the roost for many years after Independence, Gidney was a product of the Railway colonies which was a close knit insular community. It was this community that produced Wilfred Joseph McMahon, who was the son of a Telegraphist, that profession being an integral part of the Railway colony. Both, Gidney and Mc Mahon had Irish origin fathers.

The use of the word ‘chokra’, literally translated, this word means boy but for characters like Gidney and pupils at Lawrence School, it meant poor unwashed Indian boys. Even poor Indian boys on a scholarship in Lovedale referred derogatively to boys just as poor to themselves as ‘chokras’ in a very derogative manner!

Gidney refers to ‘Rich in experience’ with a particular emphasis in using English Language; it is precisely this ‘skill’ that enabled the otherwise untalented Mac to enjoy a self-indulgent , one might say a debauched lifestyle for the 19 years he spent at Lovedale. A ‘Housemaster’ who abandoned his wards into the care of 16 year old thugs while he was away at the Lawley Institute 7 days a week gambling and enjoying himself wasn’t setting a good example to follow! Far from it, he was in fact bringing the school into disrepute and causing irreparable harm to the wards he was paid to protect!

Yet another sad and depressing story of the total decline of the Anglo-Indian community.

• Kitty Texeira is the featured character in the story. She started her working life at the age of 9 selling fruit. Her state of poverty now is such that she has to sign up for the rural employment scheme!
• It is evident that this saree wearing poverty stricken lady who behaves like any other poverty stricken Indians was once very beautiful but alas had fallen on hard times particularly with a husband who was incapacitated.
• The Anglo-Indians, once the sahibs are now struggling.
• English speaking, the Anglo-Indians lived mostly in the cities.
• As usual, the community’s life revolved around the railways!
• Once beautiful buildings now sadly dilapidated can be seen.
• In the 1930s the Golden Age of the Anglo-Indians was coming to an end.
• The Anglo-Indians were not connected to the rest of the world. Within their own communities they were bakers, owned slaughterhouses, they were cobblers, they had gramophone stores, there were even department stores!
• All that has now disappeared and what little is left of the community will now either end or will have to blend in with the rest of India.

Sadly, a documentary I had inserted below has been withdrawn on copyright grounds, but a tiny clip has been inserted. However, the comments I have made gives a true picture of the sad state of affairs relating to the community.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06hmf5q

This documentary is a further reflection of the annihilation of the Anglo-Indian community that did not blend in and mix with other Indians. Two ladies, Leila and Teri were adopted by couples in England. Leila may or may not be an Anglo-Indian but Teri certainly is. So here are relevant extracts relating to Teri:

• Teri was adopted in 1974 and she was probably given up to Mother Teresa’s charity as her father had died and her mother Yvonne Fernandes couldn’t cope with Teri, her brother Gregory and two sisters.
• The squalor in which the few survivors of the community lives is particularly noticeable.
• Her mother Yvonne died in 2006 and is buried in a paupers grave. She was probably picked up from the street by Mother Teressa’s charity.
• One sister, who was living in a home for impoverished women at the age of 20 married a 45 year old man.
• There are particularly poignant scenes (see minute 36 on) when Teri discovers that her father Peter was buried by the Christian Burial Board but the plot on which he was buried was then sold by the Board so that another body was buried on top of Peter. This was done as nobody ever came to see Peter’s grave.

The take away from this documentary is the sheer decline and complete loss of respect and dignity that the community suffered in the decades following Independence. I consider Teri to be beautiful and a well brought up lady thanks to her adoptive parents. If only the community had blended in there would have been numerous ‘Teris’ living happy lives as part of the wider Indian community. Several school mates of mine belonged to the Anglo-Indian community of Calcutta many of whom regarded themselves as being way above our league. Exceptionally, one lady of the community who was just a year ahead of me married outside the community and is blissfully happy. Another classmate and friend couldn’t find employment and so emigrated to Australia where he is well settled with a wife and family. His sister married outside the community and is well settled in Nagpur.

The clip below provides evidence of how hostile the Anglo-Indians were towards ordinary Indians long after the British were booted out. Note the comments of Anjolie Dev. Minute 13.09. This is poignant; just 4 Indian girls among 50 ‘Whitiees’ who were referred to the Indians as ‘Dirty Wogs’. The Indians were subject to meanness and punished, ‘sent to Coventry’ etc and to add to woes, called ‘Dirty Wogs’. If a relatively grown up lady like Anjolie was subject to such hostility, what chance would a 6 year old Gujarati Hindu boy (yours truly) from far away Kenya stand? I joined the school a mere three years after Anjolie left. The much revered Mrs Enos and a Mrs Fowles were there ready to inflict torture! I do not for a nano-second subscribe to the widely held belief that Mrs Enos was a lovely lady who taught such lines as ‘Child of Grace with a Wooden Face.’

In the documentary above ‘The Dawn Of A New Era: Part 1. Anjolie Dev makes a profound statements. See 13.18 on: ‘The Whities’ called us dirty wogs!’ Thus, 6 years after Independence, the Anglo-Indians had total domination of the school .

This documentary above, Indian Hill Railways is both, enjoyable and poignant. I have included it as exemplifies the community where Mac had his origins; the Anglo-Indians, and Ivan Baxter the guard is a great example of the sort of background that Mac originated from although Mac kept that well hidden.

The Nilgiris where Lawrence School is has been based for over 160 years enabled our Colonial Masters to escape the dust and heat and responsibility of Empire

• Just as Mac was brought up in a Railway Colony around Mhow/Indore, there is a Railway Colony in Coonoor housing 387 employees.
• Ivan Baxter the guard considers it a privilege and has served 32 years in the Railways, his brother served 30 years and his late father, who died in service, served 33 years.
• Ivan, his wife Monica and daughter Diana are a typical Anglo-Indian Railway family but Ivan is the last generation of Anglo-Indian Railwaymen.
• Note the Christian hymn ‘Jesus in my Heart’.
• Victor Dey talks about the Ooty Club (whose membership Mac couldn’t possibly afford)
• There is a ‘Hunt’ along the lines of the British Fox Hunt (now banned in Britain. Oscar wild, with whose writing Mac would have been familiar described the activity as ‘The unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable’).

From the documentary above, the following observations can be made:

• The term Anglo-Indian was officially recognised by the British Government in 1911.
• The community was first defined in Government of India Act 1935. Note: India Republic Day marks and celebrates the date on which the Constitution of India came into effect on 26th January 1950. This replaced the Government of India Act 1935, when the country became a sovereign state. However, the privileges given to the Anglo-Indians continued via Article 337 of the Indian Constitution !
• During the so called Mutiny, the Anglo-Indians manned essential services like posts and telegraph, the railways and customs. They stood loyally and with distinction and many were massacred alongside the Europeans. (No mention is made about who they stood against, e.g., Laxmibai, Jhansi ki Rani and Uda Devi).
• Here is what Bishop Cotton had to say in St Paul’s Cathedral, Calcutta in 1860: Public thanksgiving to Almighty God for deliverance from the seepoy revolt should take expression in the form of schools for the children of the community that had stood so ably by England in her hour of need and which shed its blood for kinsmen across the seas.
• Post 1858, marriage to an Indian became taboo and marriage to Anglo-Indians heavily frowned upon.
• To the British, the Anglo-Indians were convenient subordinates but never equals. Their knowledge of English, religion and loyalty to their Anglo roots were critical qualifications. Derogatory phrases like 8 annas to the rupee were used. (Note: there are 16 annas to the rupee). The derogatory reference to Anglo-Indians using the no.of Annas to the rupee has varied from place to place and time to time.
• The Government of India Act 1935 gave representation to Anglo-Indians in the Provincial legislatures, reservations in the railways, posts & telegraphs and customs, This continued for 10 years after the 1950 Constitution of India, till 1960.

Here is a poem written by a Conroy probably very hurt on realising that England would discard the community after it had been used. England had no intention of appreciating the loyalty and sacrifice of the community.

ENGLAND WILL YOU REMEMBER – BY CONROY

It was 20 years ago
That to fight against England's foe
He most willingly did go
The Anglo-Indian
Today in England's need
Her call he answers with all speed
once again for her to bleed
The Anglo-Indian
Maybe you will so act again
Yet forth he goes and asks no gain
Your fight he'll fight and fight again
The Anglo-Indian
Oh, England! When your sons return
To India's shores their bread to earn
Will you turn and once more spurn
The Anglo-Indian
P'haps History will his praises tell
In telling, tell how nobly well
In England's name he fought and fell
The Anglo-Indian 

• Anglo-Indians could join the Indian Police Force direct as sergeants, a rank reserved for them and ranking equal to Sub-Inspector. They could expect promotion to Inspector and Deputy Superintendent. (See Mrs Enos’ Birth Records).
• Sadly, the majority of British and Anglo-Indians made little effort to appreciate Indian Art, Music, Dance, Drama. The schools also lacked this focus. Such prejudices served to drive a wedge between the communities.
• In 1947 the British packed up and went home with cynical disregard for the Anglo-Indians who remained in India. The next decade saw a great exodus of Anglo-Indians to Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and USA by those who could afford it and who met the stringent entry requirements of host countries.

See Let’s Twist Again above.

• Agra (where Mac, the subject of numerous Pages in my blog) got his Masters Degree) had a big community of Anglo Indians -Every second house in ‘Cantonment’ had Anglo Indians.

• There was a dearth of administrators (so Anglo-Indians fitted in perfectly)
• Post and Telegraphs was what they excelled at (Mac’s father was a telegraphist)
• It was a close knit community
• Phillip Carville mentions: We were the striking feature of the City
• The ladies dressed : hats, high healed shoes
• They did not speak the local language
• The community was respected for the dress culture and behaviour
• Francis Grosser: We were part of this community that was neither British nor Indian
• Philip Grosser of Central Calcutta says the year consisted of one Christmas to another
• Felix Augistine , Alden, Ana and Daryl describe life in the Bow Street Conclave of Calcutta
• Catherine Moss, a mixture of Anglo-Indian and Goan of Ripon Street refers to how close knit the community was
• Keith Lapersonne refers to Monday Evening Tombola and Pound Parties
• Alfred Rosemeyer visits Agra. We are informed that the area around Shiraz Hotel was totally Anglo-Indian, no ‘black’ men were seen!
• Sausage maker Hari says he cannot supply anybody as all the Anglo-Indians have left.
• House called Peyton Place is mentioned by Louise and Gene Alberts
• Regina Credo and Gladys Rosemeyer also feature
• Theodore Baker talks about the right way to make tea and talks about clothes. She also talks about dance styles.
• Elliot Road was an Anglo-Indian locality where most shops used to make only Western Dresses
• Louise Alberts talks about the dress style of Anglo-Indians, now all that has disappeared!
• Note mention of dance styles: Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango
• There were ‘pop’ groups called Beat 4, Reactions, Phantoms, Helians, Trojans!
• Agra Railway Institute had dances and weddings
• Shane Calvert claims food and dresses will remain.
• Harcourt Moss talks about a cake-shop in Colin Street and Clive Gomes talks about Anglo-Indian cake baking traditions
• There is the Bow Barracks Football tournament featuring Jeh Williamson and Jerome Williamson
• Anglo-Indian teachers at Frank Anthony School Delhi are shown
• Sandra D’Rozario refers to Pepper Water (this was very much part of the daily diet of Lawrence School Lovedale)
• Rochelle Rosemeyer refers to P U Ding Ding. (This was the same phrase I picked up at Lovedale for pudding)
• Stew and Ball Curry are mentioned. (Ball curry is just meat balls in a spicy gravy, what proper Indians would call koftas)
• Mark D’Rozario and Marissa D’Rozario feature
• Trevor D’Rozario visits the cemetery in Agra with Rochelle and Samantha. Trevor brought his uncle’s ashes back from Manchester to be buried in Agra.
• Anglo Indians didn’t feel the need for education, today, their aspirations have changed.
• Amit James David talks about the lack of prospective partners.
• Ivan moved back from London.
• Desperate attempts are being made to keep the community together, a big concern is inter-marriage. Charlene Scaife wants an Anglo as first choice but will settle for other if she cannot find.

• Leaving aside the Jews, we can start with the author of Bhowani Junction. He was John Masters who initially denied being Anglo-Indian, such denials being common as Anglo-Indians were determined to be regarded as English
• The same with Merle Oberon. She too denied her Anglo-Indian roots
• Others such as Viviene Leigh, Patience Cooper, Clare Mendonca, Renee Smith, etc. haven’t felt the need to deny their Anglo-Indian origin.
• Two of the actresses shown, Cuckoo Moray and Helen Richardson are strictly speaking Anglo-Burmese.
• All of the people featured are very good looking, were versatile, many acting in films covering English, Hindi and other languages would have been successful in their own right. This is the feature that should have been ingrained into the Anglo-Indians post Independence.

On the left above, Speedy Gonzales was a record I brought to Lovedale when I returned from a trip in 1962/early 1963. The Anglo-Indians had yet to catch up with that song as well as Cliff Richard and later Engelbart Humperdinck.

The documentary on the Right above was made by Anglo-Indians for Anglo-Indians. There is very little for me to add in terms of the message being conveyed by the producers but I would make the following observations: The community which never ever integrated with real India or real Indians wasn’t prepared to accept that the inevitable future was an Independent India. The community’s behaviour, practices and attitudes were such that it would be rejected by the wider non Anglo-Indian population and this would lead to its inevitable demise. It is totally appropriate for me to repeat the words of Nobel Laurate Naipaul from his book An Area of Darkness: ‘In the Indian setting the Indian English mimicry is like fantasy. It is an undiminishing absurdity; and it is only slowly that one formulates what was sensed from the first day; this is a mimicry not of England, a real country, but of the fairy-tale land of Anglo-India, of clubs and sahibs and syces and bearers. It is as if an entire society had fallen for the casual confidence of a trickster. Casual because the trickster had gone away, losing interest in his joke, but leaving the Anglo-Indians flocking to the churches of Calcutta on a Sunday morning to assert an alien faith more or less abandoned in its country of origin….Leaving ‘civil lines’, ‘cantonments’, leaving people ‘going off to the hills’; magic words now fully possessed, now spoken as of right, in what is now at last Indian Anglo-India, where smartness can be found in the cosy proletarian trivialities of Women’s Own and the Daily Mirror, and where Mrs. Hauksbee, a Millamant of the suburbs, is still the arbiter of elegance.’

That said, the Anglo-Indian community did indeed fall for the casual confidence of a trickster. Casual because the trickster (the British) has gone away losing interest in his joke, the joke being the Anglo-Indian community.

Clifford D’Vaz, the sort of Anglo-Indian who would have been happily accepted into the wider Indian Indian community had he stayed on and had the same attitude that he articulates here. He acknowledges:

• We weren’t superior to anybody at all, you might have thought you were superior
• We are pretentious and stuck up
• Family from Bangalore and other parts of South India
• Arrived in Britain, Dec 1963 disembarked at Southampton Port (I arrived a year earlier at Heathrow Airport via Boeing 707)
• Acknowledges they were second tier in the system, the British paid Britons to have children with Indian women and give birth to Christians
• They were a cut above the rest; below the British, above the Indians
• Up to the mid 70’s the community had a superiority complex
• Tables were turned and they had to become economic migrants
• Anglo-Indian traditions continued; no ‘discos’ just old fashioned bands and dances were Jiving.
• Still kept traditional Anglo-Indian diet of ball curry and pepper water.
• The bloody-minded attitude caused some in the community to say they were Anglo-Indians not Indians!

Cliff’s immediate ancestors are proof of the community that Naipaul described thus: ‘this is a mimicry not of England, a real country, but of the fairy-tale land of Anglo-India, of clubs and sahibs and syces and bearers. It is as if an entire society had fallen for the casual confidence of a trickster. Casual because the trickster had gone away, losing interest in his joke, but leaving the Anglo-Indians flocking to the churches of Calcutta on a Sunday morning to assert an alien faith more or less abandoned in its country of origin’ . While Cliff has accepted the reality that the community was nothing special, how it must have hurt his immediate family to realise that they were like everybody else!

Note at 53.22 the Anglo-Indians singing ‘Bring back my bonnie to me’……. a song taught to me at Assembly at the age of 6!

In many ways this is a sad documentary because it evidences that the Anglo-Indian community, which had this feeling of superiority in India, was made painfully aware that in the fatherland, England, the community was a ‘joke’ living in such a fantasy world, a creation of the British rulers. So let me start by repeating, as I have done many times Naipaul’s quote: ‘In the Indian setting the Indian English mimicry is like fantasy. It is an undiminishing absurdity; and it is only slowly that one formulates what was sensed from the first day; this is a mimicry not of England, a real country, but of the fairy-tale land of Anglo-India, of clubs and sahibs and syces and bearers. It is as if an entire society had fallen for the casual confidence of a trickster. Casual because the trickster had gone away, losing interest in his joke, but leaving the Anglo-Indians flocking to the churches of Calcutta on a Sunday morning to assert an alien faith more or less abandoned in its country of origin….Leaving ‘civil lines’, ‘cantonments’, leaving people ‘going off to the hills’; magic words now fully possessed, now spoken as of right, in what is now at last Indian Anglo-India, where smartness can be found in the cosy proletarian trivialities of Women’s Own and the Daily Mirror, and where Mrs. Hauksbee, a Millamant of the suburbs, is still the arbiter of elegance.’

As far as the protagonists in this documentary are concerned, they are a wonderful family that learnt the lesson the hard way that they were regarded as no different to any other coloureds and faced the same discrimination as any other immigrant community what with the old cliche ‘coloureds, children and dogs not allowed’. The superior lifestyle the family enjoyed in India with superior weather, superior housing and superior jobs was, in post-Independence India bound to come to an end. The fatherland, England, was not the land of milk and honey. That said

• The documentary is mainly about 4 sisters from Erode, emphatically, like most Anglo-Indians from a Railway colony, the wider family and community and the travails they faced covering a period from singletons to grandmothers.
• They are a dying race but did not blend in overnight into the host community in England. They faced hostility and discrimination like any other ‘coloured’ people. However, their catholic faith did elicit help from the Catholic church.
• Notice the MC at a gathering talking about ‘goat’ curry. In my school in India this used to be called ‘mutton’ curry and was the main non-veg food eaten on an almost daily basis. Even the tuck shop offered ‘mutton’ puffs! In UK, mutton is sheep meat. Lucky I was a vegetarian.
• Mention is also made of baking cakes. (Mac, a product of another Railway colony, a mainstay of Lawrence School and about whom I have several Pages was, towards his last days was reduced to baking cakes for his old students, his previous lifestyle of visiting the Lawley Institute on a daily basis then neither available nor affordable)
• None of the community spoke any Indian language and it is fairly obvious that no effort was ever made in the two or more centuries that the community existed to learn any indigenous language.
• Back in India, the community enjoyed ‘upper status’ complete with domestic servants! Mention is even made of Mary Ayah!
• The get-togethers for dances etc were, well, enjoyable occasions for them with ‘jiving’, bands (not ‘discos’), Anglo-Indian food etc. There was a HUGE difference in the skin colours of the various members and it was fairly obvious that at least one was of African descent (probably through Portuguese ancestors).
• The jobs they were able to command were pretty minor and carried none of the status such jobs did in the India they left behind.
• On a visit back to their original abode, Erode we could see that the colonies they abandoned had become dilapidated and dirty. This was bound to happen!
• I noticed that the family travelled to the UK on the ship Stratheden, which was a ship that brought over a number of Anglo-Indians from my school.

My own views are that I wish what remains of this community the very best for the future. I was and am a resident of the UK who first arrived at the same time. I far outperformed the subject community. At a period in my career, It was my job to acquire expertise on the business performance, business acumen, acumen in professions such as medicine, law, engineering, accountancy academics etc. of the various Indian communities and I can state categorically that every other Indian community had done far better notwithstanding their more disadvantageous beginnings in terms of linguistic skills and religion. There are thriving Gujarati, Sikh, Ismaili, South Indian and other such communities that have left the Anglo-Indians far behind. I only make this point to show that it was unwise of the Anglo-Indians to fail to foresee the looming Independence, and as such give up their feelings of superiority, disown their loyalty to their British creators and not only blend in but become loyal to India where they enjoyed a status way above their contribution. Alas the community didn’t and sadly I was subjected to its way of life!

This clip is about Peter Moss, Anglo-Indian author. We learn

• The very close connection of the Anglo-Indian community with the Railways
• Peter’s English father was one of the very few Englishmen apprenticed to the Railways (other apprentices being Anglo-Indians and Englishmen working in the Railways already came trained)
• The English father met Peter’s Anglo-Indian mother at the Railway Colony of Tundla
• Peter’s maternal grandmother encouraged Peter’s mother to marry Peter’s father in order to improve the blood!
• The community aspired to be anything but Anglo-Indians!
• From Lucknow Peter travelled to Jamalpur which was a great Railway base.
• The History Peter learnt had an English bias.
• Peter’s maternal grandmother Kathleen home-schooled Peter to a very high standard which involved Peter taking ruler raps (10 times worse was used by Mrs. Enos (see posts on her)on little children such as me.
• Peter realised his community didn’t consider themselves as part of greater India
• They considered themselves apart from unwashed masses
• Peter wasn’t allowed to visit or mix with Indians, they were even chaperoned by their own servants
• The community was trying desperately not to be Anglo-Indian, the stigma of racial impurity was very strong (note the phrase ‘touch of the tarbrush’) and it was reluctant to acknowledge they were Anglo-Indians.
• Peter’s family was upset not at his being gay but his acknowledging that he was Anglo-Indian
• The Anglo-Indians convinced themselves that they were pure Europeans!
• The pending Independence of India was one of great anxiety to the community.
• Peter’s arrival in England was a shock to his system. England was small, shabby, dark and dismal
• Peter even found white men labouring!
• Peter went from one difficulty to another in UK, with money being tight, father having a nervous breakdown etc.

Jitu’s note: Peter told his story like the true gentleman he was, truthfully! It shows how privileged a life the Anglo-Indians enjoyed and how they were living in a fantasy world far away from reality. Alas, members of the community such as Mac (see various posts) carried on living the charmed life for decades after Independence caring little about ‘unwashed’ Indians. Alas, by the time Mac realised that he was a nobody and not ENTITLED to his way of life by virtue of his birth, it was too late for many pupils whose lives he ruined!

Research Papers by Ann Lobo Part 1 and Part 2

Extract from Anderson, Valerie E.R. (2011) The Eurasian problem in nineteenth century India. PhD Thesis, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies)

‘Those left, many of whom had actively chosen to stay, suffered increased prejudice from other Indians who saw them as foreign imperial lackeys, thought they were staying only because they could not afford to leave, or were staying because they could not prove European ancestry. On the othering‘ of Eurasians, Anthony‘s interpretation stressed the part he believed Valentia‘s report of 1811 had played in precipitating the community‘s economic decline: on the basis of that criminally ignorant report, an order was issued in 1808 discharging Anglo-Indians from all ranks of the British Army. … ‘

Extract from RACE, RAILWAYS AND DOMICILED EUROPEANS By Deborah Nixon

‘Younger (1984) credits the railways and the telegraph services as two sources of employment that saved the community from financial ruin. In addition from 1857 railway colonies were built to accommodate employees and their families and by the 1930s according to Bear (1994) virtually all upper subordinate positions were occupied by Anglo Indians and domiciled Europeans. Bear (1994) argues that these colonies acted as sites to stem the miscegenation of European culture through remaining closed; having their own institutes for dances and socialising, their own schools and their own domestic arrangements as far as housing and servants quarters were concerned’

Finally, a documentary below for interest only