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Rochelle Almeida, a professor at New York University, is the first to
shine a spotlight on Britain's Anglo-Indian community, and in
particular the 'First Wave' created between the Partition of the
subcontinent in 1947 and the tightening of UK immigration rules in
1962. Her fascinating book is in many ways a sad reflection on the
problems of identity. In British India, the census of 1911 and Act of
1935 defined Anglo-Indians as the descendants of a European father
and Indian mother, and they have always been marked by their
European names, western dress and use of English. They underpinned
the Raj in their allocation of jobs in many areas such as the railways,
posts and telegraphs, and the police. Yet they were fully accepted by
neither the Indians nor the British, despite their feeling that distant
Britain was 'Home'. That there were limitations on 'Home' came as an
unwelcome shock when large numbers (some 25,000 by 1970)
emigrated to Britain after Partition. Despite their sense of affinity with
the British, many faced colour prejudice and a lack of awareness of
their special relationship to the Raj.
The author looks at the strategies they adopted to make a place for
themselves in their new home, where communities often lacked the
warm intimacy and easy going relations of India. Few were able to
bring much money with them, and lacked the servants and way of life
they had previously enjoyed. Contact with other Anglo-Indians gave
support: many settled in the peripheral circle of London where transport
hubs provided employment. Otherwise job opportunities were limited
and many drifted downwards, finding employment and friends in the
working class. Interestingly it was often women who did better, trading
on their office management or nursing skills to forge successful careers.
In negotiating their difficulties, Anglo-Indians often found it easier to
play down their background and attempted to assimilate in their
newfound home. While dancing and music, which had been such a
feature of their lives, still drew many Anglo-Indians together, when
confronting British society some abandoned their heritage, often
claiming to come from countries bordering the Mediterranean. The
second generation of children born in Britain merged even more
successfully. The strict discipline of the Anglo-Indian home was often
challenged by children of a more liberal age who intermarried and
regarded Britain as their home. This was helped by the rise of multiculturalism
and an increasing ethnic mix, in which Anglo-Indians were no longer singular exemplars.
But, ironically, the growing South Asian
diaspora merely increased the tendency for Anglo-Indians to lose their
identity. Muslims and Hindus were defined and often vociferous
minorities. Anglo-Indians, neither quite Indian nor British, faded away
as a grouping in public awareness. More recently, there have been
attempts to redress this. Clubs in some parts of the country maintain
the tradition of sociability and love of Indian food for which Anglo-
Indians are renowned; others draw together the alumni of old Anglo-
Indian schools in India. The South London Anglo-Indian Association,
with other groups, raises money for charitable and philanthropic work,
mainly among Anglo-Indians in India, but also for causes in the UK.
Regular international gatherings of Anglo-Indians have also over the
last years given the community a sense of its own world-wide identity,
with Australian Anglo-Indians taking a leading part.
A growing interest in ethnicity has also drawn British Anglo-Indians
out of the shadows. Tracing roots in the past, programmes such as TV's
'Who do you think you are?' discovered the Anglo-Indian antecedents
of actor Alistair McGowan and comedian Billy Connolly, making the
viewing public aware of a group which to a large extent has been
assimilated beyond recognition. Academics such as the author also play
their part. Questions of migration, settlement and ethnicity have now
become part of the academic mainstream, and the history of groups
such as the Anglo-Indians are now being increasingly examined. While
her approach is within the theoretical structure of academic debate, the
author has used oral history as a tool of investigation, and her book
includes interviews with a wide range of Anglo-Indians. These make
her study of interest to the general reader as well as the academic, and
the work is recommended as a sympathetic investigation of a little
known group in Britain.
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