On the subject of Godfrey's piece, the issue went from East Indians to Anglo-Indians. i happen to come across a piece by a Toronto-based scholar Megan Mills who got her Ph.D with her these on the Anglo-Indian community in Bengal in my collection. It is in a journal edited by an old friend under the title, The Anglo-Indian -- an Ongoing Community of Bengal. She writes, "Misunderstanding abounds on question of the Anglo-Indians' origins. Other Indians and westerns can share most assuming notions of Anglo-Indian descent from illicit relationships between Indian women of humble origins and unsavoury Europeans. Certainly, these were not more prevalent than convention alliances in the 17th and 18th centuries witnessing the rise of the greater part of Bengal's Anglo-Indian population. Moreover, it is seldom realized that the term Anglo-Indian in use since 1911 is rather a stunnng misnomer, for the community's European ancestry is simply not very Anglo (word in italics). Bengal's Anglo-Indians possess a great many Scottish and Irish progenitors in keeping with different 'colonial cocktail' populations to emerge elsewhere in the early British empire." In the debased and hate-infused racial and communal conflict in Indian society, the Anglo-Indians were called "the bastard children of the British empire." It must be said that both the British and Portuguese powers in India promoted the marriages of their men with local women. The Portuguese had a settlements in Satgoan and Bandel de Hoogly in the Bengal and many of Anglo-Indians in Bengal could be of Portuguese blood. In some parts of India where the Anglo-Indians were in substantial numbers, particularly at railway junctions, they were also known as "Indo-Britons." Other Indians saw the Anglo-Indians as pro-British and felt that they enjoyed a special status. They had access to good jobs and were higher than other Indians. But they were also subject to discrimination from the British because some British clubs would not give them memberships. Remember, the notorious "Dogs and Indian not allowed" signposts that hung at the entrance of some exclusively British clubs? Closer home to Goa, we has the mestizos (spelling?), those born of Portuguese fathers and Goan mothers. There is a word, mestizaje, which means the mixing of Amerindians and Europeans though I am not sure if the word also refers to offsprings from these two races Mestizaje is a word that comes up often in the discussion of post-colonialism, just as the word mestizo comes in the debate on the children of Portuguese-Goan sexual relations. In some quarters of today's Goan society, the mestizos are thought to be of a privileged class and in some quarters as the "leftovers" of Portuguese rule. Both the Anglo-Indians and the mestizos are the product of colonial hybridity. When cultures come together , more so during the colonization of one country by another, creolisation takes place. The creolisation of the Caribbean is one good example. The Anglo-Indian and the mestizo created their own unique sub-culture in the societies they lived. In postcolonial Goa, the mestizo culture lies submerged in the dominant local culture. We find it hard to locate the mestizo culture in the mainstream Goan society and could be ideally found to live in some parts of Panaji, notably Fountainhas. Colonialism has shaped Goa's history and its identity to the extent that Portuguese strands run into our cultural, literary and social streams. The anti-colonial struggle created another class of its own, disowning the Portuguese language and contribution and embracing everything Indian. Indian nationalism spread largely among the Hindus and to a little extent among the Catholics. During the Portuguese reign, the lowly-placed Hindus and the Catholics should have their voices heard. In post-Independent Goa, these sections of society are vociferous and demanding. If not allo, but many of the political powers that rule Goa come from this sections of society. Their muted silence during the Portuguese presence in Goa has now become a crescendo. Goans in Goa today live in a post-structuralist society. From being postcolonial subjects, Goans now in position to determine their own future. We are still a fragmented society, and may be so for a long time. The differences among the communities will not go away but the process to mend and blend the differences into a progressive force could be undertaken on both the idealogical and political planes. It is in the pursuit of the common good that those who still have "colonized minds" can be free. There should be no cultural hegemony of one community over another. Tolerance must be the norm, and each community must have the right to be different. Modern Goa must reconcile the past with the present.
Eugene Correia
