Just Loving Life: The Spirit That's Uniquely Anglo-Indian
By SAR NEWS
BANGALORE, Karnataka (SAR NEWS) -- There
were fears among the Anglo-Indians in
India that the federal government would
remove the constitutional privileges and
the minority status for the community as
enshrined in the Constitution. This year,
however, the privileges and the status
were renewed for another 10 years. SAR
News brings you an article by Beverly
Pearson that condenses the 300-year
history of the Anglo-Indian community
into a perfect script for a 10-minute
speech.
--
The British Empire once held absolute power in over 52
countries. About two-fifths of the world. But there was only
one jewel in the crown -- India. The first European settlers
in India were the Portuguese in 1498, about 100 years before
the British. The Dutch, the French and the British followed.
They were all here for the duration on. The inevitable
happened and a new mixed race community emerged.
Even though the British came in peacefully as merchants and
traders, they soon colonised the subcontinent of India. But
the British needed allies to protect the jewel in the crown
and so began a deliberate policy encouraging British males to
marry Indian women to create the first Anglo-Indians.
The East India Company paid 15 silver rupees for each child
born to an Indian mother and a European father, as family
allowance. These children were amalgamated into the growing
Anglo-Indian community, forming a defensive structure for the
British Raj. This was a deliberate act of self-preservation
by the English. This unique hybrid individual was ethnically
engineered by the occupying British, so much so that the
Anglo-Indians were the only micro-minority community ever
defined in a country's Constitution.
Article 366 of the Indian Constitution states: An
Anglo-Indian means a person whose father or any of whose male
ancestors in the male line 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
there-in and not established there for temporary purposes
only.
So you can see we were intended to be a permanent
micro-minority.
In 1830, British Parliament described the
Anglo-Indian as those who have been English
educated, are entirely European in their habits and
feelings, dress and language. They were more
Anglo than Indian. Their mother tongue was
English, they were Catholic or Anglican, and their
customs and traditions were English.
While most of them married within their own circle, many
continued to marry expatriate Englishmen. Very few married
Indians. Without Anglo-Indian support British rule would have
collapsed.
Railways: We ran the railways, post and telegraph, police and
customs, education, export and import, shipping, tea, coffee
and tobacco plantations, the coal and gold fields. We became
teachers, nurses, priests and doctors.
If it had any value, the British made sure we ran it. And
when it came to secretarial duties, no one could touch our
Anglo-Indian girls -- the best stenographers in the world and
with a beauty to match.
Were we favoured? Yes, the English trusted us.
After all, we were related by blood. We worked
hard. We became indispensable. We lived comfortably
and were protected by the British Raj. Like the
British, we had servants to do all our domestic
work.
The average Anglo-Indian home could afford at least three
full-time servants -- a cook, a bearer and the indispensable
nanny (ayah). Part-time servants included a gardener, a
cleaner and a laundry man (dhobi).
Of course, we learned to speak Hindi to be able to argue,
give orders, bargain, accuse and terminate employment and
throw in a dozen Hindi expletives. Imagine our horror when we
were later to migrate to England, Canada and Australia and we
no longer had servants to do our domestic chores. Who can
remember looking at our first toilet brush and asking what
do we do with this?
We had to learn to cook, clean, garden, do the laundry and
take the garbage out and look after the kids.
Christmas cake: The tradition of making your own Christmas
cake was a sacred Anglo-Indian custom. Each family had a
secret cake recipe, handed down from our grandparents.
About a week before Christmas, the local baker was contacted.
He would turn up to your home with two very large terracotta
bowls that looked more like satellite dishes. One for the egg
whites and one for mixing. Mum would dish out the
ingredients.
This was all mixed together under her watchful eye and
distributed in to about dozen or so cake tins and labelled
with your name on it. This labelling was all important. We
did not want him to return that evening with someone else's
cake recipe. Heaven forbid.
Music and dance: Music, movies and socialising were high on
the agenda. We loved a dance. Afternoon
