Revisionist in approach, global in scope, and a seminal contribution to scholarship, this original and thought-provoking book critiques traditional notions about Anglo-Indians, a mixed descent minority community from India. It interrogates traditional notions about Anglo-Indian identity from a range of disciplines, perspectives and locations. This work situates itself as a transnational intermediary, identifying convergences and bridging scholarship on Anglo-Indian studies in India and the diaspora. Anglo-Indian identity is presented as hybridised and fluid and is seen as being representative, performative, affective and experiential through different interpretative theoretical frameworks and methodologies. Uniquely, this book is an international collaborative effort by leading scholars in Anglo-Indian Studies, and examines the community in India and diverse diasporic locations such as New Zealand, Britain, Australia, Pakistan and Burma.

This is an analysis of the nature and impact of the Indian presence in Britain, and British reactions to it. Problems of discrimination, isolation, and deprivation turned many students to politics, they appropriated ideas and institutions, and challenged British metropolitan society.

The standard image of the Raj is of an aloof, pampered and prejudiced British elite lording it over an oppressed and hostile Indian subject population. Like most caricatures, this obscures as much truth as it reveals. The British had not always been so aloof. The earlier, more cosmopolitan period of East India Company rule saw abundant ‘interracial’ sex and occasional marriage, alongside greater cultural openness and exchange. The result was a large and growing ‘mixed-race’ community, known by the early twentieth century as Anglo-Indians. Notwithstanding its faults, Empire could never have been maintained without the active, sometimes enthusiastic, support of many colonial subjects. These included Indian elites, professionals, civil servants, businesspeople and minority groups of all kinds, who flourished under the patronage of the imperial state, and could be used in a ‘divide and rule’ strategy to prolong colonial rule. Independence was profoundly unsettling to those destined to become minorities in the new nation, and the Anglo-Indians were no exception. This refreshing account looks at the dramatic end of British rule in India through Anglo-Indian eyes, a perspective that is neither colonial apologia nor nationalist polemic. Its history resonates strikingly with the complex identity debates of the twenty-first century.

East meets West to create a unique cuisine of mixed European and Indian parentage, the Anglo-Indians adopted the religion, manners and clothing of their European forefathers. Yet, over the years, those of them who made India their home successfully integrated into the mainstream of Indian society. And some of the most glorious results of this assimilation took shape in the kitchen, the territory of the memsahib and her trusted khansamah. Anglo-Indian cuisine is a delicious blend of East and West, rich with the liberal use of coconut, yogurt and almonds, and flavoured with an assortment of spices. Roasts And Curries, Pulaos And Breads, Cakes And Sweetmeats, All Have A Distinctive Flavour. The Western Bias For Meats And Eggs Is Offset By The Indian Fondness For Rice, Vegetables, Curds, Papads, Pickles And Chutneys. And There Is A Great Deal Of Innovation And Variety In Soups, Entrees, Side Dishes, Sauces, Salads And Desserts.

Domicile and Diaspora investigates geographies of home and identity for Anglo-Indian women in the 50 years before and after Indian independence in 1947. The first book to study the Anglo-Indian community past and present, in India, Britain and Australia. The first book by a geographer to focus on a community of mixed descent. Investigates geographies of home and identity for Anglo-Indian women in the 50 years before and after Indian independence in 1947. Draws on interviews and focus groups with over 150 Anglo-Indians, as well as archival research. Makes a distinctive contribution to debates about home, identity, hybridity, migration and diaspora.

Anglo-Indians form the human legacy created and left behind on the Indian subcontinent by European imperialism. When Independence was achieved from the British Raj in 1947, an exodus numbering an estimated 50,000 emigrated to Great Britain between 1948–62, under the terms of the British Nationality Act of 1948. But sixty odd years after their resettlement in Britain, the “First Wave” Anglo-Indian immigrant community continues to remain obscure among India’s global diaspora. This book examines and critiques the convoluted routes of adaptation and assimilation employed by immigrant Anglo-Indians in the process of finding their niche within the context of globalization in contemporary multi-cultural Britain. As they progressed from immigrants to settlers, they underwent a cultural metamorphosis. The homogenizing labyrinth of ethnic cultures through which they negotiated their way—Indian, Anglo-Indian, then Anglo-Saxon—effaced difference but created yet another hybrid identity: British Anglo-Indianness. Through meticulous ethnographic field research conducted amidst the community in Britain over a decade, Rochelle Almeida provides evidence that immigrant Anglo-Indians remain on the cultural periphery despite more than half a century. Indeed, it might be argued that they have attained virtual invisibility—in having created an altogether interesting new amalgamated sub-culture in the UK, this Christian minority has ceased to be counted: both, among South Asia’s diaspora and within mainstream Britain. Through a critical scrutiny of multi-ethnic Anglophone literature and cinema, the modes and methods they employed in seeking integration and the reasons for their near-invisibility in Britain as an immigrant South Asian community are closely examined in this much-needed volume.

This study explores the dialogue between the biographical and authorial selves of the writer Ruskin Bond, whose liminal subjectivity is informed by the fantasies of space and time.

Beyond the Metros: Anglo-Indians in India's Smaller Towns and Cities focuses on Anglo-Indians residing in a number of small towns and cities, away from the metropolitan centres of modern India, such as Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. It provides a socio-historical account of what it means to be an Anglo-Indian in cultural and materially varied environments, highlighting the impact on the formation of identities. The towns and cities can be grouped into three categories: railway towns such as Kharagpur, Asansol, Jhansi, Jabalpur and Secunderabad; the hill stations of Ranchi and Dehradun; and the port cities of Cochin, Pondicherry and Goa. Some of these towns were closely associated with traditional occupations for Anglo-Indians, although in recent years the structures of their economies have changed, differentially affecting the lives of their resident Anglo-Indian communities. The researchers in this volume highlight the concept of diversity in the lived experiences, aspirations, memories and sense of identity within this community. They question the methodology of looking at minority communities as homogenized and ethnicized categories. The book demonstrates the importance of place as a crucial variable in the social histories of communities. In addition, it interrogates both the received scholarly wisdom as well as exoticized popular stereotypes by looking closely at Anglo-Indian lives and perceptions.

The book gives a fascinating account of how the Anglo-Indians of Hyderabad maintain their ethnic identity through the use of proper names and slang. The data on slang and names has been elicited through a combination of interview, survey and ethnographic methods. The relationship between ethnicity and language has been by explored by comparing the usage of slang across three age groups, and also by comparing the usage of proper names across three decades. The status of slang and names as ethnic markers has been examined through the use of statistics. The book gives new directions in the field of socio-onomastics by discussing the various strategies by which Christian names have adapted according to their ecology in the Indian context. Full of new insights, the book is a recommended reading for students and researchers in the area of linguistics, history and anthropology. It would also appeal to the Anglo-Indians, and the Syrian Christians of Kerala whose names were compared with the Anglo-Indians of Hyderabad. Since the author has avoided jargons and technical terms, the book would also appeal to the general population.

During the first four decades of the twentieth century, the British Indian Army possessed an illusion of racial and religious inclusivity. The army recruited diverse soldiers, known as the "Martial Races," including British Christians, Hindustani Muslims, Punjabi Sikhs, Hindu Rajputs, Pathans from northwestern India, and "Gurkhas" from Nepal. As anti-colonial activism intensified, military officials incorporated some soldiers' religious traditions into the army to keep them disciplined and loyal. They facilitated acts such as the fast of Ramadan for Muslim soldiers and allowed religious swords among Sikhs to recruit men from communities where anti-colonial sentiment grew stronger. Consequently, Indian nationalists and anti-colonial activists charged the army with fomenting racial and religious divisions. In Faithful Fighters, Kate Imy explores how military culture created unintended dialogues between soldiers and civilians, including Hindu nationalists, Sikh revivalists, and pan-Islamic activists. By the 1920s and '30s, the army constructed military schools and academies to isolate soldiers from anti-colonial activism. While this carefully managed military segregation crumbled under the pressure of the Second World War, Imy argues that the army militarized racial and religious difference, creating lasting legacies for the violent partition and independence of India, and the endemic warfare and violence of the post-colonial world.