An Anglo-Indian Perspective

Introduction 

This academic essay reflects upon the interview assignment taken with a person from the previous generation to our own.  The main thesis will cover the parts of the interview that related to the Cultural Perspectives course and were of interest to research further.  These topics will incorporate the understanding of how a person’s perspective (interviewer) can change after deconstructing another person’s (interviewee) outlook on life.  The topic of cultural interest is the effects of the colonial rule of England over India.  With the use of various literatures on the history of colonialism, a direct line of argument on the coloniser and the colonised perspectives will be used via book and internet readings.  

Perspectives 

The word culture would not have existed if it wasn’t for the beginning of colonialism, or if it did, then it wouldn’t have been deconstructed in the same way as it has been today in this post-modern era.  Without the beginning of colonialism, today’s society wouldn’t have had the same recognition with another kind of race or history to compare against.  Through the history of conquering ‘others’, colonialism encouraged culture and in turn culture encouraged colonialism (Ashcroft, Griffiths, Tiffin 1995: 58).  But, this kind of statement is easy to make for a person considered to be a member of the predominant race from a European society, having an easy opportunity to make geopolitical analogies upon the people classed as ‘others’.  These ‘others’ have been categorised this way because of their skin colour and ethnicity, but humans in their own right are all equal and only because of a slight morphological difference of skin colour the predominant race tend to genetically categorise people.  The main reason behind these different features is the human race moved around for a very long time and because of a variety of environmental factors, people happen to look different (Ashcroft, B Griffiths, G Tiffin, H 1995: 224).   

It is said that “colonialism was based on military force and political occupation, imperialism on economic dominance” (Ashcroft, Griffiths, Tiffin 1995: 19).  But, there must have been more to colonialism than just ruling, beyond the military force and political occupation lies an even less overriding raison d’être.  The hegemonic factors back in Europe would certainly be another motivation, by bringing back exotic garments and tapestries would certainly have achieved a respectful commendation from the citizens.  Then too was the scientific purpose of drawing maps of unknown territories, the study of plants and wildlife, and even the study of the people themselves.  However, there was an extreme level of malevolence to this tradition of colonialism, to the severity of making it unknown to the public citizens and not revealing the full barbaric extent that the colonial rulers undertook to pursue their goal.  Thus, leaving their reputations untarnished to reduce the risks of being considered cruel and ‘uncultured’ (Ashcroft, Griffiths, Tiffin 1995: 59, 60). 

The Anglo-Indians not only were a sub-culture colonised by another country, they were also a descendent from this colonial rule, known as a hybrid.  “An ‘Anglo-Indian’ means a person whose father or any of whose other male progenitors 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 therein and not established there for temporary purposes only” (Wright, Wright 1971: 1).  Though loyal to their former British heritage, they did nonetheless endure rejection from both the English and the Indian’s, and so as a result, many decided to migrate in search for their identity (HREF1).  However, this loss of identity and rejection from both England and India is now becoming nonexistent because it is more than half a century since they began to migrate and the ideology of racism is diminishing.  Also, because the Anglo-Indian’s that originally settled in the Commonwealth countries such as England and Australia are now in their later years, so the younger generation are continuing a more western ideology (HREF2). 

The everyday life in Indian for an Anglo-Indian under the British rule was considered that of a ‘normal life’, guaranteed employment in certain strategic occupations like the department of customs, communications, transportation, and the police force.  They did have the advantage of a cultural influence from the British and the ability to speak perfect English as it was their first language.  This however, wasn’t the case in 1947, the time of national independence and the British government wasn’t in control of the Indian constitution.  As a result of this change, the everyday life for the average Anglo-Indian was not considered ‘normality’; there fellow indigenous Indians had better vocational preparation, and left them to become nomadic and inherited the reputation of an urban dweller (Wright, Wright 1971: 2).  Employment problems began to occur mainly within the male Anglo-Indian gender because of their refusal to learn the Indian language, reluctance to work in jobs that the indigenous Indians would generally work in and they also had low standard qualifications to acquire more profession positions.  The women began to take on the role as the predominant sex, taking onboard the responsibility to provide for their families, whilst the men were too busy trying to follow the steps of their former rule, the English colonisers.  Anglo-Indian girls were even advised not to marry the men from their own sub-culture and to care for the older generation.  However, because of the Anglo-Indians stubborn way to remain similar to that of their post-coloniser, when they migrated to Australia they regained their status and improved their vocation opportunities.  Jobs such as government positions, doctors, engineers, academic and journalists were all on offer.  This was all because they had adopted the Western lifestyle since the colonising many years ago (HREF3: 64). 

The Australian government issued a non-whites policy back in the late nineteenth century, because the ‘others’ were migrating too frequently, taking up all of the manual labour positions and accepting a wage lower to that of European settlers.  This course of action continued to be enforced and strengthened up until the second world.  John Curtin the current Prime Minister at that time stated “this country shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those people who came here in peace in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of the British race” (HREF4: Para. 14).  This legislation began to loosen up when non-white migrants began to protest to this controversial issue and then the ‘Migration Act of 1958’ came into play, allowing non-white migrants to gain residency as long as they had lived in Australia for over 15 years prior (HREF4).  This wasn’t the case for the privileged Anglo-Indian, as they were a major influence in making the migration policy more lenient because their adoption of the Western identity and were given priority.  The main patterns behind their identity as a European we’re there Christian beliefs, British morals and the way they behaved.  Because England decided to tighten their immigration rules during the late twentieth century the immigration level from India to Australia increased dramatically and it still continues to do so this present day (HREF5). 

The everyday space of an Asian migrant living in Australia at the current time of migration would have been that of a trans-national citizen.  This is a person that doesn’t have dual citizenship and literally a member of that particular country, leaving the notion of living in limbo and having to reconstruct their identity as a transnational community (HREF6).  But, the Anglo-Indian had a strong desire to migrate and build a new life in a Western country to continue their European way of life.  Because of their ability to speak perfect English and Christian beliefs they had the ideology of a more qualified person than the other Southern Asians.  This was more apparent to the lower middle class skilled worker or craftsman, also known as the artisan class (HREF5).      

References 

Book references; Ashcroft, B. Griffiths, G. Tiffin, H (1995) “The Post-Colonial Studies Reader”. London, New York: Routledge.  Wright, R Wright, S (1971) “The Anglo-Indian Community in Contemporary India”.Midwest Quarterly XII. Internet references; HREF1: (1995) “Anglo Indian” http://www.indianchild.com/anglo_indians.htm      HREF2:”Anglo-Indian Chronicles” http://www.margaretdeefholts.com/the_way_we_were_reviews.html HREF3: James, S (2002) “The Anglo-Indians: Transcolonial Migrants and the Dilemma of Identity” http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/projects/counterpoints/Proc_2002/Pdf/A8.pdf HREF4: Department of Immigration and Citizenship “Abolition of the ‘White Australia’ Policy” http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/08abolition.htm HREF5: Caplan, L. Colonial and Contemporary Translationalisms ”Traversing Anglo-Indian Boundaries of the Mind” http://les.man.ac.uk/sa/Transnationalism/caplan.htm HREF6: Besserer, F. “A Space of View: Translational Spaces and Perspectives”. University of Autonomy Metropolitana-Ixtapalapa Department of Anthropology.  http://les.man.ac.uk/sa/Transnationalism/besserer.htm