Email Esther Lyons: lyonsfab@optusnet.com.au

I was just six years old in 1947 when India got its independence. I remember boarding the train with my family which consisted of my sister, mother, aunt, uncle and their two daughters. I was the eldest of the girls; the others were all under three and had to be carried.

Saharanpore station was crowded with passengers leaving for a safer place since there had been a lot of violent clashes between the Hindus and Muslims for partition and separate land after the British left India. Many people were daily killed on the ground of religious differences. Prices of food rocketed sky high and some things were not available in the market at all, especially the kerosene oil which we used for lighting the lanterns at night since there was no electricity in those days. We had to use candles at night instead. The days and nights were filled with the noise of people screaming, crying or groaning with pain. Schools were closed indefinitely and most people stayed inside their houses out of fear.

Although the Hindus and the Muslims were killing each other, they did not touch the Christians. They would spare the houses which had the sign of the Cross either drawn across their door or a wooden one put up on the roof.

Uncle Eddie Wright made way for Mum and Aunt, each carrying their little ones through the confused crowd of passengers at the platform. My mother dragged me along holding me with one hand. Four heavily laden coolies (porters) followed us hurriedly towards the train which was packed with people. There was such a commotion everywhere!

Our luggage consisted of all our household belongings, from kitchen utensils to beddings and clothing and some small portable furniture as well. We were moving from Saharanpore to a place called Kalimpong, closer to the Himalayas in the North of India. Uncle Eddie was definite that the hills were a safe place for us at the time. He was born and brought up in Dr Graham’s Home, Kalimpong.

Suddenly Uncle’s friend, Mr. Thompson came running towards us. He was an Anglo-Indian conductor guard. All the guards and the railway officials at the time were Anglo-Indians and somehow they seemed to know each other. They were very supportive towards all Anglo-Indians and Europeans traveling or working in the railways. They all spoke in English to each other. I noticed the fair skinned men in the black uniform of the guards dashing about the platform trying without success to create some sort of order.

With the help of Mr. Thompson, and other guards we were able to push ourselves through the train door. Even though our berths were reserved in the sleeping coach of the third compartment, we found it hard to get through as there seemed to be more people than seats. There were people everywhere: not only inside the coaches, but on the roof and hanging outside the doors and windows. Some even sat on our boxes as soon as the coolies placed them between the seats. It made uncle very angry and he was about to punch them when Mr. Thompson stopped him saying, "There is no point speaking to them." He said, "These wogs do not have commonsense, besides they are very confused at the moment. They do not know what to do and where to go. It serves them right; they wanted independence and freedom from the British. Now they are paying the price of independence."

Throughout the long journey the guards kept visiting us to check on our safety. Most of them knew uncle from Graham’s Homes. Others kept an eye on us because we were all Anglo-Indians. There seemed to be a great community spirit prevailing amongst the guards and the European and Anglo-Indian passengers.

When the British ruled India, most railway jobs were given to Anglo-Indians. Since the Anglo-Indians spoke English, and had Christian upbringing, the British found it easy to communicate and interact with them. The Anglo-Indians themselves were very loyal to the British since they were all part British or European; they considered themselves more British than Indian because of their Christian and western upbringing. Their religious belief in Christ kept them closer to the British than the Indians who were non-Christians. The British preferred the Anglo-Indian to the Indians and had great trust and faith in them.

Most Anglo-Indians who could prove their British background immigrated to England and to Australia after India got her independence. The British made special provisions for their immigration before they left India. The few who were brought up as orphans, or who stayed back lived as a separate Anglo-Indian minority community. As far as possible they married within their community and remained isolated from the Hindus and the Muslims. They maintained their British and European style of Christian culture and lifestyle.

In 1949 we moved back to the plains. India was an Independent Democratic Country and the British were no more the rulers of India. There were still many Anglo-Indian guards and officials in the railways, although now a few young Indian guards were also amongst them dashing about the platforms at the stations. While the older Anglo-Indian guards were addressed as sahibs the younger few Indian railway guards and officials were addressed as Babus or Babujis by the locals. The Anglo-Indians were generally fair complexioned, many with blond or brown hair, some even had blue eyes. They spoke only English and broken Hindustani or Hindi, since they had always considered it as below their dignity to speak Hindi fluently, taking pride, as they did, in their British blood. They always dressed in Western clothes.

In 1950, when I was about ten years old I had the direct experience of living at the railway colony in Allahabad. Uncle Eddie got a job as a Cane Supervisor in a Sugar Factory some sixty miles from a city called Gorakhpore. The factory was still owned by a British and only the Anglo-Indian and European families of the employees were allowed to live in the cottages allocated to them. Since Uncle had married an Indian Christian, he was not allowed to have his wife live with him; he could get his children over to reside with him though. Since his daughters were too small and needed their mother, he asked his friend, Mr. De’Cunah, a railway conductor guard in Allahabad to accommodate his family. Allahabad was in the same province and not very far from Gorakhpore - only a night’s journey.

Mr. De’Cunah did not have any children. His wife and he had recently separated. He never spoke of his wife to anyone. He was a lonely man and was happy to accommodate his friend’s family in his house. My mother needed a place for my sister and me because she was going for a nurses training and had to stay in a hostel with other nurses. No children were allowed in the nurses’ hostel in Allahabad. Aunt was happy to keep us as boarders with her two daughters. Mr. De’Cunah had no objection to our living with Aunt and her children. Mr De’Cunah was called Dick in short. We children called him Uncle Dick. He had a small apartment. It was one of the four apartments in the double story- building. There were six such double-story buildings each consisting of four units or apartments on either side of the narrow street. The railway colony consisted of many such buildings, all painted in off white colour with narrow street in between. The apartment was very small and barely accommodated all of us.

Uncle Dick’s apartment consisted of two very large rooms, a small storeroom and a toilet. We used one room as the bedroom. Two large wooden double beds were put together in the center of the room. At one side of the room were two large wooden wardrobes and a dressing table. Aunt and Uncle Dick slept on either side of the bed. The two daughters of Aunt slept in the centre. Uncle Dick was mostly out on night duties as a guard and usually stayed away for two three days since he had to go a long distance on duty. He had a guard’s rest room at the station when he was out on duty for long distances. Whenever Uncle Eddie came home on a holiday from the sugar factory; he slept next to Aunt on the side. He was mostly home for about six months at a stretch when the factory was closed for the season.

A single bed or khatiya was placed along the head of the double bed for my sister and me. Mum was never allowed to stay out for the night from her hostel. She only came to spend the day with us when she had an off day.

The small storeroom was on the right of the bedroom, and on the left was the toilet, with a metal bathtub under the tap to store water for bathing. On one side was the pedestal-type toilet. The water supply often did not reach the first floor because of low pressure; therefore, a number of metal buckets were kept filled with water. A woman sweeper used to sweep and mop the cemented floor of the whole house, the stairways and the toilet daily. She used phenyl as disinfectant and water to mop the place after sweeping with a broom. The pedestal-type toilet was cleaned every time someone used it. She lived with her family in one room at the servant quarter allocated to Uncle De'Cunah close bye, and every time the toilet was used we would yell out to her from the balcony to come and clean it. I don’t remember where she disposed off the soil from the toilet. The sweeper and her family did the cleaning in return for the free accommodation.

The other large room was used as a dining-cum-drawing room. There were verandas on the front and at the back of the apartment; Uncle Dick had a stand for his hats in the front veranda. There was a door at the side of the veranda leading to the next door neighbour's flat. It was always locked. When Uncle De'Cunah was off duty he would sit at the small balcony in the front veranda drinking Indian Rum with ice. He enjoyed drinking three or four glasses of Rum every evening before dinner. He would then have his dinner and then go off to sleep. The apartment had electricity and every room had ceiling fans.

The kitchen was downstairs. Each apartment had their own kitchen and a pantry close bye built in a row of four for the building. The pantry was used as a servant quarter and the servant and his family lived in that one room. The servant received a small salary including the free accommodation as long as he worked for the sahib. Cheronji was the cook for Uncle Dick. He was dark and fat, big made Indian man who did the cooking every day, from breakfast to dinner on a high cemented fireplace. He used coal and wood to cook European and Anglo-Indian style of food. Anglo-Indian style of food was a mixture of Indian dishes and European, eg mild curry. In the morning he brought us bed tea and then breakfast consisting of toast, fried egg or omelette, porridge and tea, all on a tray covered with lacy cover. At twelve in the noon he brought up boiled rice with yellow dal (lentil soup) and mild curry. Dinner time we were served with soup, meat cutlets mashed potatoes and boiled vegetables and pudding. Uncle Dick gave him money each day to buy fresh groceries and meat. He never asked for an account. Cheronji used his own discretion in prepared different dishes daily.

Not long after we went to stay with Uncle Dick, Aunt made Uncle build a brick and cement fireplace on the back veranda closer to the dining room. She said the food always got cold while it was being brought up to the house, besides she was sure that Cheronji was stealing money daily while shopping for him. Uncle Dick soon made Aunt in charge of running the house. He gave her money for housekeeping and Aunt bought the rations herself every month. She gave Cheronji money daily for groceries but kept a close watch on accounts. There was always a dispute over a few paisas or annas. She found it difficult to trust him, and also the vendors who brought the meat, vegetables and fruits daily to our doorstep. Aunt was certain that she was being duped as their accounting was based on memory. At the time, in 1950's, whole-wheat grain, cheap rice, and some lentils were available only on ration cards, allocated on the basis of the nature of the family. The ration cards were issued at the local Government department.

The rich preferred to buy better quality items at a high rate from the black market.

One fine morning when Uncle Eddie was on leave, Uncle Dick and he came home with a small red coloured Ecko Radio. It was the first time we had seen one. Uncle Dick listened to the BBC English News every morning when he was at home. Only Uncle was allowed to put the radio on for us. He did not like to listen to any of the Indian film songs. Aunt and Mum did not mind them and even took us to see Indian movies of Nargis and Raj Kapoor. They were my best Actor and Actress. I liked their hit movie, Awara. Only two theatres, Palace theatre and Plaza theatre in Allahabad showed English movies and that even only at 6 O’clock show, or on the Sunday morning at 10 O’clock. I remember watching the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth with the convent school at the Palace Theatre. That was a specially programmed for the schools on one week-day morning.

A lot of changes had taken place three years after the independence of India. There were many Indians working for the railways and the factories owned by the Government of India. The British had left and everything now belonged to the Indians. Many Anglo-Indians had also left India with the British to migrate to England and Australia. Few Anglo-Indians that were still working in the railways were seriously contemplating on leaving as soon as they retired.

"There is nothing left for us in India. Who would want to work under the Indian Babu's or Indian Officers?" The Anglo-Indians would say. They were not happy with the change of Government and the independence of India. The British employed them in good position irrespective of their low level of Education. The ability to speak good English, having a European name, Christian religion and education upto class seven was sufficient to get them a good position in the railways, other companies owned by the British and in the British Government Departments.

The Anglo-Indians guards at the Railway colony lived according to the British tradition and lifestyle, a ‘western’ lifestyle. At Uncle Dick’s place we sat at the dining table, and ate with a knife and fork. We had to be on our best behaviour during the meals. Uncle Dick sat at the head of the table and Aunt sat on the other end. We said Grace before every meal. Every Sunday we four and Aunt and Uncle Dick walked about five kilometres to the church in the cantonment (army) area. We attended the church twice on a Sunday, once for the service and another time in the afternoon for Benediction. Every night at eight, before going to bed, we all knelt in front of the little altar where the statues of Jesus and Mary were placed, and said our Rosary.

We wore our best clothes to Church. At the time the women and girls always wore beautiful scarfs or straw hats on their heads and beautiful dresses specifically tailored for them out of the English Fashion Book brought to them from England. Most ladies wore gloves and stockings. The dresses were well tailored by the Muslim tailors who preferred to tailor the dress sitting in the veranda of the house. They were paid according to the number of dresses sewed on the day. First it was the umbrella cut skirts, then the A-line, and later it became the tight skirts when Elvis Presley came out with the drain pipes and the bell bottoms.

After the service, while Uncle and Aunt chatted with other families from the colony, we stood still and waited for them in silence. The servants and shopkeepers called us ‘Baby or Missy Sahib’ and they called Aunt ‘Memsahib’ and Uncle ‘Sahib’, the Anglo-Indian men were treated very much like the British officers by local Indians.

One Sunday Aunt met an ex-student, Violet Collis at the little church in the Cantonment, not far from the railway colony. Violet was now married to an Anglo-Indian conductor guard, Mr. Medley. She was brought up in an orphanage because her parents were not married at the time of her birth. Her father was a British subject. He worked for the Indigo factory and had fallen in love with the local woman from the nearby village in Bihar. He lived with the woman for sometime before he decided to marry her. Children born before the marriage were generally sent to the Christian Orphanages and Homes. Aunt and Mum were teachers and they had taught Violet and her sister, Helen in the convent they attended. Later an old aunt of theirs married to a railway stationmaster had arranged their marriage to two railway guards. The Medleys and the sister's family, the Mackrottes became good friends of ours.

A fortnight before the Christmas Uncle Dick would always enrol us four girls for the Christmas tree at the Coral Club. The club was for the railway employees and their families only. Mum and Aunt gave in our gifts on the 22nd December to be placed under the tree. On the evening of the 23rd we all went for the function dressed in our new dresses with frills and bows, as was the dress fashion then. The hall was decorated with coloured paper streamers, while Christmas carols blared on the gramophone. One of the railway officials came later dressed like a Christmas Father on a Tonga (a two wheel cart pulled by a horse). We were then presented with our parcel of gifts, lollies, some guava and peanuts to munch. We also had the Christmas pageant prepared by some of the children. Once my sister and the two daughters of aunt were al selected to act as angels. Throughout the Christmas season we had groups going around the railway colony singing the carols. Uncle Dick never forgot to bring Bali sugar (sweets made from sugar crystals) from Calcutta and the salted meat or Hunter Beef made with the Buffalo meat for the Christmas occasion.

A fortnight before Christmas Aunt bought dry fruits and sugar. She would then prepare the ingredients for the Christmas cake. Not long after she took them to the baker, who would freshly bake the cakes in different category, plump cakes, fruitcakes, walnut cakes and so on. Aunt stayed around at the bakery till all the cakes, about sixty or more were baked. She was afraid that the baker would cheat her. We always had Pork or Chicken curry with yellow pea-pilaf for Christmas lunch and pork or Beef roast for dinner. Throughout the Christmas week we had people from the colony drop over for cakes, dry fruits and tea. We also visited the other Anglo-Indians friends and sometimes stayed over for lunch or dinner. I remember the Shepherds, the Cabrals, the Du’Casses, De’Mellos and the Southcombs. They were all our neighbours.

Patience was a beautiful young woman of thirty-five years of age. She lived with her brother and sister-in-law at the railway colony. She was called a merry widow. Her husband had suddenly died leaving her with a five year old son. Patience loved dressing in the latest fashion. She was always at the church and in the Coral Club. Later she even moved to the Anglo-Indian colony before migrating to England with her son and her brother’s family. She worked as a receptionist in a Tobacco company owned by a rich Muslim family. She had many Indian admirers with whom she went out for meals frequently. Most Anglo-Indians like Uncle Dick disliked her for moving about with Indians.

"She is giving us Anglo-Indians a bad name by mixing with these wogs and wearing their wog clothes, the saree. She is going out with them because they have the money, but she is not realising that none of those men will marry her. They only like to fool around with our girls because they think us to be cheap." I heard Uncle Dick telling aunty. I considered Patience gorgeous looking with her beautiful white skin, slim figure, extensive make-up and fabulous way of dressing. I did not understand why it was wrong with her moving around with the well suited Indian men. There were not many European and Anglo-Indian men left since most of them had left India for better prospects overseas.

Patience was an excellent ballroom dancer. She took classes and taught dancing to the Indian men; Indian women, in those days, did not accompany their men to dances. They did not consider the ballroom dancing and going to club till late at night was good and respectable thing for women. Besides they did not think the club where liquor was served was meant for a decent and respectable Indian women. Indian people considered the Anglo-Indian women cheap just because they went to the club, drank with men and did the ballroom dances in public with different men.

While the Indian women were very conservative and kept indoors, had arranged marriages, the Anglo-Indian women lived a more liberated western style life and had the same freedom and equality in the community as did the British women. Some Anglo-Indian women had part arranged marriages but always made sure that they knew the husbands well enough before marriage. Unlike the Indian women, they took up employment as nurses, typist and secretaries and worked with both men and women of all caste and class. No women belonging to the upper and rich Indian class had the need to work, only the lower class worked as servants, sweepers, and domestic servants.

The Du’Casses lived opposite to us. Their apartment was on the ground floor. The eldest daughter, Emily was the same age as my younger sister and she went to the same convent school like us. Emily had two younger sisters and four younger brothers. Mrs Du’Casse was always busy with the children and the housework. They had their fireplace on the floor and at the back veranda. Mrs Du’Casse sat on the floor blowing into the fire lit with wood and coal, her white face blackened with soot cooking while breast feeding her little baby. She did not have any servants except for the sweeper woman. Her unit was very untidy and littered with children’s dirty clothes.

Mr Du’Casse loved his alcohol and gambling. On payday he would go straight to the Coral Club after work and spent most of his pay on Housie and Rummy gambling and drinking. He would then come home late at night dead drunk after loosing all his money. That night he and his wife would fight and scream at each other. Mrs Du’Casse cried loudly with anger and hurt at the end of the arguments because Mr Du’Casse would end up bashing her till she bled from the nose and mouth. Emily and her brothers and sisters sat quiet in their beds watching, they knew from past experience that the next day their parents would forget and forgive each other and behave normal, as though nothing had happened. The whole month after that day they would buy grocery on credit from the little shop nearby. The children went to the Catholic schools where they were exempted from school fees.

Grand balls and dances were held at the Coral Club every once in the month and on special occasions as Christmas, New Year, and Easter. Uncle Dick did not like dancing, or gambling and Housie. His one vice was drinking. He was a man of strict discipline and values. Two young girls came to spend a weekend with us once. They were the daughters of Uncle Dick’s friend living in a remote town. They said came to attend the Christmas Dance. Uncle Dick was not happy about keeping young girls. "Other people’s daughters are too much of responsibility for me, I do not want to be blamed for anything they do, or happens to them!" He said, "Besides I don’t like the seductive dresses they wear these days to dances. They ask for trouble! After all, there are all sorts of people at the club these days, not like what it used to be in my young days. In those days girls were chaperoned and never went out to public places alone, specially dressed the way they do now."

He told the girls that they had to be back at twelve midnight sharp as he did not like anyone staying our later than that. Offcourse the girls did not return till much after three in the morning that night. Uncle was wild with anger. He locked the gate on the stairways exactly at midnight and told aunt that she was not to open it for them when they came later. The banging and calling out at the gate when they returned after three in the morning woke us all up, but no one dared to open the gate and let them in without Uncle’s permission. They must have spent the remainder of the morning sitting in the winter of December month and left for the station as soon as it was daylight. We never saw them or heard of them after that day.

On the 15th of August 1955 Uncle Dick turned fifty-five. It was time for him to retire. We celebrated his birthday and retirement at a Chinese restaurant, the Nanking, in the Civil Lines. We had to leave the railway quarters now that he was retired and no more working in the railways. We had seen many changes in the colony over the period of five years. The colony was now had more Indian guards and their families. Most of the Anglo-Indians we knew had either retired or were about to retire. Some had taken early retirement and left for either Australia or United Kingdom. Coral Club had the same facilities of Housie and cards for gambling but they also celebrated the Hindu and Muslim festivals and also had dances for Dushera, Deewali and Idd. Uncle looked for accommodation in the Bundhwah Club, an Anglo-Indian colony.

Bundhwah Club was a huge area of land that was leased to the Anglo-Indians, most of them being retired railway officers and their families. Their children were now taking up teaching or secretarial professions. The young Anglo-Indians were now taking up other professions and studying further because in the independent Democratic India there was competition of education and qualification. Young Indians could afford high education and jobs were available to those with good university qualification.

There was a dance club in the midst of cottages built by the Anglo-Indian Trustees. A few old cottages were scattered around the club; these belonged to the Club Trustees and were rented to the Anglo-Indians. Anglo-Indians who had birth certificates to prove their identity as descendants of the British were permitted to become members of the Anglo-Indian Association of Allahabad. They could buy, build or rent bungalows at the Bundhwah Club Trust Property, at 27, Thornhill Road, Allahabad. There were no boundary walls or wire fences around the property. Each cottage or bungalow had servant quarters attached. They could be rented out for a small sum.

The dance club was a large old building, in the center of which was a huge hall. Great dances were held here on every Christmas, New Year, Easter, as well on Independence Day. Every Sunday there was housie and gambling for the members and liquor would flow at the bar. They danced the Cha-Cha-Cha, Waltz, Tango, Twist, Jive and the Fox Trot. Only members of the Anglo-Indian Association or a child of a member could attend the dances, very much like it was at the Coral Club. An Indian or a non-member could enter as a guest of an Anglo-Indian member.

Uncle Dick being a member of the Anglo-Indian Association and was able to rent half a bungalow at the Anglo-Indian Trust Property. Uncle Eddie joined us from Gorakhpore. A year later Uncle Dick decided to migrate to England. "I think England is the right place for me. This country is going to the dogs after the British have left. I can take it no more." He said. We were still in school at the time. Although Uncle’s sugar factory was now owned by an Indian, he did not want to leave India. He thought we were well settled and did not wish to uproot and move on to England. Mum loved her work as a nurse. She had more Indian Christian nurses working with her, only the doctors were Hindus but she said they were friendly and nice to her. She knew that the nursing profession was not the one which was considered respectable by the Indian standard.

The Indian families liked their daughters to complete their schooling and then settle down to a good arranged married life. Nursing was a profession where both male and female patients had to be attended to. Indian families did not like their daughters to work in public places and deal with men and women at large. During the British days nursing was a good profession for women as they were considered compassionate, caring and loyal but it changed after the India became independence. Only teaching was considered a good profession for women. Anyhow, uncle, aunt and mum did not want to emigrate overseas. "We were born here and our parents were born here, we like it here as it is, if our children like to emigrate later, they can do so. But we shall live her till death." Uncle said one day. "We just have to make some adjustments due to the change of the government. Anyway, those who have left have to do lot more adjustments overseas with climate, people and country."

Three months later Uncle Dick’s troubled letter came, he wanted to return back to India. "It is very cold here. I was better off in India," he wrote. "I miss the food and the luxury of faithful servants." He had sold all his goods before going to England. I don’t know whether he had enough money to return. A year later we heard that he died a lonely man. Uncle Eddie and Aunt still received letters from the De’Mellos who had settled successfully in Australia, and from the Cabrals in London. The Medleys and the Mackrotts had also migrated to England seemed happy.

By the end of fifties there were hardly any Anglo-Indians in the railways. The railway colony was full of the Indians and there was a selective test to be passed before getting a position in the railways. One had to pass the test in spoken and written Hindi before sitting for the selective test. In the sixties Hindi was introduced as a compulsory subject in the English Medium Anglo-Indian schools and English was only a subject in the public schools and colleges. Many Anglo-Indian women preferred to wear Indian clothes, eg sarees and salwar-kameez to work in place of western dresses as they were teased and picked upon by the Indian co-workers. They were adjusting to the changes. Indian women joined the work force and took the position as senior Accounts Officers and other executive jobs in the railways. They went for higher and university educations and the selective tests with the men. The high qualifications and the careers gave them a better prospect for a good match for matrimony in the Indian community.

The above has been taken from my Autobiographies, UNWANTED and BITTER SWEET TRUTH.