Professor Wright, originally began his work on the Anglo-Indians in the 1960s. After a long absence he has returned to his original research subject. In this article he discusses the problems that Anglo-Indians who have been left behind in rural India are having in maintaining their culture and identity. As in his early work, Professor Wright shows himself to be a keen and sensitive student of the Anglo-Indian situation.

Author's Overview:

Over time, Anglo-Indians settled into all parts of India, traveling far beyond the railroad setting and urban enclaves that we have come to associate with their heritage. It became very common to find Anglo-Indians in any part of India and indeed in any English-speaking community of the world. Canada, Nigeria, United States, Great Britain, and Australia have become new homelands over the fifty years since India became independent from England. Yet, what is happening to those Anglo-Indians and their families who remain in the more remote parts of India where cultural tradition and ties with their heritage diminished over time?

To try to understand what is happening to those Anglo-Indians who remained in the more remote regions of India, I traveled to Dumka, Bihar, in 1993, and completed several interviews of those Anglo-Indians who still lived in the community, their children, and community members who had an understanding of the social history of the region. The pattern of community that I observed in Dumka closely resembled what was found in the larger cities of India, but on a much smaller scale. I might note in passing that I have been observing and recording sociological images of the Anglo-Indian Community since I was a student at Delhi University in 1963 and 1964. This was, however, my first visit to Dumka, Bihar, and my first attempt to address those social and cultural forces that are impacting on Anglo-Indians in more remote parts of the subcontinent.

In this paper I shall construct an image of the Anglo-Indian community, its members, and the social forces that impact on these groups and individuals in one specific rural area, Dumka, Bihar. However, many of my comments are related to other observations made throughout India, especially in Delhi and the hill stations in the lower Himalayan mountains. It does seem to me that there are very strong social and cultural forces playing heavily on the present Anglo-Indian community in rural India. These forces may be signaling an even greater force on the future of the group in more urban and thus traditional centers of Anglo-Indian heritage.

Introduction:

The domination or attempted domination of one nation, society, or group by another may be the most significant theme underlying human history. At one time or another almost all parts of civilization have been dominated by some outside force and as a consequence the historical culture became characterized as containing a blending of both the indigenous and colonial. Such dominant cultural traits as dietary patterns; customs of dress; religious rituals and rites; institutionalized patterns of economics, family, and education were depicted as characterizing a blending of at least two if not more cultures.

The sub-continent of India is a most noteworthy example of a multi-culturalism, a blending of heterogeneous groupings that over its history been witness to a variety of colonial dominations and subsequently a variety of cultural modifications of what might be considered traditional or indigenous. Along with numerous near-cultural invasions (e.g., Indo-Aryan) the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and British were the dominant European powers that colonized India and subsequently had dynamic influence on the history of India. Many forms of Indian art, language, religion and literature eventually blended these diverse cultures and became one of the most heterogeneous entities in the world.

Historical Context:

Wherever colonialism took a foothold the domination was usually achieved and perpetuated by males. The military, administrative organization, technical assistance, and industrial base were traditionally the males of the dominating nation. A natural consequence was that these males sometimes married local women and formed a family but more often had numerous sexual liaisons without the formality of marriage. In either instance, numerous populations of mixed children emerged. A number of social responses could be anticipated, ranging from acceptance to ostracism. In India a more rigid caste system prevented the child from easily entering back into the local population. Except during the reign of the Portuguese the child was seldom embraced with enthusiasm by the father's community. Thus, the mixed populations of India tended over time to form together and develop a unique collectivity, becoming known as the Anglo-Indian Community of India.

The history of the Anglo-Indian Community began sometime shortly after the Portuguese settlement of India in 1498. Numbers were added to the community through both Dutch and French contacts. Yet, with the firm establishment of the British as the dominant colonial power in India, the minority solidified and became a functioning entity. The Anglo-Indian Community developed as a unique group having as its major distinguishing feature the cultural emulation of the British. Overt patterns of behavior, i.e., dietary, dress, language, religion, family system, etc., were uniquely European, especially British. Both rejected by and rejecting their Indian heritage, Anglo-Indians emulated those aspects of Indian life indicative of overseas British citizens. Through those centuries, until Indian Independence, the British served as their live and viable reference group.

Although Anglo-Indians accepted English cultural patterns as theirs, they could never reach a plateau of equality in the social sphere. At the same time they were never really a total part of the cultural or social composition of indigenous India. The position of this minority, in very realistic terms, could only be defined as marginal. No matter how much they tried, they were never totally a member of the British community. At the same time indigenous populations, especially those more nationalistic communities, never considered Anglo-Indians to be truly a part of India. They were on the periphery of both groups.

This condition of marginality continued through and even after Indian Independence, and into the present. With the exodus of the British as the "colonial masters," in the late 1940s, the visible reference group for cultural emulation was gone, but a unique phenomenon continued. This paper is concerned with the continued use of this reference group, although for most practical purposes the reference imagery is no longer present in India.

Anglo-Indians were from their genesis forced into a situation of marginality. They were not accepted by the indigenous culture as they did not fit into the established social order. In addition, they faced rejection also from the British, who never considered them to be socially or culturally their equal. Thus, the membership of this minority found themselves forced to form a community with cultural and social characteristics which were independent of those possessed by the dominant group (i.e., British or indigenous Indian).

With these general limitations present, the Anglo-Indian was prevented from, intimate contact with the British. The model of reference available to them was therefore somewhat limited, becoming a synthesis of many bits of information which they were able to obtain. Members of this minority also faced the basic limitation of not having available even those comforts and facilities which were available to the overseas British.

It was under these conditions, tempered by historically fluctuating relationships with the British and Indian dominant groups, that the Anglo-Indian culture emerged and solidified over a period of several centuries. Naturally in the formation of their community patterns, some outside model or reference was necessary. Because of their political, economic, and social dominance, the British provided perhaps a more tempting model. Of importance, too, was the fact that the early Anglo-Indians had been raised under the influence of their British fathers, speaking English, dressing in western tradition, and in many cases being sent to England for their formal education. It should also be noted that early Anglo-Indians were undoubtedly ostracized from many associations with their indigenous heritage because of the often rigid caste and community mores. In this sense, Anglo-Indians may indeed have been forced to turn to their European sires for basic support.

Anglo-Indians as in their Community Context:

Anglo-Indians have historically been city-dwellers, situated in those locations where the greatest concentrations of Europeans could be found. Additionally, it was and is in these sites where one was and is more likely to also happen upon the more prolific amounts of "Western" culture. One usually thinks of Calcutta, Bangalore, Delhi, Bombay and Madras when the Anglo-Indian Community is visualized geographically in India. This is indeed an accurate conceptualization if one only considers the community according to numeric dimensions. However, there were hundreds of other "cities" situated throughout India that had relative to their size large numbers of Anglo-Indians. These were the railroad towns, the provincial and local administrative cities, hill stations, and communication centers. It was these more remote locations that a significant but usually unseen accumulation of Anglo-Indians eventually inhabited.

Why these locations? The answer is simple, Anglo-Indians were both positioned by the British and positioned themselves in occupations and social locations that were somewhere between the "higher-status" British official and the "lower-status" local populations. Each of these communities provided immense benefit for the British since they were all major pieces of the local world that held the Empire together. Without a separate and loyal level of bureaucracy the British could have never maintained, over time, the immense Empire of India. Yet, this loyalty had its good and bad points ... the British never accepted Anglo-Indians as their social or cultural equal and the indigenous populations came to increasingly distrust and dislike this population over time.

Anglo-Indians came to occupy almost all organizational and administrative portions of the Indian railway system. They were station-masters, communication directors, engineers, conductors, switching supervisors, and anything else that kept what became known as the highly efficient Indian railway system running. Thus any town that had a railroad station located in it probably also had one or more Anglo-Indians residing in the community and associated with the rails. If the town was a major "switching station" or larger commercial town there were probably several Anglo-Indian families in residence.

Anglo-Indians or Domiciled Europeans also ran the local administration for the British. They were the tax collectors, police officers, middle-range military personnel, and intermediary bureaucrats and as such were located throughout India. India became an especially bureaucratic nation having several parallel forms of government ... national and provincial as well as a tendency to provide services for various communities (Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Indian Christians). The British often ran the country from its cooler, more resort oriented, hill stations during the hot, humid, monsoon weather of the summer. These hill stations (i.e., Shimla and Ootacamund) were literally constructed to allow the complete administration of government from these remote locations, including regular communication with London. To ensure the effective utilization of these services Anglo-Indians often staffed the secondary administrative levels. Even today the hill stations of Shimla and Mussoorie have a few remaining families of Anglo-Indians. Although they are disappearing from prominence their names still alert one of the days of the British Raj.

Anglo-Indians also were instrumental in keeping the communication going in the days when the British depended upon rapid contact to keep the Empire functioning effectively. Anglo-Indians came to run the telegraph and postal services of India. Members of this community had the skills of language and culture to as well as an almost unswerving loyalty to the British that afforded an efficient functioning of services. Anglo-Indians are credited by many as being instrumental in keeping India in the Empire during the "Mutiny of 1857." During the days of the "First War for Independence" Anglo-Indians kept the telegraph in operation and provided for rapid communication among various remote and political centered command posts. Additionally, Anglo-Indians have always been employed as intermediate officers in the British in India. Some gained recognition as highly decorated military commissioned and non-commissioned officers. They went into battle wherever the Crown sensed danger and potential revolution.

Given this picture of Anglo-Indians living in large cities where community solidarity could emerge formed an semi-official cultural group. In smaller, usually more remote, districts of India one might find a few families, perhaps fifty to one-hundred households in the larger administrative towns. In all of the states of India one found provincial or district government centers. Dumka, Bihar, was one such community that was and is a community center and it is that location that the authors have recently conducted the research that will serve as a focus for this paper.

The Mixed Identity of a Homeland.

During the time of the British rule in India many Anglo-Indians looked toward England as "home," although many of them had never been there. Just as expatriated British citizens continued to look toward England as their native land so did the Anglo-Indians in their emulation of everything that was European. Even today one will often hear some older Anglo-Indians make reference to "home" when talking about England, but more and more they have been forced to dispense with that construction of national identify and turn toward India. The Grant Govan Homes is a community for aging Anglo-Indians located in one of the older sections of Delhi. There are eight cottages, seven of which serve as the homes of older members of the Community. The other cottage serves as a common room, a place where all seven families can come together and share meals, converse, play games, or "remember when." Above the fireplace is a large color portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, nearby is a framed photograph of John Majors, and on another wall is the Queen Mother greeting Pope John Paul II. This small plot of land, surrounded by a wall that protects it from the outside world, contains neatly trimmed lawns, flower beds, and a tree planted in 1990 marking the 50th anniversary of the Grant Govan Homes. The tree was planted by the wife of the British High Commissioner and has a nearby marker proclaiming it as a "Jubilee Tree" -- a symbolic term often used by the British to celebrate the 50th anniversary of some special event. This very small community is indeed an island of England still remaining in Delhi, India, as a marker of, as one member of the Community put it, "The Good Old Days."

On the other hand it is becoming common for Anglo-Indians who have to compete in the modern world to strip themselves of as much British or Anglo-Indian identity as possible. One manager of a small hotel in downtown New Delhi commented that in the public you have to be as "Indian as possible." Failure to do this, he noted as did numerous other members of the community, will lead you to be denied employment because you will never quite have the qualifications that an employer is seeking. Ruskin Bond, a famous writer of fiction, notably children's books, who resides in Mussorie (a hill-station North of Delhi in the mountains where members of the British Raj often spent their summers away from the sweltering heat of cities like Delhi and Calcutta) commented in a recent interview when asked if he ever intended on "going back to England" that

" ... For the past 30 years I have been in Mussourie. I was born in Kasauli. My parents too were born in India, so there is no question of my going back, since I never went away. My father was in the RAF (Royal Air Force) during the war and worked in a tea estate in Travancore; I grew up in Jamnagar. But I decided to stay here because my childhood associations were with Dehra Dun. I am not too clear on my ancestry, but notwithstanding my European looks, I am an Indian by birth and have never thought of leaving the country ..."

When I asked Anglo-Indians to comment on these words of "Indianization" expressed by Ruskin Bond, in an often lowered voice level they commented that they would make similar remarks in public. Otherwise they would risk a variety of negative social responses. This was especially true in rural or working class communities where ostracism is a more common informal if not even formal response. In these places they were concerned that they or their family might be let go from a job, be denied a promotion, or not be considered for something that they needed or wanted.

In in-depth interviews they went on to say that when they would leave the public arena or be in the privacy of their home that they would look toward England, Australia, Canada, or even the United States as their potential home. Almost all had several members of their immediate family who had recently migrated and usually they said that as soon as they could they would do the same thing and leave India. Most went on to say that Anglo-Indians really have no future in India. As a people their only future is now in some other country, probably Australia since that is the country that has accepted most Anglo-Indian migrants during the past decade or two.

Bihar Within the Indian Context

Bihar is one of the major agricultural states of India, located in North-Central part of the country between Bengal on the east, Orissa on the south, MP and UP on the west, and Nepal to the North. Bihar has variable seasons, the north part sloping down from the Himalayas into fertile agricultural land and the South being largely wooded and hilly. The elevation varies from a low of approximately 300 meters to a high of 1300 meters. It comprises a land area of 173, 877 square miles. In size Bihar is average, but in population it is the second largest, next only to UP. The population of 86 million, plus, resident makes up approximately one-tenth of the people in India. The sex ratio is 912 (females per 1,000 males), i.e., approximately 45 million males and 41 million females. From 1981 to 1991 there was a 23.49 percent increase in the growth of the population. The density of the population is 497 per square kilometer. The literacy rate is 38.54, 52.63 for males and 23.10 for females. The per capita income in 1989-1990 was Rs. 2122 or US $ 68.45.

The state of Bihar has a rich history, its name coming from a modification of the word 'Vihara,' having reference to a Buddhist monastery. Bihar was the home state of the Mauryan emperors, the most famous probably being Asoka the Great. Under his reign Magadha and its capital Pataliputra became an important international center. Following the death of Asoka, its prominence declined, but under the Gupta emperors it once again gained fame. Once Delhi became the center of power Bihar was primarily known as a location between the two power centers of Calcutta and Delhi. There were periods of importance, especially under Sher Shah when the city of Patna became an administrative center for the country.

In 1764, the British gained control of Bihar following the battle of Buxar and placed it along with Orissa into a separate administrative unit. In 1936, both Bihar and Orissa became separate provinces. Today Bihar is divided into 50 administrative districts. Dumka is the capitol of the Dumka Purbi district, with a land area of 5,518.2 square kilometers and a population of 1,497,266. Following British domination of Bihar, military and administrative centers were established throughout the state. In addition to these administrative centers, Bihar was linked to the remainder of India through telegraph, postal service, and the railroads. In all of these areas Anglo-Indians played a prominent role. Administration, communication, and transportation were the primary avenue through which the British dominated its possessions and the key places in which the Anglo-Indian community was both created and perpetuated.

Bihar has historically been noted for having an agricultural based economy. A total of 66 percent of its land is under cultivation, the major food grains being rice, wheat, maize, and pulses. The major cash crops are sugarcane, tobacco, jute, oilseeds, and potatoes. Almost 20 percent of the land remains covered by forest. Bihar produces some 40 percent of the total minerals coming from India, having iron ore, coal, and other valuable commodities. This agricultural base as well as the remoteness of parts of Bihar was the motivating force for one of the most important sagas in the history of the Anglo-Indian Community of India. In the early 1930s a group of several dozen Anglo-Indians established an agricultural community near Ranchi in a gathering that was to become known for its founder McCluskie, McCluskieganj. This attempted escape from the surge of Indian pre-Independence nationalism was doomed to failure since members of the community had always been city-dwellers, emulating the West and not India. Traces remain today of a decayed town, housing elderly Anglo-Indians, that seems to parallel the overall decline of the Anglo-Indian Community of India in general and Bihar in specific.

There are several prominent universities and centers of higher learning located in the state, the most notably universities are Patna, Ranchi, Bihar, Bhagalpur, Birsa Agl, Kameshwarsingh Sanskrit, Magadh, Rajeendra Agl, and Birla Institute of Technology. Nalanda was historically one of the great centers of learning and is recognized for its many Buddhist temples and monasteries. Tourism has become important to Bihar, especially noteworthy are Rajigir, Bodh Gaya, Bokaro, Patna, Ranchi, and Bodh Gaya (containing the ancient temple near the Bodhi Tree under which Buddha received enlightenment).

Anglo-Indians In Bihar

It is impossible to say when the first Anglo-Indians appeared in Bihar, but it is safe to say that permanent settlements of Colonists contained members of this minority shortly after England claimed the province in 1764. One can be almost certain that in the battle of Buxar there were Anglo-Indian members of the military fighting on the side of the British. The administrative units established by the British was the impetus for the introduction of Anglo-Indians into the location. By the turn of the Century, Anglo-Indians were scattered throughout Bihar finding employment in the Government Services as well as some private ventures. As modern innovations like the railroads and the telegraph linked all parts of India into one, one certainly found Anglo-Indians employed in these critical positions. During the last century of British dominance in India literally all major posts within these two vital work areas were held by Anglo-Indians.

Anglo-Indians in Dumka:

The Geography of Dumka and the immediate surrounding area is well suited to agriculture. Even though there is not a railroad line linking the community with the outside world, there are roadways that provide ample opportunity for trade and commerce. Being a land that is rich with an agricultural tradition it was inevitable that most of the growth has been historically linked to this heritage. Many of the earliest Anglo-Indians were large land owners and absentee managers, being able to draw on the cultural traditions of both England and India in developing an economic base.

Anglo-Indians came to Dumka as both members of the colonial government and as private investors, some purchasing large plots of land. Although members of the community were usually came from urban centers, they were quickly accommodated to the rural surrounds that identify places like Dumka. The 'Civil Lines' had historically delineated European and Indian communities, setting housing and other community involvement that gave cultural identity to the Overseas British as separated from the local Indian.

Dumka and Anglo-Indians following Independence

During the two decades before Independence it became evident to most people that separation of India from colonial domination was inevitable. Anglo-Indians were found themselves occupying a very delicate place in the unfolding society. They had historically been especially loyal to England, but few of them had ever been to England or any other Western nation. They had been born in India, often the second or third generation of a long-ago deceased Domiciled European. Their ties were established through the handing down of a cultural and social tradition, not through experience. This was especially true of those Anglo-Indians who lived in the more remote parts of India, such as Dumka.

Anglo-Indians pondered their position in an independent India, and often they feared for their future. Many, believing that their true heritage was with England and Europe migrated to those distant shores, while others attempted to escape into India, as was the case with the quasi-utopian settlement of McCluskiegunj in Bihar. Many saw their history with India and set about securing a place for themselves within the new country. The migratory pattern took its toll on the community. Thousands migrated to England, Canada , United States, and other western nations during the early years of Independence, until new immigration laws prevented easy entry. Fortunately, at a time, in the early 1970s, when England limited migration Australia became more open. One can never provide detailed numbers, but estimates would place the migration from India to these countries at as much as eight or ninety percent between 1940 and 1990. The community in India was reduced from approximately 200,000 in 1940 to less than 30,000 in 1990. Such a drastic reduction in the size of the community significantly impacted on its ability to maintain a distinct identity into modern times.

Dumka and Anglo-Indians of today

The seventy-five members of the Anglo-Indian Community who resided in Dumka in the mid 1940s have now dropped to two, a single brother and sister, William and Mary. Just as the critical mass necessary to maintain contact and the commonalty required for a community has decreased below that level throughout most of India, it certainly has in Dumka. There is literally no place to go for regular interaction with other Anglo-Indians where they can remember with William and Mary past days, share the common features of being an Anglo-Indian, remember and retell Anglo-Indian stories and legends, talk about their religion, or literally do those things necessary to reinforce and perpetuate identity. The old buildings where Anglo-Indians and the British once lived, went to school, or worshipped are decaying and literally falling apart. In another decade there will be only artifacts and archaeological traces of a culture that once thrived in this rural community. Even the cemetery that was reserved solely for the British and Anglo-Indians can still be identified by long-time residents of the community, but even that is showing evidence of disappearing with the passage of time.

In some of my earlier writings I made a distinction between the social, cultural, and social-psychological dimensions of human society. These three dimensions provide a way for observers to segment human behavior into basic areas and think about how patterns of social life cluster. This tricotomy should be of benefit when viewing the items that are available for identity within the lives of Anglo-Indians in the more remote parts of India. The social has reference to those elements of society that are interactional, patterned, normative. One has a hard time seeing them, but if you look hard you can see traces of them in the physical traces that identify where people can live, with whom they can interact, those things that identify prescriptions and proscriptions ... what one can and cannot do as a part of everyday life. In India's rural areas, Dumka for instance, those traces of the social have almost vanished. Rules, roles, and relationships that govern what Goffman called "the presentation of self in everyday life" simply do not take into account a set of norms that would allow Anglo-Indians to behave in unique ways. Certainly there are Western patterns that would be termed as social, but they are not uniquely Anglo-Indian. Instead they are a more generalized Western, images from television, films, magazines, and other media sources that construct for everyday persons an image of Western social system. Anglo-Indians, when following traditional Anglo-Indian patterns, find themselves to be fully marginal ... outside society. There are no longer clubs, formal or informal associations, locations of social class or stratification that can be called upon to identify those things "social" for Anglo-Indians. The images have disappeared into history.

As one Anglo-Indian male noted to me in an interview that took place in Dehra Dun, "My children will never know what it was like to be an Anglo-Indian." In the social sense he is right if he lives in places like Dumka or even Dehra Dun. Social clubs, schools, Sunday school classes, parks, even burial locations were once reserved for Anglo-Indians. If the reservations were not formal, they were certainly informal. This is not the case today. It is even doubtful that the children of this generation, raised in the more remote regions of India, will even think of themselves as "Anglo-Indian" within a few years and certainly their children will probably not be socialized into this tradition.

The cultural dimensions of society are the easiest to see, they are those material and nonmaterial items that identify the past and present with an existing group. Anglo-Indians have a rich cultural heritage, one that they shared with both the British and Indians but developed as a unique part of their group. Language, religion, education, unique words used to describe things and behaviors, dress, dietary patterns, household furnishings ... these are a few of the many things that identify the cultural side of life. In the major cities Anglo-Indians have a stronger sense of history that identifies things Anglo-Indian than do members of the community who live in the more remote regions. In the cities they also have the luxury of experiencing membership in a larger cohort as well as living in daily contact with others who share a Western tradition. In the small villages and communities things and behavior are slowly stripped away. Language goes fast, one cannot communicate in English as easily, western food and spices are not easy to obtain, dress disappears, and eventually those things that overtly identify one as Anglo-Indian cease to be common.

In the case of William, he has two sons. The sons have selected to change their names to Hindi or Hindu and have given up their English names. They have opted to call and see themselves as Hindus, not Christians, and take on indigenous styles of living as their own. When asked why they publicly say that the nation is one, Indian, and it is their duty to become Indian. Privately they confess that they experience considerable discrimination and prejudice because of their Western heritage. They are passed over for jobs or promotions in the workplace and they cannot afford the liabilities of being Anglo-Indian in a nation that has been experiencing a renaissance of Indian nationalism during the past few years. Survival and guaranteeing a standard of living for their families means that they either migrate to another country that is Western, like Australia or Canada, or they gave up those cultural things that identify them as Anglo-Indian or British in heritage. In many instances parents today give Anglo-Indian children two sets of names ... one Indian and the other Anglo-Indian. That way the child may select which to use in the future, depending on prejudice, discrimination, or the ability to identify with those who share their cultural heritage.

As to the social - psychological dimension of Anglo-Indian life, there appears to be little doubt that most are frustrated and fearful about the future. To think of themselves in modern India is to recall a history when as a community they once enjoyed prominence but today lack a strong definition of self. Reference groups are not as prevalent as they once were and social behavior cannot be maintained for the entire group. Places where they once went to reaffirm who they are are now shared with others who are not Anglo-Indian or exist primarily in memory. There is little reason to possess a social - psychology that is different from mainstream Indians.

Those Anglo-Indians who remain in India because of a personal sense of Indian nationalism have no reason to possess a unique social-psychology. Those who remain becuse they are trapped in a nation with which they do not share a sense of identity leads to frustration and alimentation. It is more difficult to migrate than ever before, many nations restricting immigration to skills or immediate family members of those who have already migrated. The children of William to privately comment that they cannot migrate have resigned themselves to living in an India that has no appreciation for their social and cultural heritage. Many Anglo-Indians see their future in nations such as Australia where they point to communities like Perth as having recently cultivated conditions that have the potential of providing a future for their heritage. Without a strong social and cultural base the retention of a social - psychology in India is impossible. The future does not look promising for those Anglo-Indians who remain in India if their goal is to foster a unique Anglo-Indian place in modern India. Dumka and Anglo-Indians of tomorrow

Once William and Mary are gone a community that numbered several dozen individuals and families in Dumka will no longer exist. This was a community that had a very distinct life-style that almost fully emulated the British and isolated itself from the indigenous populations, a community that, as one of its member said "... is on its last leg ... in the saddest of states." Mary married a man from the local Indian community, lives a life that is totally Indian, speaks local languages except on rare occasion, and with her family celebrates those things that are Indian by tradition. The future of her side of the family is firmly defined legally, socially, culturally, and social - psychologically as Indian. For William, his children have selected a very logical thing for them, to give up all that is Anglo-Indian and embrace that which is Indian. His daughter speaks of leaving the community for Calcutta and preserving an Anglo-Indian tradition. Perhaps that will happen, but the heritage of an Anglo-Indian tradition will disappear from this community upon the death of William.

Conclusions:

What does all of this say for the future of Anglo-Indians in India, especially the more rural parts of the community? William is probably the last Anglo-Indian to be a permanent member of the Dumka community. Biologically the descendants of both William and Mary will possess the genes of both India and the West, but from a perspective of identity once their descendants cease defining themselves to others as well as themselves as Anglo-Indians, the community will have disappeared. Once there were some seventy-five Anglo-Indians in this community but today there is only one ... William. The Anglo-Indian community fought hard to define themselves in a very specific manner, tracing their heritage along the male side of the family. Once winning that right it became necessary to maintain clusters of the population large enough to continue that heritage. When the numbers dropped because of migration or self-definition, a point was reached where the social, cultural, and social - psychological identities could not be maintained.

Internationally there is a community that meets in various countries, celebrating the identity of being Anglo-Indian. In some countries, enclaves and formal as well as informal groupings have emerged to provide both a critical mass as well as a means for perpetuating identity. In rural Bihar, however, no such movement exists. For that part of the world it would appear that in a few short years the Anglo-Indian Community will exist only in the memory of some of the older citizens. Just as it is difficult to identify the 'civil lines' that once separated the colonial from the colonized, tomorrow it will be difficult find traces of a once large and important culture of rural India, the Anglo-Indian and his or her community.