COLOURFUL
THOUGHTS
By
Rudy Otter
Anglo-Indians
and Goans could have evolved into a single community in India as far back as the
year 1911.They had much in common. Both communities had mixed European-settler
and Indian ancestry - the Anglo-Indians were of British/Indian descent, and the
Goans were of Portuguese/Indian descent. Both communities were Christian. Both
communities spoke English.
So
why was there the long delay in coming together as one big happy Anglo-Indian
community? Why did this only start to happen in earnest in the early 1950s? I
would say the fault lay entirely with the arrogant Anglo-Indians of those bygone
days.
They
regarded most Goans as “less European-looking” than themselves. They thought
Goans more closely resembled the Indian side of their dual
ancestry.
Now
just a minute.
Anglo-Indians
were not half as “European-looking” as they had imagined. They actually came in
four shades. A minority were white, many were light-brown, many more equally
split between medium-brown and dark-brown. I know that in bygone days,
Anglo-Indians, no matter what their hue, strived to portray themselves as
“whiter than white”, several blaming the harsh Indian sun for their swarthy
pigmentation.
It
was clear to me, as a “medium-brownie” born and brought up in India in the
mid-1900s, that having a fair complexion meant everything to Anglo-Indians in
those far-off days.
Nothing
else seemed to matter.
If
you were a white Anglo-Indian, you were truly blessed. For some unfathomable
reason the world owed you a living. Darker-hued Anglos - the medium-browns and
the dark-browns - automatically admired you and felt it a privilege to socialise
with you or better still marry you. What's more, having blue or green or grey
eyes, and fair or ginger hair, were additional jewels in your coveted white
crown.
Yet,
despite this white-complexion mania among Anglo-Indians, they and the Goans
managed to live and work side by side in harmony in those distant
days.
In
the railway institute, as a youngster, I watched them playing billiards, whist
and tombola in good-natured groups. Both communities took part in hockey,
cricket, boxing and athletics events. They greeted one another in the street or
at railway stations and marketplaces and happily exchanged
gossip.
Both
communities employed Indian servants - as cooks, cleaners and sometimes even
gardeners. Many Anglo-Indians shared with Goans the Roman Catholic faith and
attended the same Christian schools. All this outward show of harmony only
existed up to a point.
That
point was MARRIAGE.
In
those olden days I heard of some Goan fathers offering white or light-brown
Anglo-Indian bachelors attractive dowries to marry their daughters. Such
overtures only served to inflate the already exaggerated self-importance of the
Anglo-Indians they pursued.
Predictably,
those Anglo-Indian bachelors mostly turned down the Goan dowry offers, but a
minority, dazzled by the prospect of sudden wealth, accepted the dowries and
then had to face the wrath of their colour-conscious Anglo-Indian relatives who
saw the marriage as “letting the family down”.
Surely,
the irate relatives would argue, their Glen or Gladys “could have done better?”
- a euphemism that meant acquiring a fair (or fairer-skinned) partner. “Doing
better” had nothing to do with looks, income, job prospects, intelligence or
upbringing - only skin complexion.
I
once heard of an Anglo-Indian father somewhere in northern India who was so
incensed at a Goan teenager taking a fancy to his light-brown daughter that he
chased the Goan down the road brandishing a hockey stick and bellowing at the
fleeing youth never to come anywhere near their railway quarters
again.
I
also knew of a young Anglo-Indian man striding up to a Goan after a railway
institute social evening and threatening to beat him up because the Goan, during
a tag-dance, had “tagged” his white-skinned sister several times by tapping her
partner on the shoulder to dismiss him and taking the girl in his arms. It seems
the angry Anglo feared that all that tagging might prompt spectators to believe
that his sister was “sweet” on the Goan, an unthinkable thought in those far-off
days, the mid-1900s!
Yet,
had a white soldier from the local British army camp tagged the belligerent
Anglo-Indian's sister's partner on the dance floor and claimed her for himself,
the Anglo would undoubtedly have beamed with pride and told everyone within
earshot: “See my sister? Look who she's jiving with, men! What's there for
her!”
For
well over half a century, Goans have been happily part of the Anglo-Indian
community and rightly regarded as fellow Anglo-Indians all over the world. We
are all now One Big Happy Anglo-Indian Family, and a good thing too. But why
that long delay in getting together? Here's why.
Originally,
the real Anglo-Indians of India were the British white-settlers. That is what
they called themselves - ANGLO-INDIANS.
Those
British white-settler Anglo-Indians married Indian women, and the offspring of
their European-Indian unions were called “Eurasians” - born in any of those four
colours I have already mentioned - white, light-brown, medium-brown, dark-brown.
Alas, the Eurasians were mistrusted by both the British white-settler
Anglo-Indians, and the Indians, each community claiming that Eurasian loyalty
lay with the “other side”. Fed up with their confusing Eurasian identity, and
feeling it would be more advantageous to side with the British, the Eurasians
began to appeal for “Anglo-Indian” status, a move that appalled the original
Anglo-Indians.
“How
can you be Anglo-Indian like ourselves when you are actually Eurasian?” the
British white-settlers demanded to know. The Eurasians ignored their objections
and kept pressing for Anglo-Indian status, and the white settler Anglo-Indians
eventually relented.
In
the year 1911 a magic British Raj wand, waved over the Eurasians, transformed
them into Anglo-Indians as well, much to their delight. Their dearest dream had
come true. Having joyfully achieved what they regarded as an “upgrade” to
Anglo-Indian status, the Eurasians felt they had to justify their coveted new
identity and began to research deeply and enthusiastically into their British
ancestry.
They
built up a frenzied collection of frayed documents compiled in smudgy dip-pen
handwriting as well as fading photographs of real or imagined white ancestors
stretching back to the 19th century, while totally ignoring their Indian side.
They not only ignored their “Indian side” but airbrushed it right out of their
ancestry, never to be mentioned again.
The
“new” Anglo-Indians resolved to protect their upgrade with all the fervour of
security officers guarding the gold at Fort Knox. This is why those “new”
Anglo-Indians steered clear of marrying Goans and dark-brown Anglos, desperate
to keep their stock as “fair-skinned” as possible to reflect their hard-earned
Anglo-Indian status.
They
yearned to be regarded as white, all-white, nothing but
white.
Incidentally,
in an Indian city I once heard of a white-skinned young Anglo-Indian woman with
blonde hair and blue eyes who mesmerised everyone the moment she stepped out of
her house. People, whatever they were doing, would stop to gawp at her. If she
looked up, she would see hundreds of Indian, Anglo-Indian and Goan faces staring
down at her from balconies and windows. In the cafes she passed, customers would
pause, open-mouthed, while eating their snacks and glare at the white vision.
Pedestrians, walking or talking, kept their eyes glued on her. Motorists would
toot their horns to signal that the sight of her had brightened their day. Bus
passengers and cyclists would leer at her for as long as they could, swivelling
their heads to savour every last second of the disappearing mirage
...
White
Anglo-Indians, in India, in those far-off days, were regarded as more than just
superstars; they were up there with the gods and goddesses. That is why a fair
skin in those days was such a highly prized commodity on the subcontinent. A
fair skin, not education, was the passport to jobs as drivers and guards on the
railways, our main occupation in those far-off days.
Goans
generally were more intelligent than Anglo-Indians - better educated, better
mannered, sensitive to others' feelings, but all these admirable qualities
amounted to nothing because Anglo-Indians felt their fairer complexions, real or
imagined, gave them the right to feel superior to Goans.
At
Anglo-Indian dances in India, superiority complexes based on colour came to the
fore. Everyone's eyes would dart around the hall to find out who was the fairest
of them all! Rapid assessments based on skin complexion, colour of hair and eyes
would be made. As dancing couples swirled, they quickly appraised other couples
gliding past them, keeping an eye (a blue one?) open to see if anyone was
looking at THEM in that intensely admiring way which signalled that they were
the fairest Anglo-Indians present.
This
was a thrilling compliment to those concerned, sometimes causing them to show
off by exploding into exaggerated laughter at nothing in particular simply to
draw even more attention to themselves!
The
dancers, in turn, would be watched by elderly folk sitting around the perimeter
of the dance floor like a circle of crows, making their own whispered
assessments such as: “Who's that nice fair girl jitter-bugging with that greasy
chap?” or “Who's that nice fair boy with ginger hair jumping up to catch the
balloons?”
The
“nice” epithet, by the way, was reserved solely for white Anglo-Indians in those
far-off days, meaning others of darker hues were graded, according to their
complexion, as not-so-nice or far-from-nice or even outright villains, whatever
the true nature of their individual characters!
So
has a fair skin ceased to matter altogether in these enlightened times as we
power through the new millenium?
Surprisingly,
no.
Sales
of skin-whitening products in India and all over the world are going through the
ozone layer. Sadly, it would seem that many darker-hued people of whatever race
(African, Asian, West Indian) still cling to the notion that a white skin is
more highly regarded than a brown or black skin. They believe a white skin can
propel one quicker and further up the career ladder, open doors previously
inaccessible or boost one's matrimonial prospects sky-high by attracting wealthy
partners.
And
while the blacks and browns are busy “whitening up”, the white races are hell
bent on going in the opposite direction. They spend their holidays in perspiring
climates, lying semi-clad in the scorching sun for several hours a day in an
effort to turn dark-brown or black. They do this, even if it means exposing
themselves to the possibility of sunstroke or skin cancer.
Well,
the grass is always greener on the other side of the
fence.
Green?
Now there's an interesting colour. If the entire planet is going green to ward
off global warming, why don't all of us (browns, blacks, whites, yellows) try
having green complexions for a change?
Now
there's a thought ....
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**
(Article first published on The Anglo-Indian Portal website in
2009
@
Rudy Otter is a retired Anglo-Indian journalist and columnist who now writes
articles and short stories for our community's own magazines and websites.
Contact: otterrp@yahoo.co.uk