Throughout history different communities of various regions in the world came in contact with each other. Although it was most of the times not a meeting on equal terms, it still provided an opportunity to mix. When Europeans and Indians came in contact with each other at the end of the 15th century they also mixed to some extent. As a result of this mixing a new community presented itself, a community today known as the Anglo-Indians. At that time however the designation of the children of mixed descent caused a lot of problems. In fact, since their appearance they have never had an obvious position in Indian society. An important indication for this is the rich variety of names by which the community of mixed descent was known throughout the years: Half-Caste, Half-Breed, Mixed Blood, Indo-European, Indo-Briton, East Indian and Eurasian. Nowadays the term Anglo-Indian is officially defined in the Constitution of India of 1949:

...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...

This is also the definition that applies to the Anglo-Indians of this research.

Due to political factors of dominance people of mixed descent are often confronted with the inevitable choice between the two different cultural backgrounds from which they originate. The Anglo-Indians have always had a preference for their European origin, even today, although it has become less compared with the first centuries of their existence. Their mothertongue is English and their religion Christianity; they have tried to live their life by European standards.

In the literature written about Anglo-Indians the history of the community is divided into four periods. This division is based on the attitude of the British towards Anglo-Indians. Most of the authors focus on the fourth period, the period following 1920. This is because of the difficulties Anglo-Indians faced in this era. Literature written in or dealing with the beginning of this period is mainly concerned with the problems of how to create a sense of community feeling and how to develop an Anglo-Indian identity. After independence the literature is mainly concerned with the process of integration and its problems, into an independent Indian society.

The third period, which ranges from 1857 up to 1920, is briefly described in the history books of the community. It is the period after the Mutiny and is commonly regarded as a prosperous era for Anglo-Indians. The main reason for this is the preference of Anglo-Indians by the British for specific jobs. This was done to reward the Anglo-Indians for their pro-British attitude during the Mutiny in 1857. The attention of this research lies on this period.

According to most authors, the problems caused by the Indianization process only affected Anglo-Indians after the beginning of the 20th century. The Indianization process implied the involvement of the Indian population with the government of British India. But in fact Anglo-Indians were already confronted with the, for them, negative consequences of this process at the end of the 19th century. It was also connected with another important aspect of Indian society: racial discrimination.

Although each of these two phenomena, Indianization and racial discrimination, had its own impact on the life of Anglo-Indians they were also linked to each other by Indian nationalism. Indianization was strongly influenced by the growth of nationalism which started in the post-Mutiny period. According to Nemai Sadhan Bose in The Indian National Movement an outline, there were several factors that contributed to this growth:

"The two most important were rapid spread of western education and intensifying dislike for the existing racial discrimination in the administration of justice and in government service."(p.35)

Under pressure of this growing nationalism the Indian Government began to employ more Indians in the Indian Civil Service at the end of the 19th century. Jobs for which the Indian Government had preferred Anglo-Indians in the beginning of the post-Mutiny period became more and more occupied by Indians. From now on Anglo-Indians had to compete with other Indians for employment in the 'traditional' Anglo-Indian services: the railways, post & telegraph, customs and police. Indianization meant these services began to employ more Indians instead of Anglo-Indians and British subjects.

After the Mutiny racial thinking and racial feeling began to gain more influence in British India. This was partly due to the developing social sciences in Europe which were trying to explain social behaviour. As a result of this they developed hierarchies of cultures and human races which were influenced by social Darwinism and evolutionism. Even more important, however, for the growing influence of racial thinking was the position of Europeans in British India. After the Mutiny they felt less secure in the colony because the revolt had shown that British rule was not fully accepted in India. When opposition to British rule grew thinking in terms of racial differences gained influence in colonial politics.

The outcome of the discrimination was that Indian society became stratified according to racial characteristics. This made the position of Anglo-Indians, who as a result of their origin had characteristics of different 'races', rather complex. They had an indistinct social rank in a society which emphasized the importance of 'racial purity'. At the same time Indianization made their position (economic and social) less secure because their privileges were gradually weakened.

In literature concerning the Anglo-Indian community there is hardly anything specific written about the position of Anglo-Indians in a racially oriented Indian society. Therefore the purpose of this research is to inquire how Anglo-Indians thought about their situation during the era 1857-1920. This was the period during which the two phenomena mentioned before influenced daily life in British India.

The central question which I hope to answer with this research is formulated as follows: What was the influence of reigning racial thinking on the selfperception of Anglo-Indians, and on their vision on other communities in India in the period 1857-1920?

To be able to answer this question properly I also formulated some supporting questions. These are:

- 1. In what way did Anglo-Indians deal with racial characteristics and racial differences?

- 2. How did Anglo-Indians write about racial characteristics and racial differences in their

- 3. How did Anglo-Indians write about their position in Indian society in their periodicals?

- 4. What kind of favours and other kind of requests did Anglo-Indians demand from the

- 5. Did the identity of Anglo-Indians change as a result of the racial stratification of Indian

- 6. How did Anglo-Indians write about the British and the other Indian communities in

In an attempt to find an answer to the central question I have used different kind of sources. The two most important sources were Anglo-Indian periodicals and literature about the subject. Besides these I used two additional methods: interviews with Anglo-Indians and visits to Anglo-Indian schools.

The periodicals were written during the research period for and by Anglo-Indians. The periodicals I studied only cover certain parts of the era concerning this research. The main reason is that not all the periodicals were available in Calcutta, where I did an important part of the research.

The office of the Calcutta branch of the All India Anglo-Indian Association only had issues of their own Review. The All India Anglo-Indian Association is the main political organisation of the community, by some even called "the lifeline of Anglo-Indians in India today." Unfortunately the editions of their magazine issued before the 1930s were lost.

The National Library in Calcutta, on the contrary, had different periodicals at its disposal. During my stay in the metropolis I studied almost all the issues that were available and fortunately they were fairly equally spread throughout the research period. Only the first 20 years, up to 1878 are missing. Beforehand I had already decided to focus on specific years in which important events concerning this research had occurred. The Ilbert Bill in 1883 is one example of such events. But in the end the availability of periodicals appeared to be the most important criterion.

The periodicals I studied are: The Anglo-Indian Guardian, 1878-1880; Anglo-Indian, 1880-1881; The Anglo-Indian, 1886; The Eurasian, 1908-1909; The Anglo-Indian Empire, 1910; and The Anglo-Indian Review, 1913-1914. These periodicals were all written for the Anglo-Indian and Eurasian community, with a great emphasis on the Eurasians. People of mixed descent were officially called Eurasians at that time but they liked to call themselves Anglo-Indians, a term used for Europeans who lived permanently in India. But, as mentioned before, the term Anglo-Indian in this research applies to people of mixed descent. Besides the periodicals I also had a quick look at the Annual Reports of 1877-1884 of the Eurasian and Anglo-Indian Association, and at some reports of so-called pauperism committees.

A lot of the, mainly old, literature about the Anglo-Indian community was also available in the National Library. The problem with this library, however, was the accessibility of some of the books that the library has in its collection. That means there were more books then I was able to go through. The most important reason was the brittleness of the books. Fortunately I was able to study the most important ones.

Besides the National Library there was more useful literature available in Calcutta, like in the libraries of The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, and the Asiatic Society. For the general, and some specific, literature I also used different libraries in The Netherlands, in particular the Royal Dutch Library in The Hague and the library of the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

As an additional method I had 15 interviews with Anglo-Indians in Calcutta and members of the community in McCluskieganj. These interviews didn't bring out as much information for my research as I had hoped but still they were very useful. Although I learned a lot about Anglo-Indians and their way of life it was not directly connected with the subject of this research. Yet it increased my understanding of the Anglo-Indian community and the interviewees helped me to find useful material which would have been hard to find otherwise.

Through the interviews with Anglo-Indians I learned a lot about how, and why identities can change. The average Anglo-Indian who lives in India today is proud of being an Indian. Some even regard themselves more Indian than members of other communities. They, according to Anglo-Indians, most of the times prefer to call themselves for example Bengali, Punjabi or Parsee, instead of Indian. This does not at all correspond with the general ideas of Anglo-Indians at the beginning of this century.

Most of the older Anglo-Indians of today have gone through an identity change themselves because of the radical political, economic and social changes in India during their life. I spoke with Anglo-Indians who said they were brought up as, what we would today call, a racist. This was strongly influenced by their environment; the family as well as school. One interviewee could still remember the words of a song that was taught to them by their teachers, somewhere around 1934. It was based on the tunes of 'Dazy, Dazy' and it goes like this:

and when they catch you, you know what they will do -

They'll tie you up with wire and put you in the black burrow.

These are obviously not the words of people who were in favour of Indians and their cry for independence. The song, and the fact it was taught at school, indicates that in 1934 there were clear anti-Indian sentiments among members of the Anglo-Indian community.

The same Anglo-Indian who told me the lyrics of the song is nowadays proud of being an Indian, and he refuses to live outside India. Although he has travelled and worked all over the world and has good opportunities to live abroad. For him India is 'home', even while the majority of his family is living outside the country. Especially the interviews with the older Anglo-Indians made clear to me that someone's identity is for a greater part shaped by his environment and its reigning ideas and customs. If these are changing, identities are changing too. Of course not all of them are changing in the same direction. Even today there are Anglo-Indians who are proud of their British descent, older ones as well as younger ones. This made clear to me that it is difficult to speak of 'the Anglo-Indian identity'. Anglo-Indians as a community have their own habits, customs and ideas. But when it comes to (individual) identities everyone will use various kinds of arguments for himself. Even when Anglo-Indians use the same sort of arguments, every individual can shape his or her own Anglo-Indian identity. The same thing must have happened a hundred years back, during the research period of this inquiry. Anglo-Indians then must have done the same; they also gave themselves an identity which suited best with their personal situation (social, economic and political), as is done by many people all over the world.

Besides the difficulties described above, the subject itself made the interviews also difficult. It is not the right way to ask people straight about their, and their parents, ideas on race and racial identities and characteristics. But by asking and talking a lot, about different subjects connected with Anglo-Indians and Indian society in general, it was possible for me to get more insight in the community at the beginning of this century. The aged Anglo-Indians not only had difficulties with the subject, but also with the stories of their parents lives and ideas, mainly because "...you never spoke with your parents, only in a formal way" as one of my eminent informants, Mr K. Sweeney, pointed out in one of the interviews. Another problem concerning my informants was that it was hard to find Anglo-Indians with different social backgrounds.

I became acquainted with the Anglo-Indians I interviewed through the Calcutta branch of the All India Anglo-Indian Association. This appeared to be the most successful way to identify Anglo-Indians in Calcutta. As a consequence I only spoke with Anglo-Indians who represented the All India Anglo-Indian Association in one way or another. But the All India Anglo-Indian Association has the almost inevitable deficiency like most representative organisations; it is impossible to represent the entire community. For the All India Anglo-Indian Association this means it mainly represents middle-class Anglo-Indians.

To avoid this incompleteness I went to McCluskieganj, formerly an Anglo-Indian colony in Bihar. Nowadays there are only a few Anglo-Indians left and most of the houses which were abandoned by Anglo-Indians are now occupied by other Indians of this area. But the Anglo-Indians I met in McCluskieganj also had some connections with the All India Anglo-Indian Association. One of my important informants, Mr D.C. Cameron lived in McCluskieganj. He had left the All India Anglo-Indian Association a long time ago because of disagreement with the politics of the Association. He was one of the few Anglo-Indians I spoke with who was not connected with the All India Anglo-Indian Association any more. The interviews and the fact that the Anglo-Indian periodicals were mainly written by middle-class Anglo-Indians makes that the visions described in this research are to a large extent opinions of the Anglo-Indian middle-class.

I also visited Anglo-Indian schools to look for material which was used to educate Anglo-Indian children during the research period. Anglo-Indian schools had a central role in the community and therefore an important function in creating and maintaining an identity. But this attempt to find useful sources at Anglo-Indian schools was unsuccessful. None of the schools I visited - La Martinière, St. Xaviers College and Bishop's College, all in Calcutta - had preserved any educational material from the research period. Only the Principal of La Martinière Boys School, Mr D.M. Alney, could help me with some information through two books that are written, and privately published, about the school.

As one possibly has noticed, all the primary sources are mainly written in and for Anglo-Indians from Calcutta. This is partly due to the fact I visited Calcutta. Another, even more important explanation is the fact that most of the publishing by and for Anglo-Indians was done in Calcutta. Therefore this inquiry has a great emphasis on Anglo-Indians in Calcutta, although my aim was to widen it to other parts of India as well. I started this inquiry with the purpose of entangling the whole of India, but the information I have is not enough to constructively apply to this large territory. Still I will try to make generalizations for the entire Anglo-Indian community. The limitation to Calcutta or Bengal also applies to some extent to the Indian elite. With the Indian elite is mainly meant the Bengali elite. Partly because the emphasis of this inquiry lies on Bengal, and partly because the Bengali elite is one of the well-known Indian elite groups, who besides this also were the ones who were mostly employed in the Civil Service.

Although the primary sources geographically limited the scope of this research to some extent, at the same time they also enriched this paper. They made it possible to use extensive quotations. This is done to show the reader the flavour of how Anglo-Indians wrote and thought about different matters concerning the subject of this research. It is especially important in the context of this inquiry because its main subject is the (self)perception of Anglo-Indians. Therefore it is appropriate to use their own words as much as possible.

To illustrate the context of this inquiry chapter 1 will start with a description of racism in Indian society during the era 1857-1920. Chapter 2 gives a survey of the history of the Anglo-Indian community. The chapters 3 and 4 both deal with the findings of the different sources which were used for this research, chapter 3 with regard to the Anglo-Indian selfperception and chapter 4 with regard to their perception on other communities. This distinction is made because the visions and attitudes of people, also concerning a phenomenon like racism, are very complex. One way to clarify this complex matter is to divide it like is done in this research. When it comes to rivalries between communities, like what is actually happening in racial problems, people like to use words as 'we' and 'they'. Therefore this division is also used to describe the thoughts and attitudes of Anglo-Indians. The division is also found in the central question of this inquiry. The final chapter, chapter 5, contains the conclusions of the inquiry.