Book focues on Anglo-Indian experience
Thursday, October 2, 2008 3:47 PM EDT
By Davy James, Staff Writer
Dr. Blair Williams has catalogued the experiences of Anglo-Indians from throughout the world.
MONROE They’re part of a neglected and often unrecognized culture, which has often lacked a voice to tell their stories. But thanks to a Monroe resident, the voices of Anglo-Indians throughout the world can now be heard and their stories can be told. I belong to the Anglo-Indian culture which is a hybrid of British and Indian cultures, said Blair Williams, of Monroe, whose grandfather is British and met his grandmother in India. The history of the British and Indians is documented, but we needed to write our own history.
Ten years ago, Mr. Williams founded a charity called CTR, which helps poor Anglo-Indians living in India. Through CTR Inc. Publishing, Mr. Williams recently published his fifth anthology on culture and the way of life of Anglo-Indians throughout the world, titled The Way We Are An Anglo-Indian Mosaic. This represents the culture and way of life of a community about to become extinct, Mr. Williams said. This collection has articles from authors living in Australia, New Zealand, England, Canada and the United States. How much more global, how much more multicultural can you get? We focus on how this group lived from the 50s to the 70s and then how they settled and integrated in different communities throughout the world.
Mr. Williams settled in Concordia in 1999 after retiring from a long career as a director for AT&T. He also teaches manufacturing and industrial engineering at Brooklyn Polytechnic University, in Brooklyn, N.Y. He started CTR as a way to give back to the community of Anglo-Indian children still living in India. All of the money raised through sales goes to the nonprofit charity, which is run by volunteers, according to Mr. Williams. He estimates that CTR has raised between $15,000 to $20,000 and has sold more than 3,500 copies of his anthologies combined. We get hundreds of submissions from authors around the world, Mr. Williams said. We have judges and editors to narrow the field. It takes about one and one half years for the entire process from submission to publishing.
Mr. Williams develops guidelines for the subject of the book and puts them on his Web site www.blairrw.org/ctr/index. He relies on word of mouth in the Anglo-Indian community to facilitate submissions. He said it’s extremely important for this community to be able to tell its stories because of the hardships they faced. This is a community defined by English resentfulness and Indian resentfulness, Mr. Williams said. We’re the middle man between the rulers and the workers. All that’s been written about us are stereotypes so I wanted to present a balanced version of our community when I started.
CTR will be holding a dinner dance at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 18 and a book launching event at 10 a.m. Oct. 19 to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The event will be held at the Crown of India in Plainsboro. The book launching will include a seminar and buffet lunch, with Assembly members Linda Greenstein, a Democrat whose district includes Cranbury, Jamesburg and Monroe, and Upendra Chivukula, a Democrat whose district includes Milltown, New Brunswick and North Brunswick, as guests. Tickets can be bought at the door. Tickets for the dance cost $60 with a $20 donation to CTR included. Tickets for the seminar are $30 with a $10 donation to CTR included. The Way We Are An Anglo-Indian Mosaic costs $16.95 and can be ordered at www.blairrw.org/ctr/index.php. For more information about the book or events, e-mail Mr. Williams at blairrw@att.net.