History Of Anglo-Indians

"The origin of the Anglo-Indians goes back many centuries to the earliest years of contact between Europe and India. Historically the community dates back nearly 400 years to the time when Vasco de Gama, the intrepid Portuguese Navigator, landed at Calicut on the West (Malabar) Coast of India in May, 1498. Within ten years of 1500 there was at Diu a Portuguese Governor - the great Alfonso d´Albuquerque. As a means of establishing the Portuguese authority in India he encouraged his countrymen to marry Indian women. `He did not however, give permission to marry except to men of approved character.´ The women whom they married were the daughters of the principal men of the land. The Portuguese failed to establish themselves permanently in India. One of the causes of the Portuguese failure was the arrival of the Dutch and the English in the opening years of the 17th century. The offspring of these mixed marriages between the Portuguese and Indians were known as Luso-Indians. When the Portuguese, under pressure, abandoned their Indian possessions the Luso-Indians rapidly sank in the social scale and within a space of two centuries the majority of them had reverted to Indian stocks, and are known today as Goanese, a very common community in Goa, Bombay and the West Coast. But in the larger cities of India like Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, the better type of Luso-Indians retained their European characteristics and many of them ultimately amalgamated with the newly-born mixed community, the Anglo-Indians.

The birth of the Anglo-Indian community in contradistinction to the Luso-Indian community dates back to the year 1600 when Queen Elizabeth granted a Charter to the East India Company to initiate trading operations with India. At first the English merely visited Indian ports as traders. By 1612 a factory had been established at Surat. By 1639 another factory was established at Madras. Bombay was a centre for trade purposes in 1668. In 1698 the East India Company purchased the Zemindary of three villages, one of which was called Calicutta, from which Calcutta derived its name. Very soon it was imperative to construct fortifications and employ soldiers to defend the factories against attacks from the Mahrattas and other marauders of those early days. Thus there gradually grew up colonies of English men only in all the trading factories along the shores of India, for the East India Company had prohibited women from accompanying their men folk to India.

Alfonso d´Albuquerque had encouraged his men to marry Indian women as a means to strengthening the Portuguese position in India. Owing to the fact that the English missed the companionship of their women, and suffered from the monotony and tedium of life in a strange and tropical land, many of them formed alliances (legitimate or otherwise) with the Luso-Indian and Indian women. Moreover the English who discovered that the offspring of mixed marriages, the Anglo-Indians, were of great service to them in many ways. The Court of Directors of the East India Company on 8th April, 1687, thus addressed their President at Madras: `The marriage of our soldiers to the native women of Fort St. George is a matter of such consequence to posterity that we shall be content to encourage it with some expense, and have been thinking for the future to appoint a pagoda (Rs. 5) to be paid to the mother of any child that shall hereafter be born of any such future marriage, upon the day the child is christened, if you think this small encouragement will increase the number of such marriages.´ The offer of the Directors was accepted and put into effect so that the British in this way became officially responsible for the birth of the Anglo-Indian Community. Gradually however, as the numbers of Anglo-Indians increased, the practice of Britishers marrying Indian women fell into disrepute, because the necessity for it had disappeared. `The new arrival could always wed a girl of mixed parentage, and it became customary for him to do so.´

From the earliest times the cause of England was the cause of her Anglo-Indian sons. They augmented the inadequate forces of the East India Company; they spilt their blood on many a battlefield, they rendered estimable services in reconnoitring and bringing information of the enemy.´ In the early days Anglo-Indians were not branded with the mark of inferiority. If their fathers could afford it, they were sent to England for their education, and returned to India in the covenanted services of the Company. Those who were not lucky enough to be sent to England were given the best education obtainable in India and occupied the majority of the positions in the uncovenanted Civil service, and in the warrant ranks of the Company´s army. `They fought under Clive at Arcot. They perished in the Black Hole of Calcutta. They were to be found in the front line of battle at Plassey.´ These were the years of their prosperity, their halcyon days. The days of turmoil and adversity were fast approaching.

The days of prosperity of the Anglo-Indian community may roughly extend from 1600 to 1785. On the 14th of March, 1786, the first of three repressive orders was promulgated against the community. By the first order of March 1786 the wards of the upper orphanage school at Calcutta, recently established under the auspices of the East India Company for the orphans of British Military officers, were prohibited from proceeding to England to complete their education, and thus qualifying for the covenanted services. A second order passed in April 1791 stated that `no person the son of a native Indian shall henceforth be appointed by the court in employment in the Civil and Military forces of the Company.´ The third Resolution passed in 1795 stated that all not descended from European parents on both sides were disqualified for service in the army except as fifers, drummers, bandsmen, and farriers. These repressive measures were due partly to a fear of mutinies such as had occurred in the English force under Clive in Bengal in 1776 and in the Madras army which revolted and imprisoned Lord Pigott, Governor of Madras, in the same year; partly to a panic in India and England caused by contemplating the possibilities of a rebellion in India led by the now numerous Anglo-Indians. This experience had happened about this time to the Spaniards in San Domingo; and partly to a desire on the part of shareholders of the East India Company for the patronage with regard to filling appointments in India which up to now was in the hands of the Indian Government, for the shareholders saw in the Company´s service attractive careers for their sons and other near relatives. Thus Anglo-Indians had been deprived of every honorable career in the military forces and the door was closed against them with regard to civil appointments. `Thus within the brief period of 10 years lying between 1786 and 1795, by the standing orders of the great East India Company, Anglo-Indians had been reduced to the status of a proscribed and down-trodden race.´

Immediate action was taken in order to give effect to these regulations, and these conditions with slight variations were in force till the outbreak of the Mutiny in 1857. Anglo-Indians in every branch of the army were discharged from the service without any compunction as to their future. Owing to the fact that heretofore they were regarded more like Englishmen, they had been debarred from acquiring land or residing further than 10 miles from the nearest Presidency town or Company´s settlement. Hence they could not turn to agriculture or trade. Thrown out of the soldiering, the only profession to which they had been reared, there was nothing for them to do but transfer their services to Indian chiefs, and they were received with open arms. Others of them formed their own groups of irregular infantry and cavalry; while hundreds of Anglo-Indian warriors won their spurs in the ranks of armies not belonging to the East India Company.´ Although they were not permitted to hold offices under the Company, many found employment as clerks in the various mercantile houses.

`The East India Company had hardly cast Anglo-Indians out of its army, when it found itself beset by foes.´ The Marquis of Wellesley had arrived in India in 1798 and had introduced his `Subsidiary System´ which initiated the Mysore and Mahratta wars. At this time too the English in Europe were at death-grips with the French and Napoleon in the Revolutionary Wars and could send very little help to India. So `A Proclamation was issued summoning all British and Anglo-Indian men and officers who were serving with the Mahratta army under Perron and in other Indian States, to return to the Company´s forces. The Proclamation concluded with a warning that those who failed to rejoin the British ranks would be treated as traitors.´ There was no need for the threat. The Anglo-Indians heard the `Call of the Blood´ and obeyed implicitly. The war against the Maharattas was concluded abruptly and inconclusively.

The Court of Directors had grown weary of Wellesley´s ceaseless and costly campaigns, and recalled him. A Non-Intervention policy was once again adopted and expenditure on the military side reduced to a minimum. The Company´s army was reduced and once again Anglo-Indians were thrown out of military service, for `in 1808 the Commander-in-Chief issued an order discharging them, as formerly, from the British Regiments in India.´

During the first half of the 19th century (1800-1850) the Anglo-Indian community made the first serious attempts to provide for the education of their children. Being shut out from the army they realized that a good education was needed for the various callings in civil life. In response to this urge, and with the help of influential men and societies La Martiniere College was established in 1836, St. Xavier´s College in 1834, and many other institutions too numerous to mention. `The spirit of self-help of this period is worth bearing in mind.´ In spite of improved educational facilities the prospects of the community during the first half of the 19th century were none too rosy. In fact for many the future was black. The political, social and economic, disabilities of their community was freely discussed in every Anglo-Indian home and ultimately it was resolved that `a petition´ should be presented to the British Parliament on their behalf. A suitable document was drawn and J.W. Ricketts was unanimously elected agent to present it to the Houses of Parliament. Ricketts arrived in London with this precious Document on 27th December 1829 and it was at length duly presented to Parliament. Owing to the political upheavals in England about this time the petition did not produce the results which were expected of it. The struggle for Catholic Emancipation and the Reform bill of 1832 was in progress. The people in England had too many of their own problems to cope with to find time for the petition of the Anglo-Indians. `The communal activities of the Anglo-Indians about the period 1820-1830 had a local but nevertheless important result. It called for the sympathy and good-will of influential friends in the country, who gave their moral support to the aspirations and reasonable demands of a patient and enduring section of the British inhabitants of India.´ It also brought into the limelight and had recorded some of their difficulties and problems.

In 1833 the Charter of the East India Company was renewed. Influenced no doubt somewhat by the Anglo-Indians´ petition, Section 87 of the said Act stated that -`No native of the said territories, nor any natural born subject of His Majesty resident therein, shall, by reason of his religion, place of birth, descent, colour, or any of them, be disabled from holding any place, office, or employment under the said Company.´ In theory all posts were thrown open to people of any race in India, but in practice only the subordinate trades were bestowed upon Indians and Anglo-Indians, since higher services could be filled only by recruitment in England. Fortunately for Anglo-Indians, about this same time (1833), English took the place of Persian as the official language of the Courts and Government offices. In future English was to be the only medium of correspondence in commercial houses. English being their mother-tongue, the Anglo-Indians had an advantage in this direction and very soon many of the community found employment under Government and in commercial firms as clerks, though in subordinate positions. This advantage, however, was only temporary because Lord Bentinck, who was Governor-General from 1828 to 1836, with the cooperation of Lord Macaulay who drew up his famous Minute on Education in 1835, determined that `The linguistic disadvantage of Indians should be removed, and accordingly instruction in English was ordered to be imparted in Indian schools.´ Very soon the graduates from Indian Universities and educated young men from the Government High Schools were rapidly elbowing Anglo-Indians out of the clerical posts which they had filled efficiently.

Fortune once again came to the rescue of Anglo-Indians for soon new avenues of employment were opening up for them. In 1825 the first railway had run in England. In 1845 the East India Railway was projected in India. Simultaneously railway schemes were set on foot in Madras and Bombay. The first train in India ran from Bombay to Thana in 1853. In 1851 the Telegraph system was inaugurated. During the latter half of the 19th century (1850-1900)

Anglo-Indians found ample employment on the railways, and in the telegraph and custom services. These departments needed men of adventurous stock who were willing to endure the hardships, risks, and perils of pioneers. The Anglo-Indians had in them the spirit of their forefathers and so the community furnished - `The Navigation Companies with captains, second officers, engineers and mechanics. From them were recruited telegraph operators, artisans and electricians. They supplied the railways with station staffs, engine-drivers, permanent way-inspectors, guards, auditors - in fact every higher grade of railway servant.´ The Mutiny of 1857 too had proved beyond doubt the absolute loyalty of the Anglo-Indians and removed the suspicion which had been responsible for the repressive measures of the latter part of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. The latter part of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century were once again a period of prosperity and contentment for Anglo-Indians.

The modern period may be said to have begun in the year 1911. It was in this year that the modern term Anglo-Indians was substituted by Government for the old name Eurasians, by which the community was known. In the 20th century Indians have made rapid progress in every direction. The universities, colleges and schools, of India have turned out thousands of young men well-fitted to hold posts in all the departments of Government and in Civil capacities too. The Morely-Minto Reforms of 1909, the Montagu-Chelmsford of 1919, and the Indian Bill of 1935 have given Indians an increasing share in the Government of their country. As the Indians are fitting themselves more and more to undertake leadership in all phases of life in India, it is only in the natural order of affairs that Anglo-Indians should lose the near monopoly they once held and find in the struggle to secure employment more difficult. In my boyhood days a lad in the 6th Standard of about 14 years of age, with no more than a knowledge about the 3R´s was able to get employment easily on the railways or in the telegraph department, and unemployment was unheard of. Today young men of my community with a good high school education, and some with degrees, are roaming the streets in search of employment, and unemployment is rife. Hundreds of the community are to be found today in all the large towns begging for their daily bread. The community as a whole is demoralized and discouraged, and had not yet found a solution for its difficulties. In the words of Mary Pickford, I would again ask - `Why not try God?´ In many senses the community had faced more difficult problems and been through more trying circumstances in this modern age than ever before in its history. No one seems to be able to predict the future of the Anglo-Indians. This seems to be in the lap of the gods."

*In this chapter, "Christine Weston quoted freely from `Hostages to India´ by the late Herbert A. Stark, the historian of the Anglo-Indian community."
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In 1510 the Portuguese Governor of India, Alfonso d´Albuquerque encouraged his countrymen to marry Indian women in order to establish Portuguese authority in India. The offspring of these mixed marriages between the Portuguese and Indians were known as Luso-Indians.

In its early days, the East India Company´s Board of Directors did not allow families or wives to travel along with its officials and soldiers to India. The English missed the companionship of their women and many of them had relationships with Luso-Indian and Indian women.

The offspring of these mixed marriages and relationships are known as the Anglo-Indians. In 1687, the EIC encouraged marriages between European soldiers and Indian women, and even paid the mother of mixed offspring five rupees on the day the child was christened.

Until 1911 Anglo-Indians were universally known as Eurasians. For occupational purposes and as a point of differentiation from the Europeans and the Indians, they were designated Statutory Natives of India; while for the defence of Empire purposes, they were called European British Subjects.

Lists of some births, marriages and deaths in India are given in the Anglo-Indian newspapers of the time; also (from 1808 to 1844) some appear in the East India Register, which is held at the British Library, Oriental and India Office collection.

Selected extracts from the India Presidencies of Bengal, Bombay and Madras Ecclesiastical Returns of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1713-1948 include Anglo-Indian details as well, which are held at the British Library, Oriental and India Office Collection.

The relevant church record transcriptions and indexes have been microfilmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).