AngloIndia and the End of Empire

The standard image of the Raj is of an aloof, pampered and prejudiced British elite lording it over an oppressed and hostile Indian subject population. Like most caricatures, this obscures as much truth as it reveals. The British had not always been so aloof. The earlier, more cosmopolitan period of East India Company rule saw abundant interracial sex and occasional marriage, alongside greater cultural openness and exchange. The result was a large and growing mixedrace community, known by the early twentieth century as AngloIndians.Notwithstanding its faults, Empire could never have been maintained without the active, sometimes enthusiastic, support of many colonial subjects. These included Indian elites, professionals, civil servants, businesspeople and minority groups of all kinds, who flourished under the patronage of the imperial state, and could be used in a divide and rule strategy to prolong colonial rule. Independence was profoundly unsettling to those destined to become minorities in the new nation, and the AngloIndians were no exception.This refreshing account looks at the dramatic end of British rule in India through AngloIndian eyes, a perspective that is neither colonial apologia nor nationalist polemic. Its history resonates strikingly with the complex identity debates of the twentyfirst century.