A well-deserved tribute to a small but dynamic community - usually misunderstood in the cross-fire of conflicting stereotypical views - who, nonetheless, met their moment in history steadfastly and have gone on to being a credit to whichever nation has been wise enough to accept them. In history's books they have given much and asked for little in return. Thank you Clayton for this signal effort.
@@henryfung9725 Excuse me Mr Fung. I worship God. I'm a hindu. Why are you so ignorant Mr Fung. There are many millions like you who stereotype indian people. Can you stop please I would appreciate that. Thank you
@@emilypom No, my ancestry is purely Indian from UP. However I am an alumnus of la Martiniere, Lucknow and have lived closely with Anglo-Indians, proudly absorbing their culture and way of life.
@@petersydney8928 Fun fact: only two educational institutions that I know of are entitled to battle honours; the other one is McGill University in Canada. PS: the La Martiniere Lucknow honours are mentioned in the video at 10:30 or so.
Most of my best friends have been, so-called "Anglo Indians". Since they chose not to leave India , when given an option, they were Indians just like any other. The problem was their ways of European lifestyle, Music. dancing etc. which isolated them. They are beautiful people. Love them with all my heart.
Very informative video being an Anglo Indian it's feels so proud to know about our ancestors. My father served in the Telegraph for 38 years, my uncle's were in the Railways.
I think India has been largely unkind to one of the most hardworking happy go lucky communities who eventually migrated overseas to find some respect in conditions of anonymity. This country is so caste , colour and creed consious that Anglo Indians would find it tough without total assimilation into Indian culture. Some of them did succeed. UK has been even unkinder!!!!
I'm from Hyderabad India 🇮🇳 and all my childhood was with Angelo Indians especially from South Lalaguda and that place was called Little England 🏴 i don't know why but I'm coming to know. Even now i still have few Angelo Indian friends and most of the Angelo people used to work for the Indian Railway 🛤
So nostalgic, wonderful memories brought back,my anglo indian school friends so good looking,fantastic athletes good hockey players,their perfect english pronunciation, their funny slangs all makes my heart ache
The Anglo Indians were a privileged class in India even after Independence of India. The Indians treated them well regarding them as their kin. They looked Indian because of tanned colour from the maternal Indian lineage with english names and mixed features. Essentially the Hindus are the distant mammas of Anglo Indians. The anglo indians were liked for their music orchestras playing popular western tunes in posh restaurants, radio, fashion clothes. The young anglo indian girls were preferably hired straight after high school as stenos, secretaries by businesses. Generally the view of Anglo Indians by other Indians was that they go to Church and eat cakes, pastries which Indians liked to eat if they could afford to. The British had reduced Indians to terrible poverty and living conditions after 200 years of ruling them. It was done through tax, axe the timber and exploiting cheap labour to make enormous money which was remitted to England to enrich Britain. Economists have estimated Britain took 47 Trillion dollars equivalent in to-days value. When the British arrived in India, the share of world GDP by India was 28% and when British left it became 2.8%. By employing harsh policies and running apartheid like system the British caused immense harm to the Indians and finally setting back by 100 years by partitioning Indian on religious lines. 14 million Indians lost their homes in 1947 and several million dead or maimed because of unorderly transfer of power in 73 days. The Anglo Indians were abandoned by the British as they never regarded them well or equal to white europeans. Later in UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand the anglo Indians faced discrimination and abuse from white english, irish, scots, germans, italians, french in these countries. They were treated at par with Indians there. However the Anglo Indians have survived and done quite well in these countries now. It is because of their cheerfulness and adjusting to new conditions and accepting the reality.
Some of the music is particularly appealing to me, as it is the same music that was played by the military bands during the sports & athletic events of my school, the St. Joseph's European (now Boys') High School, Bangalore, India. I attended the school from 1958 to 1963, graduating with a Senior Cambridge H. S. Certificate, in December 1963. My Mom, the former Miss Ivy D'Souza of Nagpur, India also did the same Senior Cambridge Exam in Nagpur in 1933, She went on to obtain one of the first B.Sc.degrees awarded to a female in India, from the University of Nagpur in 1937. Derek Michael D'Costa, SJEHS'63, IIT-Kgp'69, P.Eng.'76, FEC'09, OVSA'10, PEO-WT'18. Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S2T9. February 13, 2018
Glad you liked the music Derek. Thank you for the interesting details you have provided about your background. St. Joseph's is one of India's leading schools with a proud history
Really surprised and happy to know you were at SJEHS. I too was there 1969 to 1975. The name changed to SJBHS when I was there. I was engaged to an Anglo Indian girl Miss Gloria M. but unfortunately nothing came of it. Finally I landed up in Germany.
Very well made , very informative about a warm , disciplined , multi talented people ,with whom I (born 1947) came into contact with and who gradually faded away , dispersing to far corners of the globe. Very few remain , hardly discernible from the Indian milieu . An idea of their past was always foggy . This documentary clears up a lot of that and gives rise to more enquiry . Thanks a lot .
Loved the documentary but missed the Anglo Indians of Madras.I lived among the Anglo Indians and went to school with them.My best friends are still Anglo Indian.They are a wonderful people,warm,loving and full of joie de vivre.
This video has heightened my awareness of this, thank you. I especially appreciated the quotes from the constitutions, and found it telling that they do not even conceive of the possibility of Indian fathers and European mothers.
They conceived (not the best choice of word in this context) of that possibility but, stemming from the age where the Common Law only recognised a male right to lineage and owning property, all ancestry was determined by a patrilineal line of descent; ergo Indian father: Indian child. It mattered not what nationality the mother was. Most medieval cultures were the same. Within the last 80 years, marriages between European/ Anglo-Indian women and Indian males was strongly resisted, discouraged and looked down on. The hypocrisy lies in the reverse situation. A European/ Anglo-Indian male and an Indian wife? Well, men have needs....Regardless of who the parents were, the innocents in all of this were the children who inherited the arbitrarily-applied stigmas devised by people to augment their own status and importance.
Thanks! An interesting glimpse into the lives of Anglo-Indians. Lots of interesting pictures mini-biographies and snippets of historical information. I'm sure there is much more to tell, but let's hope the story is no longer 'forgotten'.
Thank you for your encouraging comments. Makes my attempts at shining a light on forgotten chapters of history all the more worthwhile, Regards Clayton
@@Lucknowchokra good luck my friend..and hope to see some other videos too...on varied topics.. with the kind of R and D and dedication shown in this one..am sure the others will be informative and interesting too!!!!
Thank you for putting this photo-documentary together. I enjoyed finding out more about my Anglo Indian heritage. I'd like to learn more about the European surnames. I've spent my life trying to explain to people that 'yes' my surname is French (Dela-Croix) but 'no' I'm not French I'm Anglo Indian. Although in fact it was DeCruze first. I'd love to find out whether I have Portuguese heritage but it's probably too far back to know and I appreciate Indian records are few and far between!
Thank you for your encouraging comments. My apologies for not replying earlier. May I suggest you visit the following sites on Facebook which may help in finding out more about your ancestry. British India Family History Anglo-Indian Family Trees Madras Anglos, The Anglo-Indian Diaspora.
When I came to U.K I met Mrs Hazel Perphy in Birmingham. Mrs Hazel Merphy was born in India. She was a dedicated English teacher And Sunday School teacher. Dedicated, committed and never married again. A Penticostal experienced lady may the Lord God bless her soul in peace
Crores and crores of thanks and salute to you for such videos.... India wasn't built in a day. My respect to you for bringing up such a beautiful and clear representation of India's past.
Dear Suresh. Thank you for your encouraging comments. If I can shine a light on a small portion of India's great past then this project will have achieved its purpose. Regards, Clayton
Thanks for your comments Ashley. I am finalizing a video on the Christian contribution to India's Army, Medical and Nursing Services pre and post Independence
remember my kid days at lilloah....asansol...bastions of anglo-indians...lovely happy -go-lucky ppl who worked hard,played hard,partied hard....alas dwindling in number in india....
What a beautiful program about a small but lively section of the Indian community. It brings great memories to me growing up in Calcutta in the late sixties as a child. I am not an Anglo Indian but I went to school with them and played with them. I find them to a beautiful, friendly and fun loving people. I still remember Elliott Road and Nippon street as being Anglo Indian Para (neighborhood). Keep up the good work.
On behalf of Peter, Kerry and myself thank you for your appreciative comments. Calcutta was a hub for Anglo-Indians who contributed greatly to the security, administration and education of the city
O have just found out that I am of Anglo Indian descent from both sides of my family ..as being white with blue eyes..I find this so exciting .i.am trying to find out more from my father's side...sadly now gone...name was Rudolph crafts...anyone heard of this surname?
I'm 69 years old. I believe my late father to be an anglo indian as his family was (is?) in India. Both parents dead when he was 10. He had 8 siblings. Dad was quite young when he joined the merchant navy during WW2. Jumped ship ( as did lots of others) in New Zealand. Never really knew or understood what " anglo indian" was or is, or that it had any meaning to me at all. And now it all passes into history as if it never happened. This slide show gives some context - thankyou
You might like to look up the biography of one of the best Indian generals, Lt. Gen. J. F. R. Jacob. He, too, was an orphan, and might have been your father's contemporary (I'm 70, and he was a family friend).
It's understandable many Anglo Indians left India after independence. I was an English speaking Quebecer in Canada, born and raised in Quebec (mainly French speaking province). In my late teens (1970s) Quebec became very nationalistic, and later almost separated from Canada to maintain their French-Canadian language and culture. After 6 generations of Quebec living my Irish-Canadian family moved to Ontario next door -- to be part of Canada, to live in the English language, to not have to deal with hostility based on a non-French name. Never regretted the move. 250.000 English speaking Canadians left Quebec during that era -- and to this day many immigrants who start out in Quebec leave after 5 years. They just don't want you if you are not "pure laine" French Canadian.
A wonderful video., professionally made. Feel good to see Anglo Indians performing well on all spheres of government around the independence time, especially, the police, armed forces and the customs and railways. Most of the police officers look great in their uniforms and they were professionals in their duties. I still wonder why your community migrated out in the 50s and 60s. My city, Bangalore had a sizeable AI population .
Thank you for your insightful comments. Some of the reasons why the community emigrated were the uncertainty of their future and financial security. Very few Anglo-Indians owned property and once retired from employment the Indian pension would not have been sufficient to maintain their lifestyles
@@Lucknowchokra It was said by one of our retired police officers that they taught a particular Australian city's police department how to fire tear-gas shells! I see from our alumni forum that there are substantial numbers of AIs in Australia.
Namascar dear Clayton, I would love to have caught up with you when at La Martiniere last January. My wife, youngest son and I were honoured to have lunch with the faculty including Mr McFarland, Mr Michaels and Mr Hopkins and to meet up with George Shepherd their also. On the La Martiniere roll of honour, at the bottom centre is my Great Grandfather Charles Probett who with his young cousins, John and Henry Walsh, 10 and 11 year olds, helped defend the Martiniere Post at the Residency 1857. All of the families of Walsh's and Probett's - 22 in all were killed in Cawnpore June and July that year, with 2 at the Jhansie massacre. There is a wonderful community of Anglo Indians although elderly, living in Allahabad that we were introduced to by a Father Francis at St Josephs Cathedral and spent time drinking chai with in a domiciled community one evening. Drop me a note if you like anytime to mark@gaf.nz and If you click my post, it will take you to a documentary we have just completed and is a Memorial to all who fell in Cawnpore. God bless and thank you for this extraordinary effort. A huge amount of work...I know. Cheers - Mark Probett (New Zealand)
A lot of my relatives are Anglo Indian and these videos help me understand them as well as my dad - not being mixed but coming from an aristocratic background, growing up in the Anglo Indian environment better.
I have known a few Anglo-Indians due to my India connection, and some of them were gems of humanity, wonderful people. The only one issue that I found a bit strange was that so many of them even young people very disdainful of India and Indian culture, Indian music, art, heritage etc..I met Anglo-Indians in Kolkata and even elsewhere in India who just had a rudimentary knowledge of the local languages though having lived there for generations. One particular case I found very strange was, I was invited to a Anglo-Indian Winter Ball hosted at a prominent New Delhi School. I was mingling with people and was having a chat with one of the teachers of the school, in Hindi, the lady was telling me that being a White European I speak such good Hindi. All of a sudden a middle age lady nearby commented, " please give this Hindi a rest" I thought it was in jest. It clearly wasn't, the lady seemed pretty miffed. Just an observation.
Fair comment! This is an enormously complex issue. Anglo-Indians' views of other Anglo-Indians is as complex as the genetic mix they are descended from and one of the major failures of this community was a reluctance to learn and speak (if not to read and write) the language of the people they lived among. This emanated from the insularity of the British ruling-class whom the Anglo-Indian community were encouraged to identify with through their mainly patrilineal line of descent and the myth of kinship. "Going native" was sneered at in the era of British rule and snobbery and this applied to the Anglo-Indian community as well, who retained this brittle and indefensible attitude of denial as a cultural identifier. The reported negative view of Indian art, culture and music, etc. is part of the same, anachronistic, attitude. This is not a necessarily pan-community feature as many are accomplished in at least one - and often several - Indian languages. The older lady in your account was probably miffed because she genuinely didn't understand everything you were saying in Hindi and came from a generation where breaking out of the bounds of cultural insularity had never been a necessity. Assimilation is easier said than done - even after half a century.
I get the picture, roughly. I understand the attitudes and insularity of the elderly, though 90% of the Anglo-Indians I met were born after the British left India, it's the attitude of the young and middle aged that surprised me a bit. Secondly, I feel that the British were responsible for a lot of the issues. The British being colonizers and exploiters, mainly wanted to use the Anglo-Indians as their link to running the Raj, so I think encouraged a separateness to the native population. Ironically, the British totally shunned the Anglo-Indians and even issued strict edits to British officials serving in India regarding any social mingling with Anglo-Indians, I read about this in a book written by an ICS officer in the 1930,s. This is my two pence to the argument after researching about the Indian sub-continent and it's contemporary history. Thank You.
Hi Mark, You have more or less wrapped it up. White expatriate Britons working in India up to the 1960s still married 'white' Anglo-Indians. After the great exodus to other Anglophone countries where they didn't have to re-invent themselves to gain acceptance, former Anglo-Indians and their descendants have become 'other' people and so that this niche community will have reached the end of its shelf-life naturally. Kind regards.
@@spikefunakoshi5667 That is quite true! My siblings and I were registered as British before Indian independence and received British passports when applied for which were endorsed, 'Holder has the right of abode in the United Kingdom'. I thought I was British - until I got to Britain. Over a decade in the British police service disabused me of that for life which is why I live elsewhere. Best regards.
@@spikefunakoshi5667 Amen to that Henry. Underlying all the social and cultural barriers is essentially the pervasive and enduring question of skin colour. No matter how one analyses the rise and fall of imperialism, it will always come down skin colour. May I recommend to you: "The Myth of Race" by Robert Wald Sussman [Harvard University Press, 2018] for an eminently readable examination of how the artificial social construct upon which the myth of racial superiority with its concomitant racial prejudice and intolerance remains deeply ingrained in Western (read 'white') society. Best regards.
Very interesting story! It has a lot of simularity of the Indo-European history of the Dutch-Indies (Indonesia). I'm also mixed blooded and so are my parents. But I think there was difference in legal subdivision of the people who lived in the Dutch-Indies. There were three groups 1) Natives 2) Eastern foreigners (chinese, arabs, jews) and 3) Europeans. By law the Indo-Europeans where classified as Europeans. This was a problem during the time of and after the independence struggle. First the Dutch government only allowed the fullblooded Dutch and the Indo-Europeans who where government officials in the Dutch_indies and who worked in the Dutch-Indies Army, to go to The Netherlands. (that was between around 1946 and 1951). The majority of the mixed blooded people stayed untill about 1957/1958 and then they also left. That was because the president of Indonesia then told that all the Dutch had to leave. The Dutch government realized it was impossible for the Indo-Europeans to stay in Indonesia. The mixed blooded people were hated by the Indonesian. They Dutch Government paid the the boatticket and first aid in Holland but it had to be paid back after one got a job! A small group stayed in Indonesia untill about 1964. All in all, approximately 300.000 people left Indonesia between 1946 and 1964. Nowadays there is still a very very small Indo-European group in Indonesia who are Indonesian citizens and most of them live in poverty. That's really sad, because some of them couldn't prove they have dutch grandfathers (they lost the papers durting WW2 or the head of the family (the father) opted for the Indonesian nationality in 1946 for the whole family.
Thank you for your comments and the interesting comparison with the mixed blooded people of the Dutch Indies. A mirror of what occurred all over the colonial empires to a greater or a lesser degree. I am sure there have been books written about the Dutch Indies experience, best wishes, Lucknow chokra
I have just noticed your comment and you are quite right, it sounds oxymoronic. The mixed message arises because these units were first raised from volunteers based on the English volunteer movement model of Britain's citizen-soldiers of the Napoleonic Wars era. Later, in the 19th. century, when railway units were raised, they retained the 'Volunteer' appellation in their unit titles giving rise to the oxymoron. This job-related condition applied to railway units only.
@@dorothymcmenamin7911 As I mentioned earlier, service in IDF/AFI units was generally voluntary except for railway units where it was a compulsory condition of employment. Compulsory service for railwaymen was limited to 5 years or until attaining 45-years in age. Voluntary continuation thereafter depended upon good conduct and physical fitness for duty. As the bulk of volunteer units were gathered in large towns or city centres, railway 'volunteer' soldiers in the remote regions of their railway company's network were often the only symbol of armed authority and were occasionally called upon to support district police in suppressing violent riots and even pursuing predatory gangs of dacoits (armed robbers). They represented the Raj in some pretty lonely places. A general obligation to serve in a volunteer corps, per se, is a widespread myth.
very nice video. the whole history of Anglo Indian community had been shown but one thing is missing that is the bow barracks of kolkata. the red buildings the British built during world war and later gave it to Anglo Indian. still today it's a heritage part of kolkata.
The liberal outlook of this community encouraged us to adapt to our country of birth. Though migration has reduced our numbers, most young AngloIndians are acquiring a college education faring well. India with its multi- racial, multi- cultural population, has been good to us. Great Bharat.
Excellent Contribution by our fellow Anglo-Indians. Thanks for this documentary as I came to know more about. Their presence in Sub-Continant needs to preserve their identity. Very heart touching documentary
Very interesting information. A story of a mixed race let down by the British. Truly a story of abandonment. Feel very sad for those humans who were desperate to be accepted. One can only imagine the deep rooted damage the British has done to the Indians. It is not a question of looting the wealth of the Indian sub continent but a combination of that plus the discrimination towards the people. They were not very clever there else the Indians would have let them stay for a longer period and perhaps even accepted them into their society (though the colonial hangover exists even today). The then stuffy folks really made a mistake and messed up. Well that is history now.
Thank you Flying Banshee for mentioning the esteemed writer Ruskin Bond. My video covered the period 1600-1947 and Ruskin Bond was too young then to rate a mention
@@Lucknowchokra do you have any old photos of Bishop Westcott boy's school Ranchi? It was an anglo indian school founded in 1927, I want see the old photos of this school. If you have any then send it on my email: flyingbanshee683@gmail.com
@ 48:24 You may have forgotten to add that Anglo Indians did contribute in the sports field too - Micheal Ferreira, Wilson Jones - Billiards, Roger & Stuart Binny, Sheldon Jackson - Cricket, Mark Patterson - hockey & many more.
Thank you for your comments. I have produced a video about the Anglo-Indians in the sporting arena. The link is Anglo-Indians Social and Sporting Life th-cam.com/video/ScosiGiDaDY/w-d-xo.html
Late Air Vice Marshall Lazaro should also be recognised in the Anglo Indian alumni for serving the IAF. There was an Anglo Indian lady who rose to Brigade rank as a nurse in IAF. Many were head mistress and head masters who contributed in the education field. Today the AI community has dwindled to a small number in India.
Thank you for your comments. I have included AVM Lazaro at the 7:25 minute mark on the timeline of my TH-cam video titled Anglo-Indians in the Indian Air Force th-cam.com/video/A60QE9T9Lxs/w-d-xo.html
""""""" Well said..They are also the pillars of the Christiannity in India especially Katholiks...God bless them. also RIP. to them.....Tura...,,,,,,India..,,,,,,,
lovely journey down history lane....with blue danube/col boogie's march background music while having my sun downers of chota s with soda pani....thanks for this vid
Anglo Indians may be of mixed birth. In Bombay they are called East Indians.But after reading the book Last White Hunter by Donald Anderson and Joshua Mathew I find that those of English stock but born and brought up in India is also known as Anglo Indians. Avsilable in Amazon India read this book.Donald sister and husband was not treated as English due to the style of English spoken by them.My memories goes to sixties when Railways were dominated by Anglo Indians gents; Ladies in offices in Madras Bombay and Calcutta as Telephone operators Clerks Typist etc. I read book by a Dy Commissioner of Meerut in 1857 about the Mutiny from Google Archieves.Very interesting.
Very informative. I'm British born but living overseas which gives a difference prospective. Time and time again the British government has behaved disgracefully, as it did with the Anglo Indians.
Lucknow Chokra should do a photo-documentary on the community's representation of India to the prestigious and highly sought after Miss World and Miss Universe and other titles and have even secured the titles for India.
'Britain's Forgotten Grandchildren: The Story of an Anglo Indian Family' is a nice little documentary about an Anglo-Indian family who moved to The UK in the 1960s. Thought it might be of interest.
You have missed CJP Pinto of Indian Air Force Air Voice Marshel who met with an accident while in service in a helicopter .who was from St Thomas Mount, Madras.
About AI Sergeants: Yes, they were direct entry, and, if I am not wrong, the way up was Inspector and Assistant Commissioner. That was Calcutta Police; a Superintendent rank would have been the Bengal Police. It was nice to see Ronnie Moore's picture in the documentary; I've just been corrected, he retired as an IPS Senior DC.
Thank you for your comments Indrajit Gupta. You might be interested in a couple of videos I produced on AIs in the Indian Police. They are:Indian Police Services, Calcutta and Uttar Pradesh This video is about some milestones and characters in the history of the Calcutta and Uttar Pradesh Police Services th-cam.com/video/EGJXZLFZmOY/w-d-xo.html and An Ordinary Bloke This video is a brief overview of the life of Ronald Allen Moore, a legendary senior Indian Police Service officer who served the Calcutta Police Force for 36 years before and after Indian independence. A champion heavyweight boxer, big-game hunter, family man, devout Catholic, a helper of 'little' people and a defender of the downtrodden th-cam.com/video/5x1lYQMhhKo/w-d-xo.html
@@Lucknowchokra I've actually met the legend, and he told us the story of his best known rounds with an American forces champion! As a matter of fact, his b-i-l, a military doctor, saved my father's life, so the ties go deep. There was a Simeons in the UP Police pics. Would you know, by any chance, if he was related to Col. Simeons who shifted from Signals to Education, took over one of the first, and most famous Sainik Schools, and then came to Calcutta as principal after 'Jumbo' Vyse? After my time; I think Desmond Shaw was Lucknow, and he was Vice Principal when Simeons was principal. OF COURSE I'm interested; I'll be saving them up for this evening.
@@indrajitgupta3280 There is a Facebook page titled La Martiniere in the Armed Forces that might interest you. Also, more links of interest are: La Martiniere in the Navy A photo documentary of the students of the La Martiniere Colleges who served in the Navy. Their service and sacrifice has brought honour to themselves, their countries and to the La Martiniere name. th-cam.com/video/NO5vpoTjkag/w-d-xo.html La Martiniere Boys Calcutta Memories This video includes some milestones in the history of the La Martiniere Boys Calcutta from the time of its Founder, Major General Claude Martin in the 18th Century. th-cam.com/video/jSWJAkDFo0g/w-d-xo.html La Martiniere Girls Calcutta Memories This video includes some milestones in the history of the La Martiniere Girls Calcutta from the time of its Founder, Major General Claude Martin in the 18th Century. th-cam.com/video/ZkepEpdREKY/w-d-xo.html
@@Lucknowchokra Clearly I've hit the jackpot. Beer's on me if we ever get to meet in India. An interesting aside: I was telling my cousin (who lives on Anil Roy Road in Calcutta) about asking a naive question to a neighbour's son in Barrackpore; he looked blankly at me, smiled and then did five minutes of hockey dribbling that I will not forget to my dying day. So my cousin says, Sure, it was the AIs and the Sikhs who really pulled Indian hockey right up on top, wasn't it? I had to tell him, look at the teams for 28, 32 and 36; see any Sikhs? It is my firm notion that Australian hockey is what it is solely due to the number of AIs they got.
The entire indian railway system was run by anglo- indians. My grandfather was a railway loco pilot in 1960s, his boss and friends were all anglo indians. Even then many british retired railway officers lived in places like khurda road, kharagpur, balasore, calcutta. I grew up them and their kids. We would play with the kids that came from england. Those men are all dead now. The homes are all empty or sold and demolished. There used to be a small anglo indian village of Hijli ( yes thats where IIT KGP is ) . Now the village has no more anglo indian. Only IIT KGP professors houses and Rice converts .
A very well assembled video. But there are so many many more achievements that could have been added in. Proud of this miniscule community to which I belong. An excellent effort though.
I wonder if any of my ancestors were Anglo-Indians, I'm only partially Indian, but my Indian heritage originates in what is today known as Kolkata, formerly Calcutta in the Bengal region of both India and Bangladesh
Dear Infinite Sky. Calcutta has always contained a significant population of Anglo-Indians from the early days of European settlement. A good start would be to verify how your part Indian heritage evolved. Regards, Clayton
Your surname would also give you a clue, although there are unusual cases. The eminent poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt, who was Christian, married an Anglo-Indian girl in Chennai, where he had gone to look for work, and had children; the children seem to have used McTavish (their mother's name) and Dutt in various combinations; one of their sons used McTavish-Dutt. The famous tennis player, Leander Paes, was descended from Dutt through his mother, Jennifer, also an athlete of repute.
I thank you for this very interesting presentation, India is a place I would like to visit. So much of British History is tied up with India. It is a pity the British Government made marriage to Indians against the law or rules.
I am from Secunderabad and I knew a Peter Moore from St Mary's Parish we used to go to Sunday school . Wonder if it is the same, since the pics are from Secunderabad too. Can anyone help.
The Anglo-Indians have such a rich legacy in India and their contributions to the progress of the nation is highly commendable. Yet their two parliament seats have been deliberately scrapped recently. It is awfully unfair to the community. It smacks of blatant intolerance. The present dispensation will try to abolish gleefully any setting the founding leaders of Independence had introduced. By the way I am not an Anglo Indian.My ancestry is purely Indian from UP.
Lt father anglo indian,dennis quinlen was,army pers upto 1947. Stationed at mccluskie gunj Bihar, India as contribution i,served in Indian Army,and retd
Thank you for your comments Dennis.If you would like to send me photos of your Dad and yourself in uniform plus rank at retirement, any awards, years of service, school attended I will add the information to my master file.
Hello Roley. Thanks for all your help and support on this project. Hopefully, many 'chokras' out there will gain a better understanding of their roots. regards, Clayton
@@Lucknowchokra THANK YOU . THE TERMINOLOGY OF ANGLO-INDIANS OBSOLETE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM ---- Not seen or felt its importance here . Anyone born 1960's in the u.k. have no recollections of such people????? A.I.'S will say they are born or came to the u.k. as a baby !!! With the huge DIVERSITY --- A.I. 's the word probably drowned WITHIN cultures around the WORLD.
The journey of India and Britian has seen sadness , greatness hate and love forging an unbreakable bond between both great nations and people's.🇨🇦🇳🇿🇺🇸🇮🇳🇬🇧🙉🙊🙈🌞🙋👫☕
This is amazing! Thank you 😊 I do have a question though... are all with the British names Anglo Indians or were Christian Indians a major part of the Anglo Indian community as well? Thank you so much ❤
A sad piece of discrimination here: Indians of the Christian faith and the descendants of Indian fathers and European/Anglo-Indian mothers are not Anglo-Indians by definition or tradition.
@@warden2351 makes sense thankyou.. I've been doing a lot of research and have found out much about the Dalit and other converted castes-very interesting... I suppose my interest is in the Christian communities of Lucknow and Karachi in what later became Pakistan.. any information would be gold to me 💕
Cal Boys feature in this video:La Martiniere in the Air Force A photo documentary of the Staff and Students of the La Martiniere Colleges in India who served in the Air Forces of India and other countries th-cam.com/video/RL8nkfd-6KQ/w-d-xo.html La Martiniere in the Army A photo documentary of the Staff and Students of the La Martiniere Colleges in India who served in the Armies of India and other countries. Their service and sacrifice has brought honour to themselves, their countries and to the La Martiniere name. th-cam.com/video/UXaev7-3ckY/w-d-xo.html
@@Lucknowchokra Thanks muchly. Naturally I will be posting this URL to the La M Cal WhatsApp group for those interested to drop in and see. I really enjoyed going through the doc., and finding the son of a legend of the police walking around casually was a bonus.
Enlightening at the same time much had been ignored. My paternal grandfather was one of the eight thousand who fought in Mesopotamia. Also some times the captions went to fast. But on the whole good
Many thanks for your positive comment.. As an amateur production the technology has been a learning experience and not everything turned out as desired. 'Left click' pausing helps. Selecting the amount of contributions down to practical limitations has meant some sacrifice in information. A revision is intended to address reported glitches. My paternal g'father served in Mespot. too, in the RFA. Kind regards, Peter M.
A good point and, as a reasonable analogy, think of all the Muslims from Pakistan who have sought and received British citizenship and avail of all their new home's civic and welfare amenities but see themselves as Muslims first and Pakistanis next. Where does their loyalty lie?
An interesting , if somewhat sad commentary on how colonial exploitation works. I feel sorry for the Anglo-indian community who were so loyal to the British yet were so badly let down in the end . I am glad at least Free India values them so much more.This is your country now and you should thrive and prosper here like the rest of the Indians.
Dear Rameez, Thanks for your observation which is a fair comment. All Indians of Anglo-Indian origin would concur with your closing line. Assimilating into the communities they now live in worldwide have rendered Anglo-Indians into "other people"; only memories of their point of origin, shared cultural symbols and cuisine keep them linked. Productions like this are intended to maintain those links. It is my observation that Anglo-Indians appear to be more appreciated in India now than in the early post-Independence years which is a good thing - life is too short for regrets or recriminations.. Thanks for your positive insight. Best wishes, Peter M.
Hi Rameez, Lovely to hear from you. Sounds like we are on the same track. I am peterm235@homail.com - look forawrd to continuing our conversation more directly.. Best regards, PeterM.
Thanks to both of you for your interesting discussion. I hope the following question is not offensive but I cannot help wonder - Were there any anglo-indian freedome fighters? Did they not mind the atrocities they saw as they remained aligned with the ideology of the other side of their ancestry? "That to fight 'gainst England's foe, He most willingly did go..." That was true within the country as well.
Dear Sir, Without intending to sound discriminatory, your north Indian classmates are wrong. The official definition of an Anglo-Indian, is set out in Article 366(2) of the Indian Constitution: "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." Christianity is a religion, not an ethnicity. Best regards.
Why one Anglo indianBattalien for Armsd forces were not made. Railway pilots ship captain were many I have seen them when I entered my sevice in 1963(MofD)
Thank you for your comments and your offer of videos and picks . Maybe someday I will do something on the fascinating history of Panama, a country I hope to visit someday. Regards, Clayton
A well-deserved tribute to a small but dynamic community - usually misunderstood in the cross-fire of conflicting stereotypical views - who, nonetheless, met their moment in history steadfastly and have gone on to being a credit to whichever nation has been wise enough to accept them. In history's books they have given much and asked for little in return. Thank you Clayton for this signal effort.
Hello Peter
Thank you for your comments, in particular, the positive contribution Anglo-Indians have made in their adopted countries. Regards, Clayton
@@henryfung9725
Excuse me Mr Fung. I worship God. I'm a hindu. Why are you so ignorant Mr Fung. There are many millions like you who stereotype indian people. Can you stop please I would appreciate that. Thank you
hi peter, are you related to the moore"s of madras early 1900. children of mr john moore and mary evans, grenville and olive moore.
@@emilypom No, my ancestry is purely Indian from UP. However I am an alumnus of la Martiniere, Lucknow and have lived closely with Anglo-Indians, proudly absorbing their culture and way of life.
@@petersydney8928 Fun fact: only two educational institutions that I know of are entitled to battle honours; the other one is McGill University in Canada. PS: the La Martiniere Lucknow honours are mentioned in the video at 10:30 or so.
I am Anglo Indian and watched this avidly with sadness I live in the U.K. but my fondest memories are the ones I cherish when I lived in Calcutta
Thank you for your comments Roberta Vaughan-Saunders
I am from Goa, born in Calcutta, and many of my best friends were Anglo Indians. Many happy memories of sharing delicious food!!
Very knowledgeable and in reality Anglo Indians were the real pillars of English Raj.Also their immense contribution to Indian progress is marvellous.
Thank you Hoshiar Singh
Most of my best friends have been, so-called "Anglo Indians". Since they chose not to leave India , when given an option, they were Indians just like any other. The problem was their ways of European lifestyle, Music. dancing etc. which isolated them. They are beautiful people. Love them with all my heart.
they have reservations aswell
I am an Anglo- Indian and this video was very informative.
Very many thanks for posting it.
Glad youn liked the video
Very informative video being an Anglo Indian it's feels so proud to know about our ancestors. My father served in the Telegraph for 38 years, my uncle's were in the Railways.
Thank you Lorraine Almeida. You have a proud family history
Thanks.
@Abdul Bashir .....Yes I sport an East Indian Surname because I am married to an East Indian.😉
Born in khurdaroad orrisa
not far off 80 now but still proud to be Anglo,living in UK since 1952,enjoyed the video
Glad you liked the video and best wishes for the festive season
My grandfather was stationed in khurda Rd. As a railway pilot.
My Mother came to Britain with her sister and brother in 1950. The rest of the family followed in 1952. A very hard time for them all.
I think India has been largely unkind to one of the most hardworking happy go lucky communities who eventually migrated overseas to find some respect in conditions of anonymity. This country is so caste , colour and creed consious that Anglo Indians would find it tough without total assimilation into Indian culture. Some of them did succeed. UK has been even unkinder!!!!
My late headmistress was an Anglo Indian. She was such a lady, and brought a forgotten era whenever she entered the classroom.
I'm from Hyderabad India 🇮🇳 and all my childhood was with Angelo Indians especially from South Lalaguda and that place was called Little England 🏴 i don't know why but I'm coming to know. Even now i still have few Angelo Indian friends and most of the Angelo people used to work for the Indian Railway 🛤
So nostalgic, wonderful memories brought back,my anglo indian school friends so good looking,fantastic athletes good hockey players,their perfect english pronunciation, their funny slangs all makes my heart ache
Thank you for your comments
I am an Anglo Indian.73 years old.I am.really proud of our community after seeing all these Episodes. ❤
Glad you liked the video
A wonderful portrayal of Anglo-Indian history including employment and social history. Well done Clayton.
Hello Kerry. Thank you for all your help and support in this project. Regards, Clayton
The Anglo Indians were a privileged class in India even after Independence of India. The Indians treated them well regarding them as their kin. They looked Indian because of tanned colour from the maternal Indian lineage with english names and mixed features. Essentially the Hindus are the distant mammas of Anglo Indians. The anglo indians were liked for their music orchestras playing popular western tunes in posh restaurants, radio, fashion clothes. The young anglo indian girls were preferably hired straight after high school as stenos, secretaries by businesses. Generally the view of Anglo Indians by other Indians was that they go to Church and eat cakes, pastries which Indians liked to eat if they could afford to. The British had reduced Indians to terrible poverty and living conditions after 200 years of ruling them. It was done through tax, axe the timber and exploiting cheap labour to make enormous money which was remitted to England to enrich Britain. Economists have estimated Britain took 47 Trillion dollars equivalent in to-days value. When the British arrived in India, the share of world GDP by India was 28% and when British left it became 2.8%. By employing harsh policies and running apartheid like system the British caused immense harm to the Indians and finally setting back by 100 years by partitioning Indian on religious lines. 14 million Indians lost their homes in 1947 and several million dead or maimed because of unorderly transfer of power in 73 days. The Anglo Indians were abandoned by the British as they never regarded them well or equal to white europeans. Later in UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand the anglo Indians faced discrimination and abuse from white english, irish, scots, germans, italians, french in these countries. They were treated at par with Indians there. However the Anglo Indians have survived and done quite well in these countries now. It is because of their cheerfulness and adjusting to new conditions and accepting the reality.
Well said
They had no choice, there was nowhere they could return to.
They have done well.
Very well said.
Some of the music is particularly appealing to me, as it is the same music that was played by the military bands during the sports & athletic events of my school, the St. Joseph's European (now Boys') High School, Bangalore, India. I attended the school from 1958 to 1963, graduating with a Senior Cambridge H. S. Certificate, in December 1963. My Mom, the former Miss Ivy D'Souza of Nagpur, India also did the same Senior Cambridge Exam in Nagpur in 1933, She went on to obtain one of the first B.Sc.degrees awarded to a female in India, from the University of Nagpur in 1937. Derek Michael D'Costa, SJEHS'63, IIT-Kgp'69, P.Eng.'76, FEC'09, OVSA'10, PEO-WT'18. Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S2T9. February 13, 2018
Glad you liked the music Derek. Thank you for the interesting details you have provided about your background. St. Joseph's is one of India's leading schools with a proud history
How people and their histories move across the world !
Really surprised and happy to know you were at SJEHS. I too was there 1969 to 1975. The name changed to SJBHS when I was there. I was engaged to an Anglo Indian girl Miss Gloria M. but unfortunately nothing came of it. Finally I landed up in Germany.
@@ashis-kumarpal5258
very interesting to read!
@@JyotiB70045 Yes, it was interesting and surprising to hear about my school again.
Very well made , very informative about a warm , disciplined , multi talented people ,with whom I (born 1947) came into contact with and who gradually faded away , dispersing to far corners of the globe. Very few remain , hardly discernible from the Indian milieu . An idea of their past was always foggy . This documentary clears up a lot of that and gives rise to more enquiry . Thanks a lot .
Glad you liked the video
1 : 15 Now I understand why persons with Portuguese names/surnames are also considered Anglo-Indians .Thank you.
Included in that group are persons of Armenian, Jewish and those of other European extractions.
Loved the documentary but missed the Anglo Indians of Madras.I lived among the Anglo Indians and went to school with them.My best friends are still Anglo Indian.They are a wonderful people,warm,loving and full of joie de vivre.
This video has heightened my awareness of this, thank you. I especially appreciated the quotes from the constitutions, and found it telling that they do not even conceive of the possibility of Indian fathers and European mothers.
Thank you for you comments
They conceived (not the best choice of word in this context) of that possibility but, stemming from the age where the Common Law only recognised a male right to lineage and owning property, all ancestry was determined by a patrilineal line of descent; ergo Indian father: Indian child. It mattered not what nationality the mother was. Most medieval cultures were the same. Within the last 80 years, marriages between European/ Anglo-Indian women and Indian males was strongly resisted, discouraged and looked down on. The hypocrisy lies in the reverse situation. A European/ Anglo-Indian male and an Indian wife? Well, men have needs....Regardless of who the parents were, the innocents in all of this were the children who inherited the arbitrarily-applied stigmas devised by people to augment their own status and importance.
If I were of Anglo Indian ancestry, I would still have continued to proudly wear my Dharmic identity 🙏
Very interesting history of the Anglo-Indians. Gives me a more diverse knowledge of my heritage. Thanks for creating this video. God bless. 🙏🙏🙏
Thank you for your comments
Thanks! An interesting glimpse into the lives of Anglo-Indians. Lots of interesting pictures mini-biographies and snippets of historical information. I'm sure there is much more to tell, but let's hope the story is no longer 'forgotten'.
Hello Leon. Thank you for your positive comments. This gives you an idea of how the Auxiliary Force India will shape up. Regards, Clayton
Crying every day I miss them a lot
Beautifully researched and presented.. well done!! Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you for your encouraging comments. Makes my attempts at shining a light on forgotten chapters of history all the more worthwhile, Regards Clayton
@@Lucknowchokra good luck my friend..and hope to see some other videos too...on varied topics.. with the kind of R and D and dedication shown in this one..am sure the others will be informative and interesting too!!!!
Thank you for putting this photo-documentary together. I enjoyed finding out more about my Anglo Indian heritage. I'd like to learn more about the European surnames. I've spent my life trying to explain to people that 'yes' my surname is French (Dela-Croix) but 'no' I'm not French I'm Anglo Indian. Although in fact it was DeCruze first. I'd love to find out whether I have Portuguese heritage but it's probably too far back to know and I appreciate Indian records are few and far between!
Thank you for your encouraging comments. My apologies for not replying earlier. May I suggest you visit the following sites on Facebook which may help in finding out more about your ancestry.
British India Family History
Anglo-Indian Family Trees
Madras Anglos,
The Anglo-Indian Diaspora.
@@Lucknowchokra Thank you so much! I'll look into all of those. Much appreciated.
@@nicoladela-croix757 Another valuable contact is Yvonne Eva Le Fort on Facebook
@@Lucknowchokra That's great. Thank you!
As an Anglo-Indian living in the UK. I feel much more drawn to my Indian heritage than the British one. I've converted to Hinduism. Jai Hind!!
Huge L
@@sussyricky Ls are what the Westerners are, we Indians are Ws.
@@sussyricky L for looters like you! Cope
Your maternal dharma 🙏
Reminiscent of the movie 1947 Earth, and the dilema of an Anglo Indian family in Lahore.
Grace !!!
When I came to U.K I met Mrs Hazel Perphy in Birmingham.
Mrs Hazel Merphy was born in India.
She was a dedicated English teacher
And Sunday School teacher.
Dedicated, committed and never married again.
A Penticostal experienced lady may the Lord God bless her soul in peace
Thank you for your comments on a great lady
Crores and crores of thanks and salute to you for such videos.... India wasn't built in a day. My respect to you for bringing up such a beautiful and clear representation of India's past.
Dear Suresh. Thank you for your encouraging comments. If I can shine a light on a small portion of India's great past then this project will have achieved its purpose. Regards, Clayton
Marvelous work I appreciate the work that is been brought under an umbrella well defined it sir...
Thanks for your comments Ashley. I am finalizing a video on the Christian contribution to India's Army, Medical and Nursing Services pre and post Independence
Congratulations for a very informative study and great perspective.
Thank you!
remember my kid days at lilloah....asansol...bastions of anglo-indians...lovely happy -go-lucky ppl who worked hard,played hard,partied hard....alas dwindling in number in india....
What a beautiful program about a small but lively section of the Indian community. It brings great memories to me growing up in Calcutta in the late sixties as a child. I am not an Anglo Indian but I went to school with them and played with them. I find them to a beautiful, friendly and fun loving people. I still remember Elliott Road and Nippon street as being Anglo Indian Para (neighborhood). Keep up the good work.
On behalf of Peter, Kerry and myself thank you for your appreciative comments. Calcutta was a hub for Anglo-Indians who contributed greatly to the security, administration and education of the city
O have just found out that I am of Anglo Indian descent from both sides of my family ..as being white with blue eyes..I find this so exciting .i.am trying to find out more from my father's side...sadly now gone...name was Rudolph crafts...anyone heard of this surname?
Could that have been Elliot Road and Ripon Street? Just next to and parallel to Park Street?
I'm 69 years old. I believe my late father to be an anglo indian as his family was (is?) in India. Both parents dead when he was 10. He had 8 siblings. Dad was quite young when he joined the merchant navy during WW2. Jumped ship ( as did lots of others) in New Zealand. Never really knew or understood what " anglo indian" was or is, or that it had any meaning to me at all. And now it all passes into history as if it never happened. This slide show gives some context - thankyou
You might like to look up the biography of one of the best Indian generals, Lt. Gen. J. F. R. Jacob. He, too, was an orphan, and might have been your father's contemporary (I'm 70, and he was a family friend).
Wonderful description
It's understandable many Anglo Indians left India after independence. I was an English speaking Quebecer in Canada, born and raised in Quebec (mainly French speaking province). In my late teens (1970s) Quebec became very nationalistic, and later almost separated from Canada to maintain their French-Canadian language and culture. After 6 generations of Quebec living my Irish-Canadian family moved to Ontario next door -- to be part of Canada, to live in the English language, to not have to deal with hostility based on a non-French name. Never regretted the move. 250.000 English speaking Canadians left Quebec during that era -- and to this day many immigrants who start out in Quebec leave after 5 years. They just don't want you if you are not "pure laine" French Canadian.
Thank you for your comments Mary and for sharing your own experiences
A wonderful video., professionally made. Feel good to see Anglo Indians performing well on all spheres of government around the independence time, especially, the police, armed forces and the customs and railways. Most of the police officers look great in their uniforms and they were professionals in their duties. I still wonder why your community migrated out in the 50s and 60s. My city, Bangalore had a sizeable AI population .
Thank you for your insightful comments. Some of the reasons why the community emigrated were the uncertainty of their future and financial security. Very few Anglo-Indians owned property and once retired from employment the Indian pension would not have been sufficient to maintain their lifestyles
@@Lucknowchokra It was said by one of our retired police officers that they taught a particular Australian city's police department how to fire tear-gas shells! I see from our alumni forum that there are substantial numbers of AIs in Australia.
Proud to be an Anglo Indian.
Namascar dear Clayton, I would love to have caught up with you when at La Martiniere last January. My wife, youngest son and I were honoured to have lunch with the faculty including Mr McFarland, Mr Michaels and Mr Hopkins and to meet up with George Shepherd their also. On the La Martiniere roll of honour, at the bottom centre is my Great Grandfather Charles Probett who with his young cousins, John and Henry Walsh, 10 and 11 year olds, helped defend the Martiniere Post at the Residency 1857. All of the families of Walsh's and Probett's - 22 in all were killed in Cawnpore June and July that year, with 2 at the Jhansie massacre. There is a wonderful community of Anglo Indians although elderly, living in Allahabad that we were introduced to by a Father Francis at St Josephs Cathedral and spent time drinking chai with in a domiciled community one evening. Drop me a note if you like anytime to mark@gaf.nz and If you click my post, it will take you to a documentary we have just completed and is a Memorial to all who fell in Cawnpore. God bless and thank you for this extraordinary effort. A huge amount of work...I know. Cheers - Mark Probett (New Zealand)
Excellent stills documentary. Thoroughly enjoyed watching it. I'm A-I now settled in Australia
Thank you for your comments
That was amazing. Thank you so much.
Glad you liked it
A lot of my relatives are Anglo Indian and these videos help me understand them as well as my dad - not being mixed but coming from an aristocratic background, growing up in the Anglo Indian environment better.
Thank you for your comments.Glad you liked the video
I have known a few Anglo-Indians due to my India connection, and some of them were gems of humanity, wonderful people. The only one issue that I found a bit strange was that so many of them even young people very disdainful of India and Indian culture, Indian music, art, heritage etc..I met Anglo-Indians in Kolkata and even elsewhere in India who just had a rudimentary knowledge of the local languages though having lived there for generations. One particular case I found very strange was, I was invited to a Anglo-Indian Winter Ball hosted at a prominent New Delhi School. I was mingling with people and was having a chat with one of the teachers of the school, in Hindi, the lady was telling me that being a White European I speak such good Hindi. All of a sudden a middle age lady nearby commented, " please give this Hindi a rest" I thought it was in jest. It clearly wasn't, the lady seemed pretty miffed. Just an observation.
Fair comment! This is an enormously complex issue. Anglo-Indians' views of other Anglo-Indians is as complex as the genetic mix they are descended from and one of the major failures of this community was a reluctance to learn and speak (if not to read and write) the language of the people they lived among. This emanated from the insularity of the British ruling-class whom the Anglo-Indian community were encouraged to identify with through their mainly patrilineal line of descent and the myth of kinship. "Going native" was sneered at in the era of British rule and snobbery and this applied to the Anglo-Indian community as well, who retained this brittle and indefensible attitude of denial as a cultural identifier. The reported negative view of Indian art, culture and music, etc. is part of the same, anachronistic, attitude. This is not a necessarily pan-community feature as many are accomplished in at least one - and often several - Indian languages. The older lady in your account was probably miffed because she genuinely didn't understand everything you were saying in Hindi and came from a generation where breaking out of the bounds of cultural insularity had never been a necessity. Assimilation is easier said than done - even after half a century.
I get the picture, roughly. I understand the attitudes and insularity of the elderly, though 90% of the Anglo-Indians I met were born after the British left India, it's the attitude of the young and middle aged that surprised me a bit. Secondly, I feel that the British were responsible for a lot of the issues. The British being colonizers and exploiters, mainly wanted to use the Anglo-Indians as their link to running the Raj, so I think encouraged a separateness to the native population. Ironically, the British totally shunned the Anglo-Indians and even issued strict edits to British officials serving in India regarding any social mingling with Anglo-Indians, I read about this in a book written by an ICS officer in the 1930,s. This is my two pence to the argument after researching about the Indian sub-continent and it's contemporary history. Thank You.
Hi Mark, You have more or less wrapped it up. White expatriate Britons working in India up to the 1960s still married 'white' Anglo-Indians. After the great exodus to other Anglophone countries where they didn't have to re-invent themselves to gain acceptance, former Anglo-Indians and their descendants have become 'other' people and so that this niche community will have reached the end of its shelf-life naturally.
Kind regards.
@@spikefunakoshi5667 That is quite true! My siblings and I were registered as British before Indian independence and received British passports when applied for which were endorsed, 'Holder has the right of abode in the United Kingdom'. I thought I was British - until I got to Britain. Over a decade in the British police service disabused me of that for life which is why I live elsewhere. Best regards.
@@spikefunakoshi5667 Amen to that Henry. Underlying all the social and cultural barriers is essentially the pervasive and enduring question of skin colour. No matter how one analyses the rise and fall of imperialism, it will always come down skin colour. May I recommend to you: "The Myth of Race" by Robert Wald Sussman [Harvard University Press, 2018] for an eminently readable examination of how the artificial social construct upon which the myth of racial superiority with its concomitant racial prejudice and intolerance remains deeply ingrained in Western (read 'white') society. Best regards.
Another great piece of work Lucknow Chokra! Thoroughly enjoyed... esp with the careful wording of history.
Glad you enjoyed it
Very interesting story! It has a lot of simularity of the Indo-European history of the Dutch-Indies (Indonesia). I'm also mixed blooded and so are my parents. But I think there was difference in legal subdivision of the people who lived in the Dutch-Indies. There were three groups 1) Natives 2) Eastern foreigners (chinese, arabs, jews) and 3) Europeans. By law the Indo-Europeans where classified as Europeans. This was a problem during the time of and after the independence struggle. First the Dutch government only allowed the fullblooded Dutch and the Indo-Europeans who where government officials in the Dutch_indies and who worked in the Dutch-Indies Army, to go to The Netherlands. (that was between around 1946 and 1951). The majority of the mixed blooded people stayed untill about 1957/1958 and then they also left. That was because the president of Indonesia then told that all the Dutch had to leave. The Dutch government realized it was impossible for the Indo-Europeans to stay in Indonesia. The mixed blooded people were hated by the Indonesian. They Dutch Government paid the the boatticket and first aid in Holland but it had to be paid back after one got a job! A small group stayed in Indonesia untill about 1964. All in all, approximately 300.000 people left Indonesia between 1946 and 1964. Nowadays there is still a very very small Indo-European group in Indonesia who are Indonesian citizens and most of them live in poverty. That's really sad, because some of them couldn't prove they have dutch grandfathers (they lost the papers durting WW2 or the head of the family (the father) opted for the Indonesian nationality in 1946 for the whole family.
Thank you for your comments and the interesting comparison with the mixed blooded people of the Dutch Indies. A mirror of what occurred all over the colonial empires to a greater or a lesser degree. I am sure there have been books written about the Dutch Indies experience, best wishes, Lucknow chokra
I had a chuckle when I read the slide at 22:49 that said the Volunteer Corps was Compulsory. LOL!
I have just noticed your comment and you are quite right, it sounds oxymoronic. The mixed message arises because these units were first raised from volunteers based on the English volunteer movement model of Britain's citizen-soldiers of the Napoleonic Wars era. Later, in the 19th. century, when railway units were raised, they retained the 'Volunteer' appellation in their unit titles giving rise to the oxymoron. This job-related condition applied to railway units only.
@@warden2351 My father and his friends also said it was 'obligatory' to serve in the volunteer corps.!
@@dorothymcmenamin7911 As I mentioned earlier, service in IDF/AFI units was generally voluntary except for railway units where it was a compulsory condition of employment. Compulsory service for railwaymen was limited to 5 years or until attaining 45-years in age. Voluntary continuation thereafter depended upon good conduct and physical fitness for duty. As the bulk of volunteer units were gathered in large towns or city centres, railway 'volunteer' soldiers in the remote regions of their railway company's network were often the only symbol of armed authority and were occasionally called upon to support district police in suppressing violent riots and even pursuing predatory gangs of dacoits (armed robbers). They represented the Raj in some pretty lonely places. A general obligation to serve in a volunteer corps, per se, is a widespread myth.
Thanks for a lot of added content, a lot of Nostalgia
Thank you for your encouraging comments. Best wishes
very nice video. the whole history of Anglo Indian community had been shown but one thing is missing that is the bow barracks of kolkata. the red buildings the British built during world war and later gave it to Anglo Indian. still today it's a heritage part of kolkata.
Thank you for your positive comments and your suggestion about Bow Barracks which I will look into, Regards, Lucknow Chokra
The liberal outlook of this community encouraged us to adapt to our country of birth. Though migration has reduced our numbers, most young AngloIndians are acquiring a college education faring well. India with its multi- racial, multi- cultural population, has been good to us. Great Bharat.
Thank you for your comments
Excellent Contribution by our fellow Anglo-Indians. Thanks for this documentary as I came to know more about. Their presence in Sub-Continant needs to preserve their identity.
Very heart touching documentary
Thanks Vijay! Your comments will be appreciated by the Anglo-Indian community
Their contribution to the Indian Music and Bollywood as the "Arrangers of Instruments" is without match.
Outstanding background music. It brings the story to life.
Thank you Madhav Gangavalli
Am proud of being an Anglo Indian 😊
Very interesting information. A story of a mixed race let down by the British. Truly a story of abandonment. Feel very sad for those humans who were desperate to be accepted. One can only imagine the deep rooted damage the British has done to the Indians. It is not a question of looting the wealth of the Indian sub continent but a combination of that plus the discrimination towards the people. They were not very clever there else the Indians would have let them stay for a longer period and perhaps even accepted them into their society (though the colonial hangover exists even today). The then stuffy folks really made a mistake and messed up. Well that is history now.
You forgot to mention Ruskin Bond, he was an anglo-indian writer who's novels are very popular in India. He was born in 1936 and is still alive today.
Thank you Flying Banshee for mentioning the esteemed writer Ruskin Bond. My video covered the period 1600-1947 and Ruskin Bond was too young then to rate a mention
@@Lucknowchokra do you have any old photos of Bishop Westcott boy's school Ranchi? It was an anglo indian school founded in 1927, I want see the old photos of this school. If you have any then send it on my email:
flyingbanshee683@gmail.com
@@flyingbanshee8592 Please access Facebook and type in the School's name. You will find photos there
I thought that both of Ruskin Bond's parents were British ! Also born in 1934 !
Really awesome its a honest attempt to atoz of Anglo Indian community .
Thanks for your positive comment Tridib. Best wishes, Peter M.
Iam an anglo indian nice to see this video
@ 48:24 You may have forgotten to add that Anglo Indians did contribute in the sports field too - Micheal Ferreira, Wilson Jones - Billiards, Roger & Stuart Binny, Sheldon Jackson - Cricket, Mark Patterson - hockey & many more.
Thank you for your comments. I have produced a video about the Anglo-Indians in the sporting arena. The link is Anglo-Indians Social and Sporting Life
th-cam.com/video/ScosiGiDaDY/w-d-xo.html
Michael Ferreira is an East Indian from Mumbai and not an Anglo Indian
Late Air Vice Marshall Lazaro should also be recognised in the Anglo Indian alumni for serving the IAF. There was an Anglo Indian lady who rose to Brigade rank as a nurse in IAF. Many were head mistress and head masters who contributed in the education field. Today the AI community has dwindled to a small number in India.
Thank you for your comments. I have included AVM Lazaro at the 7:25 minute mark on the timeline of my TH-cam video titled Anglo-Indians in the Indian Air Force
th-cam.com/video/A60QE9T9Lxs/w-d-xo.html
""""""" Well said..They are also the pillars of the Christiannity in India especially Katholiks...God bless them.
also RIP. to them.....Tura...,,,,,,India..,,,,,,,
lovely journey down history lane....with blue danube/col boogie's march background music while having my sun downers
of chota s with soda pani....thanks for this vid
Anglo Indians may be of mixed birth. In Bombay they are called East Indians.But after reading the book Last White Hunter by Donald Anderson and Joshua Mathew I find that those of English stock but born and brought up in India is also known as Anglo Indians. Avsilable in Amazon India read this book.Donald sister and husband was not treated as English due to the style of English spoken by them.My memories goes to sixties when Railways were dominated by Anglo Indians gents; Ladies in offices in Madras Bombay and Calcutta as Telephone operators Clerks Typist etc. I read book by a Dy Commissioner of Meerut in 1857 about the Mutiny from Google Archieves.Very interesting.
Thank you for your comments P S Lakshmanan
Very informative. I'm British born but living overseas which gives a difference prospective. Time and time again the British government has behaved disgracefully, as it did with the Anglo Indians.
Bob Jackson History never speaks on this issue and yes Britain did act disgracefully.
THIS IS A BRILLIANT VIDEO.
Thank you Abbas Asgharali Moaiyadi
Lucknow Chokra should do a photo-documentary on the community's representation of India to the prestigious and highly sought after Miss World and Miss Universe and other titles and have even secured the titles for India.
A really interesting video , poignant and sadly the same type of betrayals continue today by the English elites.
Thank you for your positive comment. As long a there are elites there will be an injustice
'Britain's Forgotten Grandchildren: The Story of an Anglo Indian Family' is a nice little documentary about an Anglo-Indian family who moved to The UK in the 1960s. Thought it might be of interest.
Thanks Little Red Hen Videos. Very Interesting. Regards, Lucknow Chokra
You have missed CJP Pinto of Indian Air Force Air Voice Marshel who met with an accident while in service in a helicopter .who was from St Thomas Mount, Madras.
Thank you for letting me know.
About AI Sergeants: Yes, they were direct entry, and, if I am not wrong, the way up was Inspector and Assistant Commissioner. That was Calcutta Police; a Superintendent rank would have been the Bengal Police. It was nice to see Ronnie Moore's picture in the documentary; I've just been corrected, he retired as an IPS Senior DC.
Thank you for your comments Indrajit Gupta. You might be interested in a couple of videos I produced on AIs in the Indian Police. They are:Indian Police Services, Calcutta and Uttar Pradesh
This video is about some milestones and characters in the history of the Calcutta and Uttar Pradesh Police Services
th-cam.com/video/EGJXZLFZmOY/w-d-xo.html
and An Ordinary Bloke
This video is a brief overview of the life of Ronald Allen Moore, a legendary senior Indian Police Service officer who served the Calcutta Police Force for 36 years before and after Indian independence. A champion heavyweight boxer, big-game hunter, family man, devout Catholic, a helper of 'little' people and a defender of the downtrodden
th-cam.com/video/5x1lYQMhhKo/w-d-xo.html
@@Lucknowchokra I've actually met the legend, and he told us the story of his best known rounds with an American forces champion! As a matter of fact, his b-i-l, a military doctor, saved my father's life, so the ties go deep.
There was a Simeons in the UP Police pics. Would you know, by any chance, if he was related to Col. Simeons who shifted from Signals to Education, took over one of the first, and most famous Sainik Schools, and then came to Calcutta as principal after 'Jumbo' Vyse? After my time; I think Desmond Shaw was Lucknow, and he was Vice Principal when Simeons was principal.
OF COURSE I'm interested; I'll be saving them up for this evening.
@@indrajitgupta3280 There is a Facebook page titled La Martiniere in the Armed Forces that might interest you. Also, more links of interest are: La Martiniere in the Navy
A photo documentary of the students of the La Martiniere Colleges who served in the Navy. Their service and sacrifice has brought honour to themselves, their countries and to the La Martiniere name.
th-cam.com/video/NO5vpoTjkag/w-d-xo.html
La Martiniere Boys Calcutta Memories
This video includes some milestones in the history of the La Martiniere Boys Calcutta from the time of its Founder, Major General Claude Martin in the 18th Century.
th-cam.com/video/jSWJAkDFo0g/w-d-xo.html
La Martiniere Girls Calcutta Memories
This video includes some milestones in the history of the La Martiniere Girls Calcutta from the time of its Founder, Major General Claude Martin in the 18th Century.
th-cam.com/video/ZkepEpdREKY/w-d-xo.html
@@Lucknowchokra Clearly I've hit the jackpot. Beer's on me if we ever get to meet in India.
An interesting aside: I was telling my cousin (who lives on Anil Roy Road in Calcutta) about asking a naive question to a neighbour's son in Barrackpore; he looked blankly at me, smiled and then did five minutes of hockey dribbling that I will not forget to my dying day. So my cousin says, Sure, it was the AIs and the Sikhs who really pulled Indian hockey right up on top, wasn't it? I had to tell him, look at the teams for 28, 32 and 36; see any Sikhs? It is my firm notion that Australian hockey is what it is solely due to the number of AIs they got.
The entire indian railway system was run by anglo- indians. My grandfather was a railway loco pilot in 1960s, his boss and friends were all anglo indians. Even then many british retired railway officers lived in places like khurda road, kharagpur, balasore, calcutta. I grew up them and their kids. We would play with the kids that came from england.
Those men are all dead now. The homes are all empty or sold and demolished. There used to be a small anglo indian village of Hijli ( yes thats where IIT KGP is ) . Now the village has no more anglo indian. Only IIT KGP professors houses and Rice converts .
Glad you liked the video
A very well assembled video. But there are so many many more achievements that could have been added in. Proud of this miniscule community to which I belong. An excellent effort though.
Thank you Norman. I have produced other videos about celebrating their achievements of AIs under the TH-cam name of Lucknow Chokra
@@Lucknowchokra Thank you Sir, will have a peep into that as well. Take care and remain blessed...
I wonder if any of my ancestors were Anglo-Indians, I'm only partially Indian, but my Indian heritage originates in what is today known as Kolkata, formerly Calcutta in the Bengal region of both India and Bangladesh
Dear Infinite Sky. Calcutta has always contained a significant population of Anglo-Indians from the early days of European settlement. A good start would be to verify how your part Indian heritage evolved. Regards, Clayton
Your surname would also give you a clue, although there are unusual cases. The eminent poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt, who was Christian, married an Anglo-Indian girl in Chennai, where he had gone to look for work, and had children; the children seem to have used McTavish (their mother's name) and Dutt in various combinations; one of their sons used McTavish-Dutt. The famous tennis player, Leander Paes, was descended from Dutt through his mother, Jennifer, also an athlete of repute.
@@786swe Do look up the word 'churlish'. It may significantly improve your answers once you understand it and learn to adapt to it.
I thank you for this very interesting presentation, India is a place I would like to visit. So much of British History is tied up with India. It is a pity the British Government made marriage to Indians against the law or rules.
I am from Secunderabad and I knew a Peter Moore from St Mary's Parish we used to go to Sunday school . Wonder if it is the same, since the pics are from Secunderabad too. Can anyone help.
The Anglo-Indians have such a rich legacy in India and their contributions to the progress of the nation is highly commendable. Yet their two parliament seats have been deliberately scrapped recently. It is awfully unfair to the community. It smacks of blatant intolerance. The present dispensation will try to abolish gleefully any setting the founding leaders of Independence had introduced.
By the way I am not an Anglo Indian.My ancestry is purely Indian from UP.
Thank you for your insightful comments
That was a shame and a wretched thing to do. Such graceless acts are now the rule, not exceptions.
Frank Anthony
Lt father anglo indian,dennis quinlen was,army pers upto 1947. Stationed at mccluskie gunj Bihar, India as contribution i,served in Indian Army,and retd
Thank you for your comments Dennis.If you would like to send me photos of your Dad and yourself in uniform plus rank at retirement, any awards, years of service, school attended I will add the information to my master file.
Love the martial music background.....
Well done Lucknow chokra - a must view for all who call themselves Anglo-Indian.
Hello Roley. Thanks for all your help and support on this project. Hopefully, many 'chokras' out there will gain a better understanding of their roots. regards, Clayton
AH !!! SUPERB INDEED !! LOVED IT !!! ANGLO-INDIAN FROM THE U.K.
Thank you PMA Judge
@@Lucknowchokra THANK YOU . THE TERMINOLOGY OF ANGLO-INDIANS OBSOLETE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM ---- Not seen or felt its importance here .
Anyone born 1960's in the u.k. have no recollections of such people????? A.I.'S will say they are born or came to the u.k. as a baby !!! With the huge DIVERSITY --- A.I. 's the word probably drowned WITHIN cultures around the WORLD.
beautiful music. tell me pls the name of the music? thank you
I am glad you liked the music. Please send me your email address on Messenger and I will send you the titles for the music
The journey of India and Britian has seen sadness , greatness hate and love forging an unbreakable bond between both great nations and people's.🇨🇦🇳🇿🇺🇸🇮🇳🇬🇧🙉🙊🙈🌞🙋👫☕
Thank you for your comments
Awesum ❤️
Like this comment if you're a proud Anglo Indian
This should be a narration rather than a fast moving screen write up. The intention is laudable. Presentation has to match.
Your comments are noted Ashok
This is amazing! Thank you 😊 I do have a question though... are all with the British names Anglo Indians or were Christian Indians a major part of the Anglo Indian community as well? Thank you so much ❤
A sad piece of discrimination here: Indians of the Christian faith and the descendants of Indian fathers and European/Anglo-Indian mothers are not Anglo-Indians by definition or tradition.
@@warden2351 makes sense thankyou.. I've been doing a lot of research and have found out much about the Dalit and other converted castes-very interesting... I suppose my interest is in the Christian communities of Lucknow and Karachi in what later became Pakistan.. any information would be gold to me 💕
@@sogb100 Email me: peterm235@hotmail.com. Best regards.
I'm sure a lot of India's problems today wouldn't exist if there had still been some form of British involvement.
Delighted to see this; better late than never. Calcutta Martinian.
Cal Boys feature in this video:La Martiniere in the Air Force
A photo documentary of the Staff and Students of the La Martiniere Colleges in India who served in the Air Forces of India and other countries
th-cam.com/video/RL8nkfd-6KQ/w-d-xo.html
La Martiniere in the Army
A photo documentary of the Staff and Students of the La Martiniere Colleges in India who served in the Armies of India and other countries. Their service and sacrifice has brought honour to themselves, their countries and to the La Martiniere name.
th-cam.com/video/UXaev7-3ckY/w-d-xo.html
@@Lucknowchokra Thanks muchly. Naturally I will be posting this URL to the La M Cal WhatsApp group for those interested to drop in and see. I really enjoyed going through the doc., and finding the son of a legend of the police walking around casually was a bonus.
Enlightening at the same time much had been ignored. My paternal grandfather was one of the eight thousand who fought in Mesopotamia. Also some times the captions went to fast. But on the whole good
Many thanks for your positive comment.. As an amateur production the technology has been a learning experience and not everything turned out as desired. 'Left click' pausing helps. Selecting the amount of contributions down to practical limitations has meant some sacrifice in information. A revision is intended to address reported glitches. My paternal g'father served in Mespot. too, in the RFA. Kind regards, Peter M.
didnt realize that Goans from Goa considered themselves as Anglo Indians/British and considered themselves superior to the then Indians.
Anglo Indian are nice people,pride of india
Thank you Anil Kumar Yadav
All people are good and well respected as long as they remain loyal to their place of birth
A good point and, as a reasonable analogy, think of all the Muslims from Pakistan who have sought and received British citizenship and avail of all their new home's civic and welfare amenities but see themselves as Muslims first and Pakistanis next. Where does their loyalty lie?
@@warden2351 then u must ask the same question to all Muslim parliamentarians and soldiers in India
@@zgged Yes. There is no such thing as a dumb question - only answers have that potential.
@@786swe It doesn't sound like you have been outside of Burma or met any real Anglo-Indian people. I cannot tell from your limited assumptions.
@@786swe Oooh! How "smart" you are! I'm sooooo impressed! Get a life you clown.
very informative
An interesting , if somewhat sad commentary on how colonial exploitation works. I feel sorry for the Anglo-indian community who were so loyal to the British yet were so badly let down in the end . I am glad at least Free India values them so much more.This is your country now and you should thrive and prosper here like the rest of the Indians.
Dear Rameez, Thanks for your observation which is a fair comment. All Indians of Anglo-Indian origin would concur with your closing line. Assimilating into the communities they now live in worldwide have rendered Anglo-Indians into "other people"; only memories of their point of origin, shared cultural symbols and cuisine keep them linked. Productions like this are intended to maintain those links. It is my observation that Anglo-Indians appear to be more appreciated in India now than in the early post-Independence years which is a good thing - life is too short for regrets or recriminations.. Thanks for your positive insight. Best wishes, Peter M.
Hi Rameez, Lovely to hear from you. Sounds like we are on the same track. I am peterm235@homail.com - look forawrd to continuing our conversation more directly.. Best regards, PeterM.
Correction to my last - that should have read 'hotmail'. The eyesight isn't quite what it used to be.
Kind regards, Peter M.
thanks will contact you!
Thanks to both of you for your interesting discussion. I hope the following question is not offensive but I cannot help wonder - Were there any anglo-indian freedome fighters? Did they not mind the atrocities they saw as they remained aligned with the ideology of the other side of their ancestry? "That to fight 'gainst England's foe, He most willingly did go..." That was true within the country as well.
I'm a malayali christian from Kerala, but was considered an angloIndian by my north Indian classmates.
Dear Sir, Without intending to sound discriminatory, your north Indian classmates are wrong. The official definition of an Anglo-Indian, is set out in Article 366(2) of the Indian Constitution: "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." Christianity is a religion, not an ethnicity. Best regards.
Great work Dad!! X
You're the best!
British raj, deshi rajwadas and railways great combination for never been seen
Thank you Kirit for your supportive and encouraging comments
who can forget the Anglo-Indians ? Read John Masters Bhowani Junction, Night Runners of Bengal etc.
Very great empire
Why one Anglo indianBattalien for Armsd forces were not made. Railway pilots ship captain were many I have seen them when I entered my sevice in 1963(MofD)
Are there any Anglo Indian communities left in Lucknow? Also, what's your connection with the city?
There is an Anglo-Indian Association in Lucknow. The website is aiaialko.com I studied at La Martiniere College Lucknow 1963-1968
If you ever do anything on Panama I would gladly furnish you videos and picks from my background there
Thank you for your comments and your offer of videos and picks . Maybe someday I will do something on the fascinating history of Panama, a country I hope to visit someday. Regards, Clayton