Description: This study examines the cultural experience of Anglo-Indians, those of mixed British and Indian ancestry who settled in Britain following India's independence. Using archival research, ethnography, and literary and cultural analyses, Almeida investigates the initial migration ...
Review Quotes:
"[T]his book is a fine achievement, and does indeed succeed in laying to rest some of the myths that have persisted around the story of Judge Pal." --The International Journal of Asian Studies
"As the British Empire in India grew over the centuries, so did the number of Anglo-Indians, despite attempts to legislate against relationships between British men and Indian women. They were officially brought into being as 'Anglo-Indians' with the census of 1911; in the years following independence in 1947, many migrated to Britain. But these British Anglo-Indians did not fit dominant racial or ethnic categories, and their presence was quickly forgotten. With meticulous research, Rochelle Almeida has traced the survivors of that remarkable group and talked to them so that their voices can now be heard. She rescues their histories from obscurity, making the intangible Anglo-Indian heritage visible for all her readers. A fascinating work of recovery." --Robert J. C. Young, New York University "Rochelle Almeida has composed a beautifully-researched and deeply sensitive account of a cultural group that has fallen through the cracks of post-colonial cultural studies. The afterlives of empire are many; living through their complexity and ambiguity remains a defining feature of everyday life for Britain's Anglo-Indians, who can now receive the academic attention that they well deserve, thanks to Professor Almeida." --David Ludden, New York University "Rochelle Almeida's volume focusing on 'First Generation' Anglo-Indian immigrants to the UK is wonderfully full of the voices of the people she interviewed and spent time with. Almeida has captured their challenges, decisions, and strategies for succeeding in their new land, producing a work that portrays the spirit and resilience of this almost completely invisible, culturally distinct social group. In the seventieth year after Indian independence from Britain, the time is ripe to take stock of this people who migrated there in such large numbers. Let's hope this will be the first in a series of accounts of the diasporic community in the different parts of the world they have adopted as home." --Robyn Andrews, Massey University "Rochelle Almeida's pioneering study of Britain's immigrant Anglo-Indians combines excellent ethnographic research with attentive textual critique of representations of the community in postcolonial literature. The result is an engrossing book on a minority that has for too long remained ignored in the global South Asian diaspora, but deserves to be better understood." --Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, New York University "In this poignant examination of the story of Anglo-Indians and their journey--from being personae non grata to becoming an indispensable part of the vibrant cultural fabric of Great Britain--Rochelle Almeida channels with remarkable rigor and sharp focus the voices and triumphs of a community that was once denied its rightful place in the history of the world, prevailing against the treacherous politics of race and identity." --Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament, India "This important new work addresses the near invisibility of a 'hybrid sub-culture' so well integrated into Britain as to have all but disappeared from the record. Using a blend of oral interviews, investigative journalism, and critical analysis of creative writing and films, Rochelle Almeida undertakes the daunting challenge of writing a lucid and nuanced account of First Wave Anglo-Indians of mixed racial descent who aimed to register, she argues, as 'a cultural nonentity' while maintaining a distinct identity that demands recognition." --Deepika Bahri, Emory University