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Name: Stephanie Cullen. Country: United Kingdom. Email: sac513@york.ac.uk
I am a third year student at the University of York studying History and Politics, and for my undergraduate dissertation I am researching the experiences Anglo-Indian migrants in London from 1947-1960. My interest in this subject is close to home, coming from an Anglo-Indian family myself (my Grandfather and his family lived in Calcutta before moving to south London). In particular, I am interested in looking at the Anglo-Indian identity to see what makes it distinct. I think this would be a fantastic opportunity to discover more about a largely unknown part of history and would really appreciate your, and your members, help. I have attached some questions which I would be grateful of you could pass on to your members. I would be thankful for any responses from the Association.
I look forward to any replies. Many thanks, ….. Stephanie Cullen
Dissertation overview
My dissertation objective is to explore the idea of identity among the
Anglo-Indian community which emigrated and lived in London during the
period 1947-1960s (or therea. I want to look at culture, heritage and
traditions whilst trying to discover whether Anglo-Indians had a
distinctive identity.
Questions – Please answer as fully as possible
Name:
......Date of Birth:………. Place of Birth:
1. When did you migrate to Britain?
2. What were the main reasons for emigrating?
3. Did you have any expectations about what Britain would be like? If so,
what were they?
4. When and where did you arrive?
5. Where did you live? Please give an overview of your time in London
during 1947-57.
6. Did Britain meet any expectations you had?
7. How much did the reality of Britain differ from your expectations?
8. What was it like arriving in British society?
9. Did you notice any differences or similarities with your old home?
10. Did you live in an Anglo-Indian community or near many other
Anglo-Indian migrants? If so, please describe. If not, what was the
surrounding community like and any reactions towards you?
11. Did you experience any negative attitudes towards you or the
Anglo-Indian community? If so, describe.
12. How would you describe the concept of ‘identity’?
13. What would you say is distinctive about the ‘Anglo-Indian’ Identity?
14. Did you consider it important to keep an Anglo-Indian identity after
migrating or did you try and fit into British? If so, how?
15. Would you consider there being any Anglo-Indian customs and
traditions? If yes, please describe.
16. Describe, as much as you can, the any Anglo-Indian cultures.
Thank you for your time.
Type of Information: Other (academic research)
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E-Mail: jm392@le.ac.uk. Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2011
Mr. JASON MURPHY
United Kingdom
I was wondering whether there was any way to contact Anglo-Indians through you who may have lived in India or Burma during British colonial times who would be willing to answer some questions via e-mail or letter for my dissertation. I am a geography student at the University of Leicester.
Many thanks ……. jason murphy
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Dear Mr Payne and Ms Rebeiro,
Many thanks for your kind response to my email. Your help is much appreciated. The questionnaire is attached in addition to a short introductory letter.
I look forward to hearing from you in due course. Should you require any further information please let me know.
Kind regards, Liola Lee
Questionnaire
1. Who were your parents/grandparents/great grandparents?
2. Do you know what their occupations were? If yes, what were they?
3. Do you know which of your forbears originally went to India? If yes, who?
4. If the answer was yes to the previous question was there a connection with the British Army or the East India Company? If there was do you know the regiment/rank or in what capacity they worked for the East India Company?
5. Do you know anything about the journey to India of the original emigrant?
6. Do you have access to any original documents ie; letters/journals/diaries that might give some clues to what life was like for these early settlers in India? Alternatively, perhaps stories of these earlier ancestors have been passed down orally.
7. Who was party to the first mixed marriage/cohabitation, and who was it that the original settler married if known?
8. Do you have any idea of the original religion of the Indian woman? Was she Mohammedan, Hindu, Sikh or other? Or, perhaps it was your male ancestor that converted/ ‘crossed over’/’went native’ to some degree.
9. What does it mean to you to be Anglo-Indian or to have Anglo-Indian roots?
10. Have you always been aware of being Anglo-Indian or having Anglo-Indian ancestry?
11. Did you do your own family history research? ie; compile your family tree yourself OR was the information you know about your ancestors passed down from one generation to the next.
12. Were you ever told stories of an Indian Princess in the family?
13. What did you or your older relatives think about partition and independence?
14. Were there any problems with bureaucracy when coming to Britain following partition and independence? OR at any other time either before or after partition and independence?
15. Do you feel Anglo-Indians are ‘the vanishing remnants of a bygone era’ as suggested by writer Blair Williams?
16. Do you have any colleagues or friends with Anglo-Indian ancestry that may be prepared to answer these questions? If yes, please can you forward this questionnaire to them for completion.
Dear Sir/Madam/Ms,
My name is Liola Lee. I am writing a book and would appreciate it if you would kindly consider answering a questionnaire that I have compiled to aid my research.
If there are any questions you would rather not answer or do not know the answer to that is fine. Please only answer what you are comfortable with. Any information you provide is much appreciated. My aim is to contribute to a greater understanding of the significance of family narratives of origin, family myths and memories as history with particular emphasis on the Anglo-Indian community. I further hope that my book will, when published act as a springboard into further study by interested parties into this part of Indo-British history therefore adding a third dimension to what is often seen as two dimensional.
If you are able to scan any old photographs/letters/diary entries that you feel may assist me in my research that would be much appreciated.
I am interested in those individuals/families who know about their ancestry and adapted to life in Britain and other parts of the commonwealth and all that might have entailed and how being Anglo-Indian may have affected everyday life if it did at all. I am also interested in those individuals/families which for one reason or another may have hidden their heritage. I am also interested in those who only discovered Anglo-Indian ancestry by accident when researching their family history. What if any are people’s thoughts on that? Actor Rupert Penrys-Jones discovered Anglo-Indian roots when making a television programme and was thrilled and excited.
Please forward your response to:
liola1@ntlworld.com
Many thanks for your time and assistance!!
Liola Lee
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DIGITAL LIBRARY OF INDIA,
Information supplied by Nicholas Balmer, India-Raj list
Go to
http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/
This library is absolutely fascinating. It appears that the people doing this have gone to a very old and magnificent library, perhaps in Delhi, and have started to scan from one end to the other. Many of the the books are on things like gardening, or are very out of date text books, but all the gazeteers and many of the printed sets of correspondence are on the site.
I have been fixed to the screen reading bits of many books that I am aware of, but have been otherwise unable to get to in libraries.
________________________________________________________________________
The following websites have been provided to us by LYNNE HADLEY, from Melbourne, Australia. Our thanks for the valuable information which we are happy to pass on to our guests.
www.archive.com - a website which contains downloadable texts, images, video clips. It has many public domain texts relating to Indian and Anglo-Indian history. Books can be downloaded utilizing the DjVu plugin. The easiest way to download is to right-click on the link on the download page, and download from the drop-down menu choose the ´save as´ option. A good site for Researchers. Includes Foster´s books containing old EIC letters, as well as several EIC records.
www.gutenberg.org/catalog/. This site has ´plain vanilla´ downloadable books. Many things of interest to people who are researching all things Indian.
www.british-history.ac.uk/source.asp?gid=43. This site contains items from the Houses of Lords and Commons,items/articles from various British sources. Many related to India and Anglo-Indians.
www.a2a.org.uk/. This site is a portal for British archival sources. It provides reference and index numbers, enabling you to easily locate records in such places as the OIOC in the British Library. The India Office records indexed on the site are very useful - particularly if you are looking for a particular person who served in India, or was sent to one of the military colleges in Britain. Covers all categories of archival resources.
www.fullbooks.com/ Downloadable books of all types.
www.mssu.edu/projectsouthasia/Docs/index.htm. This is the Project South Asia site, which is a joint project by the Universities of South Dakota and Missouri. Mostly relating to India´s early history.
www.fordham.edu/halsall/india/indiasbook.html. This site was put together by Paul Halsell of Fordham University. A great deal on Indian history from ancient times to post-Partition times. Many documents available on the site itself with links to others. Useful to individuals researching the political history of India.
www.naa.gov.au. This site contains digitised images of archival records dealing with India/Indians, and Anglo-Indians. Members of the public can request (for free)any record with open access to be digitised. There is a long waiting list. You can also request that a record whose access hasn´t as yet been examined, be examined, and opened for public access. Documents available to anybody researching Anglo-Indian history, particularly around the time of Partition.
_____________________________________________________________________
THE GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT
National Geographic, IBM Corporation and The Watt Family Foundation has a unique program to trace Migration Routes of your ancestors, and ultimately defines your lineage through DNA markers. You can participate in this project by going to this website:
_____________________________________________________________________
Genealogy Today was chosen by Ancestry.com to be one of several web sites that will be sharing free access to the 1920 Census with its visitors this week. This is a great opportunity to accelerate your research without spending a dime. From June 15th through June 17th, Ancestry.com is making their 1920 Census database free to visitors from select sites (including Genealogy Today).
To obtain free access, however, you must use the search box on our 1920 census page. A shortcut to that page is http://www.census1920.com/ -- that’s all you need to know. Visit census1920.com, use the search box on the center of the page, complete a short registration (no credit card required) and
you´ll have free access. This is NOT a free trial and there are no
obligations whatsoever.
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We have designed this site to be the most complete international repository and exchange of Anglo-Indian information. Here you will find information on the History and the current culture of Anglo-Indians around the world. An index of one the world´s most complete Library´s of Anglo-Indian information is available here. We also list upcoming and recently past Reunions for those interested in meeting others who share our heritage. Please look through the site using the menu on the left. Take a moment to fill out the Contact Form with your comments, request more information or to find out about having a reunion or other information posted here.
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