Identifying Domiciled Europeans in Colonial India: Poor Whites or Privileged Community?

Authors

  • Dorothy McMenamin

Abstract

Current historiography acknowledges the existence of Domiciled Europeans in colonial India, often referring to them as “poor whites”,[2]  but the community has not been the focus of any specific research.  Domiciled Europeans were those born in India of parents who were of British and/or European descent who had settled permanently in India.[3] They considered themselves part of the British community, who were originally known as Anglo-Indians, as opposed to the racially mixed European and Indian community who were called Eurasians.  However, in order to avoid the derogatory stigma associated with Eurasians or “half castes”, those from mixed unions with fair skins began to call themselves Anglo-Indians.[4]   By the turn of the century, the term “Anglo-Indian” ceased to apply to the British and those with no Indian blood and, instead, applied to those from mixed British and Indian unions and their descendants.

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Published

2008-01-30