The Curious Exclusion of Anglo-Indians from the Mass Slaughter during the Partition of India

Abstract

The finding in this article represents one aspect of an oral history project in progress. The purpose of the overall project is designed, firstly, to demonstrate the diversity encompassed within the umbrella definition ‘Anglo-Indian’; and, secondly, to record the responses of the communities to the rapidly changing social and political environment in India prior to and following its partition and independence from British rule in 1947. To date, historiography has focussed on the early formation of the community and, more recently, upon contemporary communities of Anglo-Indians who stayed on in Independent India and the resettlement of those who migrated to Australia, Britain and Canada.[1]  My research focuses on the people who migrated to New Zealand and, in particular, concentrates on the twilight period of British imperialism and the dawn of a new era in India. This period is a pivotal time in the lives of Anglo-Indians, the events of which motivated much of the community to leave the land of their birth.