Editorial

Authors

  • Robyn Andrews Massey University
  • Brent Otto University of California, Berkeley

Abstract

We are delighted to be publishing the second issue of the year 2024, in which we include further publications first presented in shorter form as papers at the Research Workshop in conjunction with the 12th International Anglo-Indian Reunion in Canberra. As noted in the first journal issue of the year the International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies convened this workshop, as it has done over the last four reunions, and shall again in 2026 in Kochi. This second general issue of 2024 contains two articles that began as papers presented in Canberra. 

The first of these articles is by Sean Kelly, entitled: “Unearthing Anglo-Indian Roots: A Personal Journey”, and documents his story of searching for and revealing the extent of his Anglo-Indian roots. As well as being the intriguing description of his own personal journey and what he discovered, it serves as a model for genealogical and historical research for other Anglo-Indians interested in discovering their own roots.

The second article, also presented at the reunion workshop, is from Shyamasri Maji, and examines Glenn D’Cruz’s film, Vanitas, a documentary film created by D’Cruz as a tribute to his late father. In the article, titled “Reading the Memories in Glenn D’Cruz’s film Vanitas (2022)”, Maji examines the film through a range of theoretical lenses and argues the story D’Cruz tells can be seen as a metaphor for many in the community: that their displacement after migration creates a collective memory that haunts those involved and their progeny who are affected by it. Maji’s close reading of the film draws attention to the way the story is so effectively told: through the use of objects, animation technology and narrative.

Submitted independently, outside of the workshop, the next article is a critical examination of a Malayalam film, Akale, that takes up themes of representation of Anglo-Indians in regional Indian cinema. Sreelakshmi KV and Nina Caldeira’s article is titled, “The ‘Twist’ in the Transcultural Adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s Play The Glass Menagerie (1944) into Shyamaprasad’s Film Akale (2004)”, which accurately conveys the focus of their work. They examine the adaptation from play to screen, note the location of the plot moving from the US to Kerala, and an Anglo-Indian family in Akale replaces the American protagonists of The Glass Menagerie. Their critical analysis of this adaptation includes an examination of how the family are creatively portrayed as Anglo-Indian in ways that both challenge and reinforce various stereotypes.

We encourage our readers to promote the journal among their scholarly colleagues and friends.

Author Biographies

  • Robyn Andrews, Massey University

    Robyn Andrews holds a Ph.D. from Massey University in New Zealand where she is a Research Fellow and Associate Professor in social anthropology. Her 2005 Ph.D. thesis was on Calcutta’s Anglo-Indian community. She continues to research and write extensively in collaboration with other Anglo-Indian Studies scholars in various disciplines on the community in India and the diaspora. She is contactable via [email protected]

  • Brent Otto, University of California, Berkeley

    Brent Howitt Otto, S.J. is a Ph.D. candidate in South Asian History at the University of California, Berkeley. In the course of post-graduate degrees in international and global history from Columbia University and the London School of Economics, and a theological degree in Indian Church history, Brent has researched Indian Catholic education, Anglo-Indian migration and diaspora, and Christian religious identity and performance. Contactable via [email protected]

Downloads

Published

2024-12-27