Anglo-Indian Lives in the North West c. 1930-1947

Abstract

EXCERPT FROM:

McMenamin, Dorothy (2023). Anglo-Indian Lives in Pakistan: Interrogating Religion and Culture through the lens of Oral Histories. Lahore, Pakistan: Vanguard Publishers.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

This article is predominantly a chapter extracted from a wider research project published as Anglo-Indian Lives in Pakistan. The focus here is on the North West region commencing with the spread of the British Raj into the provinces of Punjab and Sind from c.1930 to Independence in 1947. Anglo-Indians in this region, called Pakistan since 1947, lived amongst a predominantly Muslim population compared to those in India within a majority Hindu milieu. The wider project proposed that this religio/cultural difference laid the foundations for the acceptance of mixed race Anglo-Indian families transferred into the region by the British, as compared with British and European males who arrived earlier in India and liaised with local women.  Furthermore the geographic terrain of the North West contained the two main mountain passes from Central Asia into India, inducing tolerant attitudes towards outsiders which, in turn, contributed to the higher status enjoyed by Anglo-Indians in Pakistan. To assist in understanding this article, a section from an earlier chapter of the wider project has been inserted at the beginning up until page 14 delineating the differing mentalities of Hindus and Muslims. This insertion explains fundamental attitudes within Hinduism and the entrenched cultural implications of caste in social life, particularly in relation to marriage practices, as opposed to Islamic practices which do not derive from caste heirarchies.  

Dorothy McMenamin (née DOYLE), PhD, is an independent researcher affiliated with the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, and the University of Otago, Dunedin, both in New Zealand. She was born and schooled in Pakistan. In her teens she emigrated to England, subsequently to Australia and then New Zealand. She specialized in world religions and South Asian history. She has published three books, Raj Days to Downunder (2010), Leprosy and Stigma in the South Pacific (2011) and Anglo-Indian Lives in Pakistan (2023). She is married with four children.  Dorothy may be reached by email at: [email protected]