India’s Anglo-Indian community is unique in more ways than one.
They are mentioned in Article 331 of the Indian Constitution as a category by themselves. And that the President of India, or governor of a state, could nominate members to the Lok Sabha or the state legislatures, arguably because the community would in normal course not be able to elect representatives from a constituency.
The Constituent Assembly discussed the community in the Draft Article 293 on 24 August 1949, and adopted it as Article 33, dismissing all amendments.
Acting on it, Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru’s government reserved two seats for Anglo Indians in the Lok Sabha, and seats in the Assemblies of what now are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government ended this covenant through the 104th Constitution Amendment. The official explanation was that there were only 296 Anglo Indians left in the country. Without any warning, the Anglo-Indian reserved seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies were discontinued. The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on 10th December 2019 within a day.
For the first time since Independence, the Lok Sabha does not have the two Anglo Indian members it always had till 2019. The first of these was Frank Anthony, as great a lawyer as he was an educationist. A friend of both Nehru and Indira Gandhi, Anthony was intervened often in debates on constitutional issues, and in particular education policy. Prominent schools bear his name today.
The community has been shocked at this turn of events. Its leaders, and in particular Charles Dias, the only Anglo Indian member of Lok Sabha from Kerala, saying it is ridiculous that the government thinks it now numbers a few thousand only. The numbers would be in lakhs, he maintains, with concentrations in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, the Telugu speaking states of Andhra and Telugu Desam and West Bengal.
The national decadal census is supposed to settle all matters of numbers where communities, religious, ethnic, or linguistic, in the country are concerned.
The Census, which could not be held in 2021 because of the havoc of the Covid pandemic, is now scheduled for 2025. Its political ramifications are in the delimitation of constituencies preparatory for the 2029 general elections and how they will impact the religious and caste “vote banks” of major political parties.
At this moment in time, it is a moot question if “caste” will be one of the columns in the census format. But Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes have been counted in the past. So have religions, though the desegregated data has almost always been delayed by about five years with governments fearing this would aggravate the religious polarisation in the country.
Will the Census Commissioner, who is also the Registrar General of India, the factor in the singular case of the Anglo Indians in the operational format remains to be seen. Most probably he may want to wait for a signal from the political leadership.
Their unique identity is legally defined in Government of India Act, 1935, as “a person whose father or any of whose other male progenitors in the male line is or was of European descent but who is domiciled within the territory of India and is or was born within such territory of parents habitually resident therein and not established there for temporary purposes only.
Academics say Anglo-Indian history remains a largely unexplored part of modern South Asian history. “It is not the story of the coloniser and the colonised, but a group falling between the two.”
Scholars note that India’s Anglo-Indian population also remains significant in its notable contribution to sectors of the Indian economy including education, medical provision, railways and transport.
Dr Charles Dias, a former nominated MP, in an academic paper says the “Anglo-Indian” community came into being when Europeans, from the earliest period of Portuguese colonisation and in subsequent colonial regimes (French, Dutch, English), formed relationships with Indian women or women of the existing mixed-race communities in and around colonial ports, trading cities and military outposts. Over the centuries the community has gone by various names.
This community, first known as ‘Feringhi’ and thereafter as ‘Eurasian’ or ‘East Indian’, was defined and named as ‘Anglo-Indian’ first in the 1911 census, then in the Government of India Act 1935 and later after Independence included in Article 366 (2) of the Constitution of the Republic of India (1950). “Anglo-Indian” endures as the name of this Community.
This is not the place for even a snapshot of the ebb and flow of this group’s history in undivided India, and in the republic born in 1950. A fear of its growing numbers animated several proscriptive rulings by the East India Company. The British Raj enrolled them in the service of the government. Anglo-Indians saw widespread military, and para-military service during the First and Second World Wars.
The burgeoning infrastructure of India from the mid-nineteenth century, specially railways, post & telegraph and Police also became lines of employment where Anglo-Indians found a home. “Though they were frequently discriminated against by the British and denied opportunities of legitimate promotion because of their racial identity,” as Dr Dias puts it.
Sir Henry Gidney was among the first to voice the concerns of the community. It was his farsightedness to bring together various Anglo-Indian organizations into one block that could offer more strength and a unified voice. In 1926, he helped form Anglo-Indian and Domiciled European Association and took part in the Round Table Conferences. He succeeded in getting the community in the Government of India Act 1935, its representatives nominated in Central Legislative Assembly and then in the Constituent Assembly.
The existence of the Anglo-Indian community firmly rests on its cultural identity. English language has arguably been the binding force of that cultural identity. Also, the style and way of life, to a very great extent, was instrumental in keeping the uniqueness of the community.
The Federation of Anglo-Indian Associations in India has challenged the loss of representation in parliament and in the Delhi High Court. The Federation has collected the population figures and spread of Anglo-Indians in India through the constituent organizations, and says their population is estimated to be 3,47,000 plus about 50,000 more who are scattered all over the country in other States and Union Territories including Goa.
The Census should be able to confirm this. And help regain their voice in Parliament.
(John Dayal is an author, Editor, occasional
documentary film
maker and activist)