The British diaspora in India, though comprising only 37,700 British nationals in 2006,[1] has had a significant impact due to the effects of British colonialism. The mixing between Britons and native Indians also gave rise to the Anglo-Indian community.[2]
History
editPre-colonial era
editIn the centuries before the "Second" British Empire, the motives of British individuals arriving in India generally centred around gaining wealth.[3] One example of contemporary British views of India can be found in Shakespeare's writings, whose mentions of India paint a picture of a mysterious, wealthy land.[4][5]
When the East India Company, formed in 1600, began to trade with Indians, its officials generally showed respect towards Indian society, though in some cases they may have suppressed their criticisms as a way of facilitating trade.[6] Britons who went to India in this time period were apt to learn the local culture, as they were coming from a weaker polity and generally were only able to marry Indian women;[3][7] British women were initially banned in Company settlements, being seen as distractions. British women started to come to India after the 1661 British acquisition of Bombay because of the need to populate the islands.[8] They came in much greater numbers after the 1869 completion of the Suez Canal, which enabled a faster journey between Britain and India; by then, British men's dalliances with the local "bibis" were seen as improper, and were being expunged from official records of earlier generations.[9]
Colonial era
editTwo centuries of effort and achievement, lives given on a hundred fields, far more lives given and consumed in faithful and devoted service to the Indian people themselves. All this has earned us rights of our own in India.
Winston Churchill (1931), [1]
As the Company came to rise in Indian politics, a greater level of contemptuousness became apparent amongst Britons,[6] and they came to isolate themselves to a substantial extent from the local population.[10] The failed 1857 Rebellion played a role in encouraging tensions and racism, as it increased fear of the locals.[11] The rise of evangelicalism also contributed.[8][12] By 1921, at the peak of the British Empire, 20,000 civil and military personnel had established themselves in India.[1]
The British related their exploits in India to those of classical empires; they saw themselves as inheriting the Greco-Roman heritage, and compared their efforts in civilising India to those of the Romans in ancient Britain.[13] On the whole, they did not seek to settle on a permanent basis or to own land; as late as the 1860s, there were even arguments against opening up the sale of "waste" land, because it might encourage excessive European immigration.[14]
Contemporary era
editIndia's 1947 independence from British rule saw the departure of British troops; the last regiment left in February 1948.[15]
Culture
editCuisine
editFood played a role in how the British adapted to the local climate; a variety of "sick food" guides were available. To counter the high rate of death to tropical disease, Britons used the medicinal quinine; however, to mask its taste, they would mix it with soda and sugar, giving rise to "tonic water", a natural complement to gin.[16]
Sport
edit
During the Raj, soldiers would play British sports as a way of maintaining fitness, since the mortality rate for foreigners in India was high at the time, as well as to maintain a sense of Britishness; in the words of an anonymous writer, playing English sports was a way to "defend themselves from the magic of the land".[18]
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ a b "37,700 British nationals living in India". Hindustan Times.
- ^ "The young Anglo-Indians retracing their European roots". 2023-02-20. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
- ^ a b "A Close-Up Look at the British Men and Women Who Ruled India". The New York Times.
- ^ Draper, John W. (1953). "Shakespeare and India". Littératures. 2 (1): 1–12. doi:10.3406/litts.1953.925.
- ^ "Do you know what Shakespeare wrote about India?". India Today. 2014-04-23. Retrieved 2024-10-06.
- ^ a b Gray, Eric (2019-01-01). "A People So Different from Themselves: British Attitudes Towards India and the Power Dynamics of the East India Company". Murray State Theses and Dissertations.
- ^ Dalrymple, William (2018-09-27). "The British in India by David Gilmour review – three centuries of ambition and experience". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-10-06.
- ^ a b "'We think British women came to India to look for husbands but they were also entrepreneurial'". The Times of India. 2020-02-22. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2024-10-05.
- ^ Adams, Jad (2018-09-05). "The British in India offers a rich and nuanced social history of empire". New Statesman. Retrieved 2024-10-06.
- ^ Marshall, P. J. (1990). "British Immigration into India in the Nineteenth Century". Itinerario. 14 (1): 25–44. doi:10.1017/S0165115300005660. ISSN 2041-2827.
- ^ "BBC - History - British History in depth: From Empire to Independence: The British Raj in India 1858-1947". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-10-05.
- ^ "The Fishing Fleet: British Debutantes Searching for Love in India". TheCollector. 2023-04-27. Retrieved 2024-10-05.
- ^ Robinson, David (2017-08-10). "The gift of civilisation: how imperial Britons saw their mission in India". The Conversation. Retrieved 2024-10-06.
- ^ Matthews, Roderick (2021-06-20). "When it comes to British rule, rich, powerful Indians were complicit every step of the way". ThePrint. Retrieved 2024-10-06.
- ^ "The British Withdrawal from India". Royal United Services Institution. Journal. 93 (571): 355–357. 1948. doi:10.1080/03071844809423389. ISSN 0035-9289.
- ^ Chatterjee, Priyadarshini (2023-04-26). "How food came to the rescue of the British in India". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2024-10-06.
- ^ Love, Adam; Dzikus, Lars (2020-02-26). "How India came to love cricket, favored sport of its colonial British rulers". The Conversation. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
- ^ Sen, Ronojoy (27 October 2015). Nation at Play: A History of Sport in India. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-53993-7.