Cultural versus Social Marginality: The Anglo-Indian Case |
Cultural versus Social Marginality: The Anglo-Indian Case
Phylon (1960-)
Volume 28, Number 4 (4th Quarter, 1967)
pages 361-375
Noel P. Gist
Human history has been replete with examples of peoples destined to exist on the margin of two or more cultures. One of these marginal peoples is the Anglo-Indian community in India. This community, whose history goes back to the earliest arrivals in India of Europeans, first the Portuguese, later the Dutch and French, and finally the British, represents a racial blending resulting from conventional or unconventional unions between European men and Indian women.
In her history of the Eurasian (Anglo-Indian) group in India, Goodrich argues convincingly that a community consciousness, based upon ethnic similarities, emerged only after the British dealt categorically, not just individually, with persons of mixed European and Indian ancestry. As objects of fluctuating and inconsistent policies of acceptance and rejection, the Anglo-Indians eventually developed a protective psychological armor through a growing sense of community solidarity. By the middle of the eighteenth century they had come to think of themselves as a community apart.
This community identification has persisted to the present, though its strength has varied from one historic period to another, and indeed from one individual to another. For most Anglo-Indians the community provides a psychological and social refuge in a society that has never fully accepted them. Many are proud to be identified with the community and as dedicated members work diligently for the common weal. But there are others who apparently take little pride in being Anglo-Indians and who try to conceal their ethnic identity if it is considered a handicap.
Perhaps the first sociologist to deal conceptually with marginality was Robert E. Park, whose ideas were later elaborated and systematized by Everett Stonequist. In the initial formulation of the theory of…
Tags: Anglo-Indians, India, Noel Gist, Noel P. Gist, Phylon (1960-)