Anglo-Indian legacy slowly disappears in remote forest

Posted in Articles, Asian Diaspora, History, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, United Kingdom on 2012-01-02 23:55Z by Steven

Anglo-Indian legacy slowly disappears in remote forest

The Brunei Times
2011-12-20

Ammu Kannampilly
Mccluskieganj, India

As India inched towards independence, hundreds of mixed-race Anglo-Indians feared for their future and retreated to a self-styled homeland in a thickly forested part of the country.

Ernest McCluskie, an Indian of Scottish descent established McCluskieganj in what is now the eastern state of Jharkhand, hoping to attract Anglo-Indians anxious about the impending demise of the British empire.

Nearly 80 years on, the few colonial bungalows still standing are in disrepair, the local economy survives on the back of a single school, and McCluskieganj’s ageing residents say the “chhotta England” (little England) they grew up in has vanished forever.

Anglo-Indians prospered under British rule with access to good jobs in the railways, armed forces or as customs officers…

Read the entire article here.

Tags: , , , ,