Book Review: Beyond the Metros: Anglo-Indians in India’s Smaller Towns and Cities

Abstract

This edited book with a foreword by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay is the outcome of New Zealand India Research Institute project funding to focus on the Anglo-Indian community’s life experiences beyond metropolitans. It aimed to de-stereotype the image of the ethnic religio-cultural minority, who are prominently seen as standing testimony to exotic speech, dress, food and lifestyle. A further attempt has been made to question the constitutional ‘homogenized’ definition of the community. This book deployed ‘pluralism’ (foreword p. ix) to theoretically study the minority group. As Sekhar Bandyopadhyay wrote about the central argument, “…there is no single authentic version of an Anglo-Indian, despite a single constitutional definition” (p.viii).