Introduction

Abstract

Abstract Introducing readers to the mixed-race group officially designated as Anglo-Indians since 1911 (and previously referred to as Eurasians, East Indians, Indo-Britons or, more pejoratively as "half-castes"), the chapter begins with the internationally famous examples of film stars Merle Oberon and Boris Karloff. The prism of their respective film careers highlights how changes of name and passing as white or European was one major strand of the wider experience of this group. The intertwined social, economic, and political position of the mixed in colonial India is then drawn out through a discussion of cinematic, televisual, and literary depictions of the Anglo-Indian dilemma towards the end of empire--caught between imperialism and nationalism--particularly through the film adaptation of John Masters' novel Bhowani Junction. Anglo-India as an imagined space within British India or "the Raj" is explored in relation to the external stereotypes and internal realities of Anglo-Indian monarchism, empire loyalism, identification with Britishness, and loyalty to Britain as an imagined homeland which, through migration, offers one possible route of escape, in the face of decolonisation and the looming threat of aggrieved and vengeful anticolonial Indian nationalism. An overview of existing literature on and by Anglo-Indians is followed by detailed book chapter summaries.