‘Preparing Children of Colonialism for a Postcolonial Future’: A Comparison of Orphanages for Eurasians in the Dutch East Indies, British India, and French Indochina during the Decolonisation Period, 1930–1975

Abstract

In most colonies children of mixed European and indigenous origin were a concern for colonial authorities, who feared that if these children were abandoned by their European fathers they could harm white prestige, and with that endanger the colonial project. This article compares European-run orphanages in the Dutch East Indies, British India and French Indochina on the eve of decolonisation. At that time, the leaders of the orphanages and the older children in all three colonies faced a dilemma: should the Eurasian children leave or stay after decolonisation? In this article I look at how the orphanages dealt with the impending decolonisation, and how differences in this process between the colonies can be explained. I answer these questions by using archival material from orphanages in the three colonial contexts. I conclude that the differences between the contexts were explained best by the type of legal position Eurasians had in each colony.