ANGLO-INDIAN SPECULATIONS
2020 - PRESENT
This body of work had its inception in the everchanging stories I had been told by my Anglo Indian grandma about our european heritage: That we had been decesndents of Joan of Arc; French royalty; Portuguese elite. Whilst I was enticed by these tales, I wanted to know the truth and to be able to communicate clearly the unusual and often eccentric community that I was born into. However, over the course of research, interviews and making I have been driven to revisit my definition of truth to be one that is more fluid, that doesnt dismiss the fantastical and instead embraces truth as something multifaceted, shifting and deeply personal.
Anglo Indians are a mixed raced community born out of over 450 years of European colonialism in India. Their place in society has fluctuated over that time; as intermarrige between English nationals and indigenous women changed from being encouraged to taboo. Anglo Indians, a stateless community, formed a distinct identity that was highly anglicised but removed from the English. My family were part of a railway community who lived in colonies attached to stations which they operated. After the severage of partition in 1949, the Anglo Indian community lost their place in society and many emigrated across the commonwealth as did my father and his family. Since then, a sense of fading has been felt as the diaspora had tried to stay connected but is gradually becoming lost to history.
My work concerns itself with this sense of fading memory, the desire to record, retain and understand something so formless as a community without a state. Whilst being highly connected to this subject through my family, I find it is endlessly fascinating as I delve further into the complexities of race, class and identity that it presents.
Anglo Indians are a mixed raced community born out of over 450 years of European colonialism in India. Their place in society has fluctuated over that time; as intermarrige between English nationals and indigenous women changed from being encouraged to taboo. Anglo Indians, a stateless community, formed a distinct identity that was highly anglicised but removed from the English. My family were part of a railway community who lived in colonies attached to stations which they operated. After the severage of partition in 1949, the Anglo Indian community lost their place in society and many emigrated across the commonwealth as did my father and his family. Since then, a sense of fading has been felt as the diaspora had tried to stay connected but is gradually becoming lost to history.
My work concerns itself with this sense of fading memory, the desire to record, retain and understand something so formless as a community without a state. Whilst being highly connected to this subject through my family, I find it is endlessly fascinating as I delve further into the complexities of race, class and identity that it presents.