They love their bacon, sausages and bread for breakfast. They never have enough reasons to clink some wine glasses and revel in some dance and music. They have infused life in the streets of North Madras and quiet lanes of Pallavaram, among other areas, making it their home. Meet the Anglo-Indians of Chennai whose heart beats for India.
Being accepted
“Since we speak English and have European names, a lot of people tend to think we are closer to our paternal side, which is not true. Like any other citizen, we too respect and regard India as our motherland. Just like people in different parts of India speak different languages, Anglo-Indians speak English. Most of us have also picked up the local language and have become part of the mosaic of mainstream India. Initially, it was difficult because in the 1900s, the European style of living was new to many and that created a distaste among the non-Anglo-Indians. However, now the younger generation has adapted to everything that the West does and we don’t look aliens anymore,” says Harry MacLure, editor of Anglos In The Wind, the International Anglo Indian magazine.
Reminiscing the earlier days, Helena Peppin, an Anglo-Indian residing at Pallavaram, says, “I studied at an Anglo-Indian school in Coimbatore and our style of education is a little different. Our academic year begins in January and ends in December. We had inter Anglo-Indian school sports tournaments and a subject called ‘social’ where people could gather and interact. Those were the times when boys and girls didn’t talk much to each other in the open and our way of life provoked a lot of non Anglo-Indians.”
The community suffered much name-calling — ‘half castes’, ‘black whites’, ‘Aappakari’ (they were famous for hoppers) and ‘eight annas’ (since there were 16 annas in the Indian rupee).
Blooming friendships
When Helena joined the government as central excise duty officer in Chennai in 1990s, her way of dressing and culture was always the butt of jokes and comments. “I then started wearing saris and the non Anglo-Indians slowly started to mingle. We shared meals and bonded over homemade grape wine, coconut rice and meatball curry that I made, and the tamarind rice they brought to office,” she says.
Her husband, Bryan Peppin, says, “Over the years, Anglo-Indians have successfully integrated into the mainstream Indian society and developed a western style of living influenced by Indian culture. Marriages too, between Anglos and non-Anglos, have become common.”
You have to be an Indian first when you are an Anglo, he says. “There is a community called Australian citizen Anglo-Indian community. Nobody can stay true to two countries. Though a lot of Anglo-Indians have moved to the west in the name of education and money, home is eventually India. On Independence Day, we too beam with pride when the tricolour is hoisted. We teach our children the same,” he says.
Vice president of Federation of Anglo Indian Associations in India, Augustine Roy Rozario says he has been to 16 countries so far but has never seen anyone enjoying as much freedom as in India. “Forty of us visited Israel and went to a restaurant. Though there was an ample amount of space in the main seating area, we were made to sit in the last row because they thought Indians do not know how to use a fork and knife. We had similar experiences in many places. More than anything, in our homeland we are not discriminated for aspects like these. India was, is and will be our home,” he says.