The term Anglo-Indians, I assumed, referred to people with mixed Indian and British ancestry, an identifiable community of mixed ancestry. The Anglo-Indians formed a significant minority of the population during the British Raj, and were well represented in the British East India Company and subsequent colonial institutions. During the British centuries, the children born to British men and Indian women (and largely not vice versa) began to form a new and proud community. They spoke English, were vigorously Christian, and their traditions, cuisine and clothing were European. While most of them married within their own Anglo-Indian circle, there were many who continued to marry expatriate Englishmen. Very few married Indians. Many thanks to Margaret Deefholts for Who Are The Anglo-Indians?
Top image: J Lockwood Kipling and his son Rudyard, 1889
photo credit: Bateman's Museum
When India gained independence in 1947 and the British left for home, 800,000+ people of mixed European and Indian descent remained. Many traced their ancestry from a British paternal line going back to the 18th or C19th, while others claimed French, Dutch or Portuguese ancestry. Yet The Folio Society and others routinely called Rudyard Kipling and his parents Anglo-Indian, even though they were all British. So who was correct?
Lockwood Kipling was born in North Yorkshire, son of Rev Joseph Kipling, and given a sound Methodist education in boarding school. Lockwood's wife Alice MacDonald was one of the Four Famous MacDonald Sisters, amongst 11 children of Wesleyan Methodist minister, Rev George B MacDonald. One sister Georgiana married the famous painter Edward Burne-Jones. Another, Agnes, married the famous painter Edward Poynter. Louisa was the mother of Stanley Baldwin, the famous Conservative Prime Minister of Britain three times in the 1920s and 1930s.
Lockwood met Alice while working in Burslem Staffordshire in 1863, but they didn't have enough income to marry straight away. Only when Lockwood got a job as a lecturer in architectural sculpture at Jeejeebhoy School of Art Bombay in 1865, could the young Kiplings marry and move to India. As far as I know, no-one in either side of the family had ever lived and worked in India before. Later Lockwood Kipling was appointed the Principal of Mayo School of Arts in Lahore (then in India) and also became curator of the original Lahore Museum. Lockwood Kipling retired in 1893 and the couple returned to Britain.
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was the writer who, more than anyone, moulded British perceptions of imperial and exotic India. He was born in Bombay and baptised in that city's colonial Protestant heart, St Thomas Anglican Cathedral. Young Rudyard also admired Bombay’s Victoria and Albert Museum as a young lad, possibly taken by his nanny.
Yet Rudyard did not live in India for long. He stayed there with his parents until he was 6. During these formative years, Rudyard spoke Hindi as well as English. In 1871 Rudyard and his younger sister Alice were sent to live in England, fostered badly by a Portsmouth couple who took in children of British nationals living in India. Fortunately the two children had relatives in England they could visit for a month every Christmas.
At the end of school, Rudyard could not get into Oxford on a scholarship and his parents lacked the money to support him; so Lockwood Kipling got a job for his son in Lahore. In 1882 the teenager sailed to Bombay, then travelled by train to Lahore and became assistant editor of a small local newspaper, Civil & Military Gazette.
a beautiful church in Bombay (now Mumbai)
The Punjab Exhibition Hall/Tollinton Market in Lahore was originally intended as a temporary structure in The Mall, built for Governor Robert Montgomery’s Exhibition of Arts and Industry in 1864. But the building soon housed the Lahore Museum, until 1890. Since the museum's curator during the 1870s and 1880s was J Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard often visited. This building became the model for the Ajaib Ghar house of Wonders, in the later novel "Kim".
In summer 1883, Kipling visited Simla, beloved hill station and summer capital of British India. Even the Viceroy of India and government moved to Simla each summer, for ruling and relaxing. Rudyard and his parents returned to Simla each year from 1885-8, and the town figured prominently in many of the stories Kipling was writing for the Gazette. In particular he loved the Gaiety Theatre, a classic of Victorian architecture that also included a library, a hall for British parties and exhibitions, and a police station.
Young Kipling was transferred to the Gazette's larger sister newspaper, The Pioneer, in Allahabad. But in early 1889, The Pioneer ended Kipling’s contract (why?) He received six-months' salary in lieu of notice and decided to use the money to return to London, the centre of the literary universe. In Mar 1889, Kipling left India, travelling to USA and Canada via important Asian cities.
The Punjab Exhibition Hall/Tollinton Market in Lahore was originally intended as a temporary structure in The Mall, built for Governor Robert Montgomery’s Exhibition of Arts and Industry in 1864. But the building soon housed the Lahore Museum, until 1890. Since the museum's curator during the 1870s and 1880s was J Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard often visited. This building became the model for the Ajaib Ghar house of Wonders, in the later novel "Kim".
In summer 1883, Kipling visited Simla, beloved hill station and summer capital of British India. Even the Viceroy of India and government moved to Simla each summer, for ruling and relaxing. Rudyard and his parents returned to Simla each year from 1885-8, and the town figured prominently in many of the stories Kipling was writing for the Gazette. In particular he loved the Gaiety Theatre, a classic of Victorian architecture that also included a library, a hall for British parties and exhibitions, and a police station.
Young Kipling was transferred to the Gazette's larger sister newspaper, The Pioneer, in Allahabad. But in early 1889, The Pioneer ended Kipling’s contract (why?) He received six-months' salary in lieu of notice and decided to use the money to return to London, the centre of the literary universe. In Mar 1889, Kipling left India, travelling to USA and Canada via important Asian cities.
Having been in India from 1865-71 and from 1882-8, Rudyard Kipling never returned to India again. He married Carrie Balestier (1862-1939) in 1892 and their absolutely favourite home was in East Sussex. When they bought the estate in 1902, it already had 33 acres of land, a river, an old working mill, out-buildings, orchards and wild gardens. They bought more land as Rudyard Kipling made more money from his book sales and prize money, and the pond, rose garden and the yews were soon laid out according to his dream. With their three children, this was their heaven on earth.
I acknowledge that Rudyard’s colonialist reputation remains controversial for post-colonial writers in India & elsewhere. George Orwell called Kipling as a prophet of British imperialism, a man so devoted to duty, service and Empire that his writing was bound to be full of prejudice, racism and a total belief in Britain’s military correctness. After all, Orwell said, look at The White Man's Burden (1899)!
Orwell was half right. Regardless of where Kipling was born, he was a British man totally devoted to colonial service and literature. That his books are filled with the sights and smells of India, the bazaars and animals, made his literary contribution more empathetic to Indian culture, not less.
I acknowledge that Rudyard’s colonialist reputation remains controversial for post-colonial writers in India & elsewhere. George Orwell called Kipling as a prophet of British imperialism, a man so devoted to duty, service and Empire that his writing was bound to be full of prejudice, racism and a total belief in Britain’s military correctness. After all, Orwell said, look at The White Man's Burden (1899)!
Orwell was half right. Regardless of where Kipling was born, he was a British man totally devoted to colonial service and literature. That his books are filled with the sights and smells of India, the bazaars and animals, made his literary contribution more empathetic to Indian culture, not less.
19 comments:
With a little knowledge, I think in earlier days of The Raj British in India were referred to as Anglo Indian, but like you I think of them as mixed race. Perhaps racist, perhaps paternalistic but I think so many British in India were decent people with honourable intentions. Many Anglo Indians regretted the British leaving and they lost their privileged status in the country, which was rather to Australia's advantage when they emigrated here.
Why would the British want to move to India for the rest of their careers during the Raj? They would probably never see their parents again and their children would be sent home to boarding school. Very lonely.
Andrew
it is difficult, isn't it. The East India Company was interesting only in its commercial successes and in its share holders at home. Following the Government of India Act of 1858, the Company's Indian possessions and armies were all taken over by the British Crown. Only thus could the rule of India shift from commercial directors of a profit-making company to the Secretary of State for India. Direct imperial rule of India by the British state was seen as more fair and less punitive by lots of Indians, nod.
Deb
Many young men, whose careers were not easily taking off in Britain, thought the Raj would offer them a much better chance of career progress, higher salaries and better housing. They would also have an excellent social life in the private British clubs in India.
I don't think they were focusing on the moral responsibility for Britons to take up The White Man's Burden.
Bom dia. Parabéns pela excelente matéria. Aulas de história são maravilhosas.
Luiz
oh I agree :) I loved working as a psychologist for the first 20 years of my career but eventually it was enough. So I went back to uni in 1990 and did what I really should have done the first time around: history and art history :) The money is psychology was excellent while the money in university and TAFE lectures were crappy, but I am so glad for the change
Hello Hels, Let's not forget Kipling's years in Vermont, where many of his most famous stories, including The Jungle Books and Captains Courageous, originated. Last summer in Ohio I read a volume of Kipling's Indian short stories, but in many the dialect was so thick that it affected my enjoyment (and at times even my understanding) of the stories. I also just finished E.V. Lucas's essays about his stay in India. Lucas was more of an observer and a privileged visitor, but his writings in the early 1900's presage many of the changes in sensibility that were to take place, not only politically but also environmentally.
--Jim
In Orwell's essay on Rudyard Kipling (published in 'Critical Essays') he damns Kipling in even stronger language than you quote. For example: "It is no use pretending that Kipling's view of life, as a whole, can be accepted or even forgiven by any civilised person. … Kipling is a jingo imperialist, he is morally insensitive and aesthetically disgusting."
But, being Orwell, he isn't content to leave it at that. He perceived that the charge of Fascism levelled at Kipling was unjust: "… the first clue to any understanding of Kipling, morally or politically, is the fact that he was not a Fascist. He was further from being one than the most humane or the most 'progressive' person is able to be nowadays. … Kipling's outlook is pre-Fascist. He still believes that pride comes before a fall and that the gods punish hubris. He does not foresee the tank, the bombing plane, the radio and the secret police, or their psychological results. … But because he identifies himself with the official class, he does possess one thing which 'enlightened' people seldom or never possess, and that is a sense of responsibility. The middle-class Left hate him for this quite as much as for his cruelty and vulgarity."
The whole essay is well worth reading and gives one a rounded feel for Kipling as a writer, an extinct political animal, and in many ways an outsider in India – perhaps it was the last of these that enabled him to see India with fresh eyes.
Parnassus
Kipling spent a lot of his life travelling, in his early life because he had no choice, or during his career for pleasure. I wonder how much his time spent in the USA, Australia, Japan etc.. influenced his thinking and his writing. As totally enjoyable as his life in Vermont was, he left the U.S because of the anti-British feelings that surrounded him.
Thanks for the Lucas reference. I only know his cricket writings.
thoatsworld
Thank you for presenting an in depth analysis of Orwell's writings about Kipling. But on those grounds, Orwell would have thoroughly disliked all the politicians, administrators and nobility in Britain. Being totally devoted to duty, service and Empire was what young men learned from their parents, boarding schools, universities and churches.
I will go back and read the Orwell essay again.
Eric Arthur Blair was ill-positioned to cast the first stone. That Indian-born son of Deputy opium inspector, second class, became a Burmese imperial policeman possibly pen-named after the good shop Orwell that plied the briny back in the day, George lamented in "What is Fascism" that "fascism," which clearly meant christian socialism then and now, could not be defined in print. Even today the bald facts elicit from religious conservatives only a hardening of stubborn hatred rather than any glimmer of comprehension. Socialists, aghast with indignation, go off on hairsplitting tangents as to why socialism and a heavily-mixed economy are as far apart as the poles asunder--to them.
Hank
it is fascinating how Kipling's and Orwell's lives were similar, yes. Orwell was the grandson of a British clergyman, born in India as the son of a permanent member of the Indian Civil Service. He too was taken back to the UK to be educated, and despite financial problems, was sent to a boarding school. When getting into a uni became problematic, his parents chose for him to join the Imperial Police in British colony etc.
Many decades later, I now remember that in high school English, one of our compulsory books was Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)!
I revisited this post to check your reply to my comment and I was astonished to learn Kipling had visited Australia. When? What was his view? Google is my friend and what comes up first but your terrific Kipling post from 2011.
Andrew
I have been writing regular lecture notes since 1992 and regular blog posts since 2008. So whenever I come back to favourite topics, I have to check that the material is not too similar to earlier published material. Yes Kipling referred to his Australian experiences many times later, but I had completely forgotten about the book Kipling Down Under: Rudyard Kipling's visit to Australia: 1891.
I blame the pandemic... Joe blames my old age.
We should view historical figures in the context of their times rather than transporting them into current times and thinking.
CherryPie
I half agree. To understand a writer etc properly, we have to understand his or her own era. In great detail.
To be able to read his or her writing today, or to give it to our children, we have to be aware of changes in community and family values over the centuries, and across different societies. Plus I wonder if we face a slight additional problem when the writing has been translated from its original language.
Hi Hels - I remember Kipling's Jungle Book stories et al ... but I really should read up more about him ... Burwash - his house here in Sussex I often used to visit ... delightful place - and the stories of Carrie's and his life there. I must get reading as I've some other books about him - I'll get to read them someday! I've posted a few posts on Burwash and Kipling over the years. I knew some of your article ... but not the broader view. Going to India was the thing to do in the mid-1800 and early 1900s - I've a few relatives who spent time there. You've given us all something to think about ... stay safe - Hilary
Love India or leave India is the modern motto. Fortunately, many mixed-race people have chosen to leave for redefining their own identity and for avoiding the deep hate that Indians have towards the quisling tendencies of many of them before and after independence.
Anonymous
I was thinking of that today when on Melbourne's news service, they were discussing the issues involved in bring Indian students out to do post-graduate degrees in Australian Universities. "Avoiding the deep hate" is sadly very harsh, sooooo many decades after independence.
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