Authors:Robyn Andrews, Brent Otto Abstract: This issue opens the twenty-second volume of the journal in the twenty-sixth year since its founding. It is fitting that this issue opens with an article addressing one of the more momentous matters in quite a few years to face the Anglo-Indians living in India: the amendment to the Constitution of India removing the guaranteed representation of the community through nominated seats in the Lok Sabha as well as the legislative assemblies of states where a significant proportion of Anglo-Indians resided. Vishwajeet Deshmukh and Ketayun Mistry of the National Law University explore the legal background of Anglo-Indian nominated seats, the arguments for the Government’s revocation of the nominated seats, as well some of the ways in which the Government and the Anglo-Indian community could arrive at a possible alternative to ensure a representative voice of the Community is heard. Recent years have seen a proliferation of literary production about or authored by Anglo-Indians, in the form of novels, short stories, and various prose and poetic forms of life-writing. Upamanyu Sengupta uses a recent autobiography by Trevor Taylor entitled The Deaf of Elvis and the Last of the Anglo-Indians: An Autobiography(2021) as a window into the identity of Anglo-Indians in diaspora, as well as the particular and unique trajectory of the life of the author himself. In his essay, Sengupta asks: To what degree can or should first-person autobiographical accounts, such as this one, be taken to portray a whole community or, perhaps, a generational and geographic subset of it' For whom and for what purpose is life-writing undertaken in the first place' Penelope Mendonça and her father, Anthony Mendonça, together offer us a review of a recent collected volume, Anglo-Indian Identity: Past and Present, in India and the Diaspora (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). They approached the book creatively, reading it together and conversing about each of the chapters, which address diverse Anglo-Indian identities over time and space, in light of their own reflection on the anchors of their own self-understandings. PubDate: 2022-04-20 Issue No:Vol. 22, No. 1 (2022)
Authors:Vishwajeet Deshmukh, Ketayun Mistry Abstract: The 104th Constitutional (Amendment) Act, 2019 to the Constitution of India discontinued the nomination of Anglo-Indians in the Indian Parliament by amending Article 334 of the Constitution. The reason for discontinuance of the nomination was that the decreased Anglo-Indian population consisted of only 296 people as per the 2011 Indian Census and that the Anglo-Indian community’s socio-economic status had significantly improved. However, the Parliament has turned a blind eye to the legislative intent of the drafters of the Indian Constitution, and Report of the Fact-Finding Team of the Ministry of Minority Affairs (2013). This article explores the efficacy of representation by nomination of the Anglo-Indian community in the Indian Parliament, and the contours of the arguments towards repeal of this reservation. The article further suggests possible alternatives to ensure democratic representation of the community to voice its needs and further development. Keywords: Anglo-Indian, representation, constitutional amendment, minority, Indian Parliament PubDate: 2022-04-20 Issue No:Vol. 22, No. 1 (2022)
Authors:Upamanyu Sengupta Abstract: The Deaf of Elvis and the Last of the Anglo-Indians: An Autobiography is a life-story by Trevor Taylor, an octogenarian Anglo-Indian who migrated to England in 1960. The author’s identity as an Anglo-Indian immigrant serves as both a theme and a backdrop against which he charts his ambitions of a career in music. I read this book to find out how the two thematic strands intersect and bring out the author’s portrait as an individual. Taylor’s narrative simultaneously embraces, but also cuts across, each aspect of his identity, whether as an Anglo-Indian, a South Asian immigrant, an aspiring artist, or a doting family man. In the process, I also examine my own expectations, preferences and practices as a reader. PubDate: 2022-04-20 Issue No:Vol. 22, No. 1 (2022)
Authors:Anthony Mendonça, Penelope Mendonça Abstract: A Review Essay: A Father and Daughter Reflect on New Scholarship About Their Ethnic Identity Anglo-Indian Identity: Past and Present, in India and the Diaspora, eds. Robyn Andrews and Merin Simi Raj, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. PubDate: 2022-04-20 Issue No:Vol. 22, No. 1 (2022)
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