An ambitious project aims to archive photographs of Anglo-Indian families

It was almost as if the audience was looking through the photographs at the people in them, said Adira Thekkuveettil, Photographer

Photography has been an integral part of the Peppin household. From the time he was six months old, Brian Peppin’s parents would take an annual snapshot of him and his elder sister. Now 66, Peppin retains his first camera, a vintage Agfa that he bought as a youth to take on the family hobby of amateur photography.

One of the photos of the siblings — two nattily dressed kids, holding each other’s hands and smiling shyly at the camera — from the mid-1950s and some of Peppin’s own collection have now made their way into a digital archive project that aims to capture the past and present of Anglo-Indians.

An exhibition of pictures curated from family albums for the project, titled the “Anglo-Indian Archives”, was held at the 11th World Anglo-Indian Reunion at Loyola College in Chennai last week.

Delhi-based photographer Dileep Prakash, whose wife is Anglo-Indian, had published a book of portraits in 2007 after photographing more than 1,000 individuals from the community across 41 cities. He was in talks with several people for nearly a decade to initiate an archival project that would digitise family albums of Anglo-Indians nationwide. Last year, the idea began to take shape after he approached Harry MacLure, who edits the quarterly magazine Anglos in the Wind.

Adira Thekkuveettil, a photographer who Prakash had taught at the National Institute of Design, also joined in. With funds from the magazine, the Australian Anglo-Indian Association and his own money, all totalling about Rs 75,000, Prakash planned to cover 10 families in Chennai to reach out to audiences at the reunion — an event staged every three years across cities in India and abroad. From October onwards, they began making field visits, recording videos and audios of family stories told by Anglo-Indians and digitising the photos from their family albums. Besides MacLure, they were mentored by novelist Irwin Allan Sealy.

Margaret Dawson (standing, right) and her friends, mid-1960s. (Margaret Dawson/The Anglo-Indian Archives)

With a handful of families from across the social ladder, they managed to gain access to hundreds of photos that spanned much of the 20th century and also covered the period till the present day.

From intimate portraits and glimpses of everyday life to events such as weddings, dances and music that the community is readily associated with, the screenings at the reunion stirred conversations and curiosity. “It was almost as if the audience was looking through the photographs at the people in them. There was an oscillation between looking at the photograph and looking through it, which was interesting,” says Thekkuveettil. She admits that for most people it is hard to see beyond the clichés of Anglo-Indians as railway folks or entertainers. So when they discussed questions of representation, Sealy alerted the photographers against looking at the community from a certain lens.

Leander Rebello and Agnes Dias, circa 1910-15. (Russell Lowe/The Anglo-Indian Archives)

Thekkuveettil was fascinated with photos of youngsters, singing and dancing and appearing to inhabit the zeitgeist of the Swinging Sixties. Sealy immediately pointed out that this isn’t all there is to the community. “We then became much more conscious of having a mix of photos. We tried to break genres and mixed time periods or colour with black and white,” Thekkuveettil says.

The history of Anglo-Indians is linked to the British rule in India. Members of the community are of mixed British and Indian descent. The president of India nominates two representatives of the community in the Lok Sabha, and they also have a single nominated member in several state assemblies as they aren’t native to any state in particular. Their population in India is estimated to be anywhere between 100,000 and 200,000.

Prakash says the main reason for archiving their photos is that nobody has written Anglo-Indian history properly. Stereotypes in mass media have been rampant, with stock characters such as villains, vamps or drunkards reinforcing a certain image through movies until recent decades. However, with our society becoming more westernised, it has made the community less distinguishable culturally.

The reverse is also true. Peppin recalls that during last Christmas, at his neighbourhood church in the Anglo-Indian colony of Veteran Lines in Pallavaram, he was the only one in a white veshti and shirt. Being an Anglo-Indian is about having a freedom that some others may not have. “There are no restrictions. I chose my own bride. My three sons have chosen their own paths, too. There’s no need to hide who you really are. That kind of freedom is accepted by Anglo-Indians in general,” he says.

Prakash points out that due to our prejudices, we tend to forget some vital contributions of the Anglo-Indians. “The English you and I speak is not British English but the Anglo-Indian demotic. They are the ones who taught us English in the first place.”

Brian Jr’s birthday party, Chennai, late 1970s. (Brian and Helena Peppin/The Anglo-Indian Archives)

Within the community, writings have been more nostalgic than ones that offer a historical perspective, as identity issues have not been looked at, he adds. So he plans to open up the project for researchers as a visual source of primary information. “Ultimately it should go online. Anybody should be able to upload on to the website.”

Both Prakash and Thekkuveettil are clear that they do not want to be at the forefront, but hope the project will be carried forward by young Anglo-Indians with the ownership of the archive finally resting with the community. To generate more interest, they are also planning to show the projections at cultural centres in New Delhi. They will also apply for funding, which they say is extremely difficult to get in India.

Bridget White Kumar, an author and expert on Anglo-Indian cuisine, says photographs are the best way one can preserve a culture.

“This is heritage that could be passed on to the younger generation. There is a lack of awareness,” she says. “The older generation, which studied in schools that had Anglo-Indian teachers, were familiar with our culture. But the younger generation really doesn’t know about us.”

MacLure feels the archive, which was noticed by a sizeable non-Anglo-Indian crowd at the reunion, will bring awareness as “we are a dying community in the eyes of scholars”. He hopes the legislators will get involved to help expand its scope.

While descriptions such as “fun-loving” sit comfortably with Anglo-Indians, the cross-bred community has for long grappled with the question of identity. This has led to waves of migration in the past. The diaspora is today spread across countries that include the UK, Australia, Canada and the US.

Pamela Rodrigues (nee Julian), Chennai, 1970s. (Malcolm Rodrigues/The Anglo-Indian Archives)

MacLure says after Independence, panic gripped the Anglo-Indians as they feared losing jobs after being treated for long as second only to the ruling British. But the Constitution ensured them equal opportunity. “Earlier, migration was a necessity. Now, it’s a choice,” he says, adding that from the railways, customs and excise, post and telegraph, and teaching, they have ventured into areas like information technology and oil.

Anglo-Indians remain a closely-knit community that is holding on to its culture in India. The younger members, especially those who were born and live abroad, tend to marry outside the community more. Worldwide, their population is estimated to be around 500,000. MacLure sees the Anglo-Indians abroad becoming a dying tribe. “The older people are nostalgic for the motherland as they were born here. But for the younger ones, visiting India is more of an obligation.”

At the reunion, the majority of the expats were elderly. Yet, within a week’s itinerary, they managed to slot in three dances. MacLure explains: “We are a fun-loving community. We do not have any political agenda and are very law-abiding. Of course, at the drop of a hat we like to have a dance.”