The Anglo-Indian group has purpose to be miffed. It has been taken as a right as a lot within the 2023 Netflix providing The Archies as within the trope-ridden 2004 Anjan Dutta film Bow Barracks Forever. Indians who have no idea any Anglo-Indians personally have little go by aside from what’s portrayed in mass media like films and TV. Thus, Anglo-Indians appear to be doomed to be both ruthlessly stereotyped or superficially imposed to swimsuit a storyline.
The primary theme of Archie comics lends itself to desi movies: the everlasting Archie-Ronnie-Betty triangle with Jughead because the loyal wingman. That many hit movies from Bobby to Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and extra, hint their roots to this Archie triangle template could possibly be the rationale for this newest avatar. But not one of the earlier ones had gone as far as to transpose all of the names and locations—from Riverdale High to Pop Tate’s—right into a fictional Indian (and Anglo-Indian) setting.
But The Archies isn’t meant to be a movie about Anglo-Indians. That’s only a facile gadget to justify the usage of Western character names from the long-lasting American comedian sequence. The movie is supposed to be the launchpad for 3 younger Indian ‘nepo’ actors. And Indian audiences are anticipated to purchase into this grafting as a result of the characters are supposedly Anglo-Indian and therefore don’t morph into Archisman ‘Archie’ Androo, Bitiya ‘Betty’ Kapoor and Varunika ‘Ronnie’ Loje.
As Anglo-Indians are caricatured in mainstream cinema and indistinguishable from the bigger inhabitants of Christians of Goan and Mangalorean heritage for many audiences, the one vibrant spot is that The Archies steers clear of 1 set of tropes. There are not any wastrels and drunks referred to as Tom and Peter or squabbling harridans and sultry sirens named Rosie and Mabel, whose lilting English conversations are peppered with “dat bluddy bugger” and “wot men”.
But there may be egregious cultural appropriation, however. The Anglo-Indian group has been commandeered to inform a narrative that has nothing to do with it; the affiliation is superficial and at instances even gratuitous. Do names like Archie and Ronnie, carrying attire, consuming roast hen and singing alongside to a standup piano imply solely Anglo-Indians? Many Indians with out combined parentage have had such names, worn such garments, eaten roasts and sung Auld Lang Syne.
In impact The Archies presents one other set of equally inaccurate and unfair tropes concerning the group, following the hoary custom of Indian cinema, relatively than taking an knowledgeable 21st century view given the huge quantity of data now on the disposal of anybody who cares to really analysis. Which means Indian audiences stay as inadequately knowledgeable as ever. Or possibly the sport plan was certainly to benefit from their ignorance to promote an unbelievable transposition.
Ask Indians to recall a film about Anglo-Indians, probably the most cosmopolitan amongst us will say Bhowani Junction, however that was a Hollywood manufacturing starring Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger. Among Indian films, some would possibly (accurately) point out the 1975 hit Julie, with the track My Heart is Beating sung solely in English by Preeti Sagar. Bengalis might also recall Soptopodi, by which Suchitra Sen performs Rina Brown. Most can be hard-pressed to call another.
There was, in fact, Junoon, tailored from the novella A Flight of Pigeons by India’s most well-known Anglo-Indian author Ruskin Bond, starring Jennifer Kendall and Nafisa Ali as Miriam and Ruth Labadoor however it’s set in 1857. Merchant Ivory’s Cotton Mary starring Madhur Jaffrey as a scheming Anglo-Indian nurse in Kerala scarcely brought on a field workplace ripple. And the protagonist of Pradeep Krishen’s Massey Sahib is an Indian Christian, not Anglo-Indian.
Violet Stoneham (Jennifer Kendall) in Aparna Sen’s 36 Chowringhee Lane was certainly an Anglo-Indian however the eponymous Bobby (Dimple Kapadia) was not. Whether Nancy Pereira (performed by Tina Munim) within the movie Baaton Baaton Mein and her beau Tony Braganza (Amol Palekar) have been Anglo-Indian is unclear. And Konkona Sen Sharma’s A Death within the Gunj was merely set within the Anglo-Indian hill station of McCluskiegunj and doesn’t give attention to the group.
Despite all these movies being out there on OTT platforms, Anglo-Indians stay as little understood now by most Indians as they have been earlier than, and maybe even more durable to tell apart. Earlier concentrated within the ‘Presidency cities’ and railway colonies, mass migration after Independence has lowered Anglo-Indian visibility although they as soon as dominated sports activities—Leslie Claudius, Norman Pritchard and Roger Binny, to call simply three—the police, railways and instructing.
Today only a few even know the official definition of the Anglo-Indian group. Not each considered one of combined Eurasian parentage could be referred to as so; solely these people who find themselves descended from Europeans from the paternal facet. Hence, their surnames must be European: Portuguese, British, French, Dutch and Danish, the 5 nations that had arrange colonies round India and whose males comingled with native ladies over three centuries and produced mixed-race offspring.
These Eurasians shaped their very own group as they have been shunned by Indians and sidelined by Europeans, and in addition married amongst themselves. They not solely developed their very own hybrid tradition together with delicacies and customs with regional variations, however in addition they even had a definite Anglo-Indian accent—albeit not the one parodied in in style discourse. They additionally loved sure benefits through the Raj resembling preferential employment in railways and police companies.
After Independence their function in financial, cultural and social spheres diminished as their privileges disappeared; many turned segregated in pockets of cities, a big part of them migrated to Australia and the UK, and a few even “integrated”. However, the youngsters of Anglo-Indian ladies who marry Indian males are usually not thought-about “Anglo”, additional decreasing the group’s official numbers. Even their reserved seats in Parliament and 14 legislatures will go by 2030.
Right as much as the Nineteen Seventies most Indians in English medium colleges even in small cities may in all probability recall an Anglo-Indian classmate or two. School lecturers from that group have been widespread as nicely. Today, even these learning in cities with a powerful Anglo-Indian legacy like Kolkata and Mumbai would in all probability not have any from that group of their class besides in some localities. Sadly, Anglo-Indian lecturers have all however disappeared from Indian pedagogy.
All this provides as much as a group in dire want of a fillip. Of late there was a resurgence of curiosity in Anglo-Indian tradition—particularly meals—because of social media. However, there’s a homogenisation there too: many regional Anglo-Indian Christmas customs, for example, are giving method to worldwide and even Indian ones. A correct, readable historical past of the group is but to be written, and a delicate, Twenty first-century film on the group is but to be made.
By foisting a pretend Anglo-Indian story on an American template, The Archies has accomplished nothing for that depleting group. But the aim of the film was not altruistic; it was to launch three treasured star youngsters piggybacking on the perennial recognition of the Archie-Ronnie-Betty love triangle. It didn’t resort to reiterating Anglo-Indian stereotypes, however the film may have made an actual distinction given the hype it generated. Instead, it was simply D-uh, as Moose would say.
The writer is a contract author. Views expressed within the above piece are private and solely that of the writer. They don’t essentially replicate News18’s views.
