Domicile and Diaspora RGS-IBG Book Series TheRoyalGeographicalSociety(withtheInstituteofBritishGeographers)BookSeriesprovidesa forumforscholarlymonographsandeditedcollectionsofacademicpapersattheleadingedge ofresearchinhumanandphysicalgeography.Thevolumesareintendedtomakesignificant contributionstothefieldinwhichtheylie,andtobewritteninamanneraccessibletothe widercommunityofacademicgeographers.Somevolumeswilldisseminatecurrentgeograph- icalresearchreportedatconferencesorsessionsconvenedbyResearchGroupsoftheSociety. SomewillbeeditedorauthoredbyscholarsfrombeyondtheUK.Allaredesignedtohavean international readership and to both reflect and stimulate the best current research within geography. Thebookswillstandoutintermsof: . thequalityofresearch . theircontributiontotheirresearchfield . theirlikelihoodtostimulateotherresearch . beingscholarlybutaccessible. Forseriesguidesgotowww.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/rgsibg.pdf Published Forthcoming DomicileandDiaspora:Anglo-IndianWomenandtheSpatial Living Through Decline: Surviving in the Places of the PoliticsofHome Post-IndustrialEconomy AlisonBlunt HuwBeynonandRayHudson GeographiesandMoralities TheGeomorphologyofUplandPeat RogerLeeandDavidM.Smith MartinEvansandJeffWarburton MilitaryGeographies PublicsandtheCity RachelWoodward KurtIveson ANewDealforTransport? DrivingSpaces EditedbyIainDochertyandJonShaw PeterMerriman GeographiesofBritishModernity GeochemicalSedimentsandLandscapes EditedbyDavidGilbert,DavidMatlessand DavidNashandSusanMcLaren BrianShort Fieldwork LostGeographiesofPower SimonNaylor JohnAllen NaturalResourcesinEasternEurope GlobalizingSouthChina ChadStaddon CarolynL.Cartier PuttingWorkfareinPlace PeterSunley,RonMartinandCorinneNativel GeomorphologicalProcessesandLandscapeChange:Britainin theLast1000Years AftertheThreeItalies:Wealth,InequalityandIndustrialChange EditedbyDavidL.HiggittandE.MarkLee MickDunfordandLidiaGreco Domicile and Diaspora Anglo-Indian Women and the Spatial Politics of Home Alison Blunt (cid:1)2005byAlisonBlunt blackwell publishing 350MainStreet,Malden,MA02148-5020,USA 9600GarsingtonRoad,OxfordOX42DQ,UK 550SwanstonStreet,Carlton,Victoria3053,Australia The right of Alison Blunt to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordancewiththeUKCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem, ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, withoutthepriorpermissionofthepublisher. Firstpublished2005byBlackwellPublishingLtd 1 2005 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Blunt,Alison. Domicileanddiaspora:Anglo-Indianwomenandthespatialpoliticsof home/AlisonBlunt. p.cm.—(RGS-IBGbookseries) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN-13:978-1-4051-0054-0(hardcover:alk.paper) ISBN-10:1-4051-0054-0(hardcover:alk.paper) ISBN-13:978-1-4051-0055-7(pbk.:alk.paper) ISBN-10:1-4051-0055-9(pbk.:alk.paper) 1. Women, Anglo-Indian—History—20th century. 2. Women, Anglo-Indian—Social conditions—20th century. 3. Anglo-Indians—Race identity. 4. Anglo-Indians—Ethnic identity.5.Anglo-Indians—Migrations—History—20thcentury.I.Title.II.Series. 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Forfurtherinformationon BlackwellPublishing,visitourwebsite: www.blackwellpublishing.com For Mark Contents List of Figures x Series Editors’ Preface xi Acknowledgements xii 1 Domicile and Diaspora An Introduction 1 Domicile 5 Diaspora 10 Home, Memory andNostalgia 12 Methodology 16 Chapter Outline 21 2 At Home in British India: Imperial Domesticity and National Identity 23 ImperialDomesticity 24 Nationalist Domesticity 27 Domicile and Domesticity 30 ‘Land of Our Mothers’ 41 Home, Identity and Nationality 43 Conclusions 50 3 Home, Community and Nation: Domesticating Identity and Embodying Modernity 52 Domesticating Identity 52 Embodying Modernity 59 viii CONTENTS Domestic Transgression 65 Home,Communityand Nation 69 Conclusions 70 4 Colonization and Settlement: Anglo-Indian Homelands 72 Homelands and Settlements 74 Anglo-IndianColonizationandSettlement 78 Colonizing McCluskieganj 82 Anglo-IndianHome-Making 90 Dreamsof the Future 96 McCluskieganjToday 98 Conclusions 102 5 Independence and Decolonization: Anglo-Indian Resettlement in Britain 105 Migration andResettlement 106 Britishness, WhitenessandMixed Descent 113 Documenting Paternity and Recolonizing Identity 118 Unsettled Domesticity 124 Embodied Identities andthe Limits of Familiarity 130 Conclusions 137 6 Mixed Descent, Migration and Multiculturalism: Anglo-Indians in Australia since 1947 139 Anglo-Indians in WhiteAustralia 142 HMASManoora 147 Anglo-IndianMigration in the wake of HMASManoora 148 From ‘Race’to‘Culture’ 152 From White Australiato Multiculturalism 161 Anglo-Indians in MulticulturalAustralia 164 Conclusions 172 7 At Home in Independent India: Post-Imperial Domesticity and National Identity 175 Stayingon in India 176 Nationality and Community 179 Anglo-IndianWomen in Independent India 185 CONTENTS ix Dress 185 Home and Work 189 Marriage 192 Conclusions 200 8 Domicile and Diaspora: Conclusions 203 Appendix1 ArchivalSources 211 Appendix2 Interviews and Focus Groups 215 Notes 219 Bibliography 260 Index 278 Figures 1.1 Map of the Indian subcontinent 2 1.2 Loreto St Agnes,Lucknow 20 1.3 Dow Hill School, Kurseong 21 1.4 Dow Hill girls,homeward bound, 1950 22 2.1 TiledBusti in Entally,Calcutta 37 2.2 Scene in Entally,Calcutta 38 3.1 ‘Women in the WAC(I)enjoying‘‘timeoff’’ between lectures, 1944’ 63 3.2 ‘A group of happy WAC(I) women in the lounge of their mess’ 64 3.3 An Anglo-Indianwedding in Lucknow in the early 1940s 66 4.1 Cover illustration of the Colonization Observer,April 1934 85 4.2 McCluskieganjas mooluk and‘home,sweet home’ 88 4.3 McCluskieganjas mooluk 89 4.4 The ‘grit’ of pioneers atMcCluskieganj 92 4.5 Images of women at McCluskieganj 95 4.6 Abungalow atMcCluskieganj today 99 4.7 Aruined bungalowat McCluskieganj 100 6.1 The arrivalof HMAS Manooraat Fremantle, Western Australia, 15 August 1947 140 6.2 Anglo-Indians on board HMAS Manoora 141 6.3 An Anglo-Indianfamilyon board HMASManoora 142 6.4 Anglo-Indians on board HMAS Manoora 143 6.5 Selectionof the MayQueen at the LucknowClub 157 6.6 The crowning of the May Queen atthe Lucknow Club, 1957, by the wife of the principal of La Martiniere Boys’ School 158 6.7 The Australian Anglo-Indian Association Cultural Centre, Padbury,Western Australia 169