It is not often that a study of ethnic integration into a larger society is performed in great quantitative detail. Yet that is what Professor Williams has done in undertaking to understand the state of integration of Anglo-Indians in three countries, India, the U.K. and North America.

His extraordinary effort has spanned 3 years and included more than 200 interviews, reference to a considerable number of authorities, the use of church marriage records and those from Anglo-Indian schools. Being an Anglo-Indian himself, he was able to avail himself of an intimacy with his interviewees that was used to great advantage.

As Professor Williams relates, Anglo-Indians have a long history in India, being the products of marriages between European (usually British) males and Indian females. Initially favored by the British colonizers with government jobs (railroad, postal, administrative, etc.), the Anglo-Indians as a group were nevertheless marginalized by both British and Indian societies, a circumstance that is only recently being ameliorated 50 years after Indian independence. After independence (1947), fearing loss of social and economic status, about half the Anglo-Indian community emigrated to the U.K. and North America where their state of integration is carefully detailed.

The author provides a powerful analytical tool by enumerating 15 different social factors that either determine or reflect the state of Anglo-Indian integration in each country, or strongly influence it, by using quantitative data to base his conclusions on. It is here that the strength of his approach manifests itself --- no matter what outward appearances might suggest, the hard information provided by inter-marriage rates, numbers and ethnicity of friends, levels of economic status, and many others leave little to idle speculation.

The conclusions Professor Williams arrives at on the state and quality of integration in current India, on the one hand, and the U.K. and North America on the other proves to be interesting and absorbing. The insights the author brings to the study in explaining the various results are knowledgeable and compelling.

This detailed investigation of generational changes in the integration status of Anglo-Indians in the several places will be of interest, not only to Anglo-Indians, but to all those who are interested in social studies on the assimilation of minorities

Nat Levine,
Retired Director Bell Laboratories, USA. May 2002

Note: The gross proceeds of all sales goes to CTR a charity helping Anglo-Indians in India
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