Tracing roots: The emergence and disappearance of Dhaka's Anglo-Indians

Illustration: TBS

Back in 1961, Suchitra Sen as Rina Brown captured the Bangalee audience's imagination in the Ajoy Kar-directed movie 'Saptapadi.' Sen's character was that of an Anglo-Indian woman, the love interest of a young Bangalee Hindu played by Uttam Kumar.

However, it took another 56 years for Rina Brown to arrive on this side of the border as director Shamim Akhtar's movie 'Rina Brown' (2017) depicted the love story surrounding a Dhaka-based Anglo-Indian woman.

But before and after that, there has always been a dearth of representation of the Anglo-Indian community in Bangladesh at large in the country's mass media.

Writing about the movie against the backdrop of the Liberation War in 1971, a prominent author and anthropologist Shahaduzzaman mentioned that there was a time when a large number of Anglo Christians lived in Dhaka and Chattogram. 

But with the passage of time, this community has long been forgotten from the annals of independent Bangladesh. And so, recently, I undertook an expedition to explore the forgotten history of Dhaka's Anglo-Indian community.

As it stands, almost all the Anglo-Indians disappeared from the heart of the city nearly three decades ago but left behind a few scattered clues to reminisce about their curious past – this ranges from shaping up some unprecedented cultural phenomena to playing key roles in Dhaka's music and cinema scenes. 

In contrast, their arrival in the subcontinent remains very interesting.

The den at Dilu Road

One of the most notable, and yet the latest, Anglo-Indian communities in Dhaka was in Moghbazar's Dilu Road. 

While Dhaka's Anglo-Indians mostly lived in Old Dhaka, as well as in the Farmgate, Tejgaon and Tejkunipara vicinities, flocks of Anglo-Indians emerged in Dilu Road nearly one and a half decade after the partition in 1947.

Besides shifting from other regions of Dhaka as well as from Chattogram (another big hub of Bangladesh's Anglo-Indian community) many also came to Dilu Road from different states of India. 

"Anglo-Indians started arriving in Dilu Road in the first half of the 1960s. In fact, this area was full of Anglo-Indians in the 1960s, 1970s and well into the 1980s. 

Most of them had relatives in Indian states like West Bengal, Hyderabad and Goa. Some of them even came straight from there," recalled Rev. Asa Michael Kain, the chairman of Bangladesh Assemblies of God Church.

It should be noted that the India-based Anglo-Indians began leaving in droves in the 1950s and 1960s, dispersing throughout Commonwealth countries of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and their "motherland" United Kingdom, according to an article by Anglo-Indian Kris Griffiths on BBC.

So, a key reason behind some Anglo-Indians coming to Dhaka at that time could be attributed to their desire to live with their relatives in Dhaka.

Historian Afsan Chowdhury, who lived on Dilu Road between 1958 and 1970, also confirmed that he saw an influx of Anglo-Indians in the area in the early 1960s.

And one of the reasons behind this could be Dilu Road's proximity with some other Anglo-Indian communities outside Old Dhaka as well as the presence of several churches and English medium schools nearby.

These Anglo-Indians were mostly Catholics, but Afsan Chowdhury said, "One could easily distinguish them from the Bangalee Christians. They wore Western dresses, had a distinctive lifestyle of their own, and also they were English savvy and smart."

According to Rev. Kain, a good command of English was what put them ahead of the rest. He said, "The Anglo-Indians at that time did not have a great educational qualification. But they could speak excellent English. And, there was a high demand for this skill in the job market. So, they were hired for high-rank jobs."

Those high-rank jobs included secretarial jobs in many upscale offices including the United Nations, according to Afsan Chowdhury.

Still, they always maintained good ties with the locals of the neighbourhood. 

Aysha Kabir, currently the only Muslim teacher at the AG Church School in Eskaton, spent her childhood in Dilu Road and had acquaintances with many Anglo-Indians. 

"When I was a little girl, I didn't realise they were Christian or Anglo-Indians. Because they always behaved so well with me and considered me as their own. I shared many great memories with them in my childhood," said Kabir. 

Rev. Kain, who himself is not an Anglo-Indian but knew almost everyone in the community, owing to his role at the Church, also reiterated the same. "The Anglo-Indians were very charming and warm-hearted. In no time, they could strike a great bond with anyone and everyone," he said.

But besides this humble coexistence with the Bangalees, Anglo-Indians also had a massive cultural influence on the overall Bangalee lifestyle in Dhaka. 

Impacts on Culture

Apparently, due to their own connection with the Western world, Anglo-Indians in Dhaka were great appreciators of Western art and culture. So much so that they could also be credited for bringing in much of the Western cultural elements into the country.

"In the 1960s and early 1970s, local Anglo-Indians used to play Western instruments like piano, violin and guitar during musical shows in the iconic Hotel Shahbag," said filmmaker Shamim Akhtar, who had many Anglo-Indian friends during her days in St Francis Xavier Convent School back in 1960s and early 1970s.

The very first Western instrument shop 'Musical Mart' was also launched by the Anglo-Indians. 

But their role didn't stop just there. 

Anglo-Indian Telbert Johnson was also behind the formation of Dhaka's first music band. He had great guitar-playing skills and was one of the founding members of the band 'Iolites' – which also had Fazle Rob, Khaja Sabbir and Alamgir Haque as band members.

Telbert was a friend of historian Hashem Sufi, as they both used to live in Puran Dhaka's Rokonpur neighbourhood. "Telbert's mother at that time was a teacher of Willes Little Flower School, one of the first English medium schools in Dhaka. Later she went on to become the principal of the school,'' Hashem Sufi said.

Like most other Anglo-Indians, Telbert too could not speak Bangla well and used English as his primary medium of communication. "I could speak English. So, I was probably the only same-age friend of Telbert's in the entire neighbourhood," Sufi added. 

Telbert currently resides in Australia.

Meanwhile, another Anglo-Indian playing a pivotal role in the country's cultural scene is the glamorous heroine Olivia Gomez. She acted in as many as 53 movies.

Olivia also had the honour of sharing the screen with Uttam Kumar in the 1976 flick 'Banhishikha.' Notably, she is the first and only Bangladeshi heroine to work in a movie with Uttam Kumar.

Director Shamim Akhtar, a classmate of Olivia's, said, "Olivia's father probably worked in the railway, and their family resided in the railway quarter, where the Bangabazar markets are situated now.

Olivia had two sisters. One of them was named Olga, and she too was very famous at that time," Shamim added. Olivia currently lives in America.

The Anglo-Indian lifestyle in Dhaka

Anglo-Indians existed in Dhaka since the beginning of the British period.

As workers and officials under the then-British government, Anglo-Indians mostly lived in different government residential facilities of Laxmibazar, Wari, Farmgate, Tejgaon and Tejkunipara areas in their early days in Dhaka.

Though these Anglo-Indians were predominantly Catholic, they had some distinct qualities that would separate them from the Bangalee-Christians.

The main difference lay in fashion. While Bangalee-Christian women would wear shari or salwar-kameez, the Anglo-Indian girls and women wore frocks and gowns. "But in later years, Anglo-Indian women also started to wear shari like the Bangalee women,'' said filmmaker Shamim. 

The Anglo-Indians could not adapt to the local Bangalee food rather they stuck to the British cuisines. Many also liked to take out food from restaurants, eateries and bakeries instead of preparing food at home.

"The Anglo-Indians would have a heavy breakfast, a light lunch, and again, a heavy dinner. They would rely mostly on bakery items. The first English bakery in Dhaka was named Alexander," said Hashem Sufi. This way, the Anglo-Indians were instrumental in developing the restaurant and bakery culture in Dhaka. 

And to add to that, they also imported the culture of throwing birthday parties and celebrating marriage days in this part of the world.

"The family bonding among the Anglo Indians was exemplary. Whatever they did, they did as a family. They would celebrate all the religious festivities as well as birthday and marriage anniversaries flamboyantly," said Rev. Kain. 

As far as language is concerned, Anglo-Indians of the Bangladeshi region did not speak Bangla much. "They used to speak in a peculiar mixture of English and Urdu instead," said Shamim. 

In other parts of India, the Anglo-Indians also resorted to other local languages like Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi etc.

Apart from language, Anglo-Indians were not much inclusive in terms of mix-marriages either. "They would generally not marry outside their own community," said Hashem Sufi.

Who actually were the Anglo-Indians? 

A common notion regarding the Anglo-Indian term is that it refers to British-Indian parentage only. But according to historian Sirajul Islam – the chief editor of Banglapedia, when the Government of India and of Bengal officially used the term 'Anglo-Indian' in the census of 1911, they decided otherwise.

As per that census, not only the offspring of Indian mothers and British fathers but all Europeans living in Bengal in any capacity were recorded as Anglo-Indians.

And this is how the definition of Anglo-Indian has become looser in the last century or so, denoting any mixed ancestry, consisting of the Indian alongside any European races such as the British, the Dutch, the Irish, the Armenian, the Spanish or the Greek.

But of course, it was not always like that.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the mercantile members of the English nation coming to India for trade were called Anglo-Indians in Britain. Alternatively, they were also designated as 'East Indians', or 'nawabs' in case of becoming ultra-rich.

Meanwhile, the trend of mixed parentage also emerged as early as the 18th century when the British East India Company encouraged its employees to marry native Indian women to plant roots. 

They would even pay a hefty amount as well for every child born of these cross-cultural unions, wrote Kris Griffiths, who was born in West London, to a Welsh father and Anglo-Indian mother.

Over the years, this constituted a new and unique race called Anglo-Indians with a mixture of Western and Indian names, customs and complexions.

In 1921, there were 25,000 Anglo-Indians in India, with the community being highly influential both politically and economically. And in the following decades, the Anglo-Indian population saw rapid growth. 

When the British finally departed in 1947, they left behind 3,00,000 Anglo-Indians in India.

When did the Anglo-Indians first arrive in Dhaka? 

During the East India Company regime, people from Britain started coming to India to try their luck. Besides them also came many European missionaries with a view to spreading Christianity and converting the local population.

However, the existence of the Christian community in current Bangladesh could be traced back to as early as the first half of the 16th century.

Father Michael De Rosario in his book "Bangladeshe Khrishtomondolir Itihash" (The History of Christian Communities in Bangladesh) wrote that the Portuguese established colonies in Chattagram and Hugli in 1537. 

And then, in 1577, Mughal emperor Akbar gave the Portuguese permission to establish permanent settlements and churches in the then-Bengal. So the Portuguese were the first Christians in Bangladesh, and the country's current Christian nationals are, in most cases, their ancestors. 

However, according to historian Khondokar Mahmudul Hasan, the so-called Anglo-Indians (as per the definition used at that time) started arriving in Bangladesh in large numbers in the second half of the 19th century when rail transport began in this region. Primarily because many Anglo-Indians worked in the railway division.

But apart from that, the Anglo-Indian population was also involved in professions like teaching, medical practice, nursing, proofreading in newspapers, motor mechanics, etc. They were seen in the telephone-telegraph offices, on ships and steamers, and as contractors as well.

The departure of the Anglo-Indians

According to Pastor Shomir Mridha of Bethel Assembly of God Church, there could still be some Anglo-Indian families remaining on Dilu Road but the number has significantly plummeted.

"When I first came to this area [Eskaton] in 1992, there were eight-to-10 Anglo-Indian families in Dilu Road. But to my knowledge, now there are probably one or two," said Pastor Mridha. 

But the process of leaving the country kickstarted long before the 1990s. According to historian Afsan Chowdhury, the Anglo-Indians began their migration out of Dhaka in the 1980s. 

"They mostly migrated to America, Canada, Australia and England," he said.

One of the reasons behind this migration could be their inability to adapt to the atmosphere of a new country as a minority community. 

In Shamim Akhtar's movie 'Rina Brown,' the protagonist Sandra and her family had to sacrifice a lot in 1971. Later, they tried to start a new life in Bangladesh following the country's independence. But they were faced with bitter experiences. At one point, they were left with no other option but to leave the country forever.

"The movie I made was based on a true story. The real person behind the character Sandra is still alive. She lives in America now, but does not wish to recall anything regarding her traumatic past," Shamim said. 

However, another reason behind the migration could be the search for better opportunities and livelihood, claimed Rev. Kain. "As an English-speaking community, they [Anglo-Indians] were getting better opportunities abroad. So of course, many thought it was a good idea to try their luck in countries like Canada, America or Australia," he said.

"It's as simple as Bangladeshi English medium students leaving the country to study and then live permanently in the Western countries," Rev. Kain concluded.