Mrs Val Anderson
BA Hons (OPEN), MSc (OPEN)
Overview
- Name:
- Mrs Val Anderson
- Email address:
- 209457@soas.ac.uk
- Thesis title:
- The Eurasian 'Problem' in nineteenth Century India
- Year of Study:
- 3
Biography
I am interested in people who didn't fit the binary model of 19C colonial India (the Western educated Indian, the Eurasian and the 'Country born') and how they negotiated the racial, cultural and political divide.
PhD Research
Liminal people who did not fit the binary model of Colonialism, Eurasians in 19th Century India were subjected to prejudice and exclusion, criticised for being too Indian or too European, and were alternately welcomed and rejected by the British. Their nationality was contingent on circumstances, subject to the whim of individual administrators, and contested throughout the century and beyond. Stereotyped as a homogenised hybrid combining the worst of their Indian and European ancestry and cultures, Eurasians remained remarkably diverse and adaptable, causing Census enumerators and employers constant problems in classifying them. Racial boundaries hardened as Britain's grip on India tightened throughout the 19th century and this study seeks to portray what agency remained to this diverse group of people who have been all but written out of the history of British India.
PhD Affiliations
IHR
