Anglo-Indian Lives In Pakistan: Interrogating Religion And Culture Through The Lens Of Oral Histories

Description

In this compelling study Dorothy McMenamin recovers the histories of Anglo-Indians in what would become Pakistan and traces the trajectories of individuals and families into the post-independence world. Grounded in an absorbing series of oral histories, McMenamin’s narrative is full of human drama and complexity. It offers a bold challenge to the strong emphasis on colonial power and racial hierarchies in recent work, forwarding a counter-reading enriched by her own deep personal knowledge of this community within Pakistan and in the Anglo-Indian diaspora

Authors Biography

DOROTHY MCMENAMIN (née DOYLE) was born and schooled in newly created Pakistan. As a teenager she emigrated to England, later Australia, then settled with her husband in New Zealand. Whilst raising their four children she embarked on studies specializing in world religions and South Asian history. She trained as an oral historian, publishing two books from her earlier research, namely Raj Days to Downunder: Voices from Anglo India to New Zealand and Leprosy and Stigma in the South Pacific. Aware of contemporary accounts on the impoverished lifestyles of Anglo-Indians in India, in contrast to her own and other Anglo-Indian lives in Pakistan, she recorded oral histories with ‘Anglos’ from, and living in, Pakistan. Her doctoral dissertation in history at the University of Otago, Dunedin, utilized these sources and this book derives from that research.