Abstract
Having found myself unexpectedly at the 11th world Anglo-Indian Reunion in January 2019, I recount my own experiences of the event’s conference as a springboard from which to reflect on the question of national belonging and political responsibility. I do so by comparing historical and political resonances between Anglo-Indians as a minority and LGBTIQ+ communities. The paper concludes by taking inspiration from Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s speech about the significance of minorities in India’s founding constitution, and what this might mean for governance of all the people.
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture
Is like a tree without roots
—Marcus Garvey
The question is not as for Hamlet, to be or not to be,
But to belong or not belong
—Hannah Arendt citing Proust
The belonging you seek is not behind you
It’s ahead
—Star Wars: The Force Awakens
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Notes
- 1.
Nicknamed the alphabet soup for its unwieldy pronouncability, LGBTIQA+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and intersexual. The plus sign indicates those identities that remain unnamed in the acronym. My own preference is to use queer, and so will refer to this umbrella term in most of the paper.
- 2.
In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt ([1951] 1976) borrows the phrase ‘people without a history’ from Otto Bauer to refer to the way in which minor cultures would gather evidence of their historical consciousness through preserving their languages and literary traditions as a means of claiming a national consciousness.
- 3.
All quotations in these paragraphs, unless otherwise stated, are taken directly from Gandhi’s speech, which can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHMDvRap7D8&list=PLsGWecOaU6huMlWdLwi2e5To4asZ2A4R-&index=14&t=0s.
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D’Cruz, C. (2021). A Queer Encounter with Anglo-Indians: Some Thoughts on National (Non)Belonging. In: Andrews, R., Raj, M.S. (eds) Anglo-Indian Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64458-1_13
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