This is an annotated bibliography of relevant secondary sources that will be useful for teachers at the university level who wish to teach about interracial sexual relationships and their significance in the colonial period.
Anderson, Valerie. “The Eurasian Problem in Nineteenth Century India.” PhD thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2011. Cited in Robb, 2023.
Anderson focuses on the place of Anglo-Indians within the social, cultural, and political structures of the British Raj. In Chapter 5, “Miscegenation,” Anderson gives a detailed estimation of the number of interracial relationships equivalent to marriage that might have existed within the British Raj. In Chapter 6, “Law & Marriage,” she dives into the troubled legal statute of interfaith (and thus often interracial) relationships. She challenges the typology laid out by Ghosh of categorizing many native women in interracial relationships as “mistresses” or “concubines” by explaining why many interracial “marriages” might not have been recorded in colonial records. Anderson uses marriage records, census data, diaries, court documents, internal British governance documents, and secondary sources such as Ghosh's Sex and the Colonial Family.
Archer, Mildred and Toby Falk. India Revealed: The Art and Adventures of James and Wiliam Fraser 1801-35. London: Cassell, 1989.
Archer and Falk’s book provides an account of James and William Fraser’s lives through their correspondence and various works of art. Archer and Falk focus on the brothers’ interactions with South Asia both through the lenses of their careers and their deep personal ties to the subcontinent. The book identifies William Fraser’s native companion as Amiban, with whom he presumably had children, and indicates that he might have had additional relationships with native women. Archer and Falk also reference Charles Metcalfe’s native companion (also referenced in Das and Hawes), and provide an account of James Skinner’s mixed children being sent back to England (also in City of Djinns and Das).
Arondekar, Anjali. For the Record: On Sexuality and the Colonial Archive in India. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009. https://doi-org.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/10.1215 /9780822391029. Cited in Robb, 2023.
In this book, Arondekar sets out a model for using colonial archives to reveal new information about colonial-era sexualities through gaps in their narratives. Researchers may find this book useful in its exploration of colonial era sexuality and its approach to researching a topic that does not have significant presence within colonial archives. In chapter 3, “Archival Attachments: The Story of an India-Rubber Dildo,” Arondekar notes the existence of interracial sexual relationships, and through an examination of pornographic material (primarily written), she discusses the ways in which interracial sexual contact is portrayed. This reveals British perceptions of native men and women, as well as British fears and attractions to interracial sex.
Ballhatchet, Kenneth. Race, Sex, and Class Under the Raj: Imperial Attitudes and Policies and their Critics, 1793-1905. Great Britain: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980.
In his book, Ballhatchet provides an overview of dynamics surrounding interracial sexual contact in the British Raj. Chapter 4: “On the Margins of Social Distance'” uses correspondence and court documents to discuss interracial relationships between the English and native peoples. Ballhatchet specifically mentions the Maharaja of Patiala and Florry Bryan (also in Hyam) and includes a wide primer of different modes of interracial contact in the British Raj, but gives only general references to Englishmen with native companions. Chapter 6: “Upper Class Morals and Racial Prestige” is also useful in its description of attitudes towards interracial relationships in Burma.
Carton, Adrian. Mixed-race and Modernity in Colonial India: Changing Concepts of Hybridity across Empires. London: Routledge, 2012. https://doi-orgh.ezproxy .cul.columbia.edu/10.4324/9780203121023.
In this book, Carton discusses interracial identity during the early period of colonial rule in India. While Carton primarily focuses on interracial relationships and racially mixed people in the Portuguese and French contexts, chapter 2, titled “Race and Reform,” focuses on English-native mixed relationships. He uses memoirs, newspapers, British government documents, F. Anthony’s Britain's Betrayal in India, and H.A. Stark’s Hostages to India to give an overview of how interracial relationships functioned and the popular concerns surrounding mixed relationships and children. He specifically references William Hickey and Andrew Stewart, who had affairs with unnamed native women. This book is primarily helpful in looking at the broader context of mixed relationships on the Indian subcontinent, rather than specifically English-native relationships.
Collingham, E. M. Imperial Bodies: The Physical Experience of the Raj, c.1800-1947. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001.
In this book, Collingham discusses how the British body was used to perpetuate imperial structures within British India. Chapter 2: “The Anglicization of the Body” recounts in detail how cohabitation with native women became unfashionable after the early years of British hegemony, as well as discussing the treatment of and attitudes towards Anglo-Indians. Chapter 5: “The Social Body” discusses how in certain parts of British South Asia (namely what were then called Assam, Ceylon, and Burma), taking native wives continued to be a common practice in the 20th century, reflecting more lax attitudes among both natives and Englishmen towards racial mixing. Collingham uses internal East India Company memos, personal and public accounts, and correspondence, mentioning a wide range of couples such as James Kirkpatrick and Khair un-Nissa (also in Dalrymple's works), and Neil Edmonstone and an unnamed native woman.
Compton, Herbert. A Particular Account of the European Military Adventures of Hindustan, from 1784 to 1803. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1976 (reprint). Cited in Ghosh, 2006.
Dalrymple, William. City of Djinns. London: Flamingo, 1994. Cited in Das, 2005.
Instead of an academic piece, Dalrymple structures this book as a travelog, interspersing his travels through contemporary Dehli with discussions of the city’s history. Dalrymple includes many specific accounts of interracial relationships. These include accounts of William Fraser’s “chief wife," Begum Sumroe (also known as Begum Samru, as discussed in Young and Ghosh), and her two husbands, David Ochterlony. The book also includes accounts of relationships between unnamed native women and James Skinner, a prominent Anglo-Indian military figure in the region. Dalrymple also gives readers an overview of the changing attitudes towards the Anglo-Indian population, detailing the slowly increasing discrimination they faced from both the British and Indians. Dalrymple does not provide a complete bibliography but provides references to memoirs, journals, correspondence, and secondary sources (such as Archer and Falk's India Revealed).
Dalrymple, William. White Mughals: The Case of James Achilles Kirkpatrick and Khair un-Nissa. London: Flamingo, 2002. Cited in Robb, 2023.
In this book, Dalrymple focuses on the relationship between Khair un-Nissa, a Mughal noblewoman, and James Kirkpatrick, an East India Company (EIC) official. He explores how interracial relationships functioned during the 18th century in EIC South Asia and traces the consequences of Khair un-Nissa and Kirkpatrick's association. Dalrymple also references numerous other interracial relationships, such as those of William Palmer and Fyze Baksh (also in Ghosh), and William Kirkpatrick and Dhoolaury Bibi. While the book draws primarily from correspondence, internal EIC memos, and contemporary accounts, it frames Khair un-Nissa and Kirkpatrick's relationship as a romance, which is debatable given known information.
Dalrymple, William. “White Mughals.” Unfamiliar Relations: Family and History in South Asia. Indrani Chatterjee ed. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2004, 122-160.
In this article, Dalyrymple uses correspondence and internal East India Company documents to examine the development of the relationship between James Kirkpatrick, an East India Company Official, and Khair un-Nissa, a Mughal noblewoman, as well as its larger social implications. Their relationship was the source of much scandal, both within the Mughal court and among the East India Company elite. In illustrating how the two were maneuvered into a scandalous relationship, Dalyrymple illustrates the complex social fabric of Indian-British relations during that time period, and provides an unusual case study of a relationship between an Englishman and a native woman that was fully legitimized yet still fraught with unequal power dynamics: un-Nissa’s marriage was unable to prevent her children being sent away.
Das, Suribhi et al. “Sahibs or Nabobs? Delhi: 1803 - 1856.” Seminar, November 9, 2005.file:///C:/Users/emmak/Downloads/Sahibs_or_Nabobs_Delhi_103_1856.pdf.
This document is a collection of written notes from a seminar given at a conference on early colonial period Indian architecture. This writeup includes a surprising amount of information on and references to Englishmen cohabiting with native wives. The document mentions the following interracial relationships: David Ochterlony and an unnamed native women (also in Fischer and City of Djinns); Begam Samru (mentioned in Ghosh and Fischer) and her husbands; Charles Metcalfe and an unnamed native woman (mentioned in Hawes); James Skinner who was an Anglo-Indian (also in City of Djinns); and William Fraser’s relationships with native women (also mentioned in India Revealed and The Passionate Quest). Aside from The Golden Calm, the document entirely references secondary sources, such as Dalrymple’s City of Djinns, Archer and Falk’s The Passionate Quest, and Edwardes’ The Sahibs and The Lotus.
Finn, Margot, and Kate Smith, eds. East India Company at Home, 1757-1857. UCL Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt21c4tfn.1. Cited in Robb, 2023.
The works contained in this book illustrate Britain's colonial activities abroad and domestic English life through analyzing material possessions within country houses. Five sections discuss mixed-race relationships and children. Ellen Fior’s “The Intimate Trade of Alexander Hall” and Alistair Mutch’s “Connecting Britain and India” both focus on the children of mixed-race relationships. Margot Finn’s “Swallowfield Park, Berkshire” follows a similar route, but also mentions Khair un-Nissa, the native wife of James Kirkpatrick (also discussed in Ghosh, Hawes, and “White Mughals”). William's “The Melvill Family and India” identifies Phillip Melvill’s native bride as Kureshi Brynon. There is also a slight mention of William Fraser, who had taken native wives, within Diane James’s “A Fairypalace in Devon” (also mentioned in Archer and Falk's works, as well as City of Djinns).
Finn, Margot. “Family and Empire: Kinship and British Colonialism in the East India Company Era, c. 1750–1850.” University of Oxford, The James Ford Lectures 2020, 2020.https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/event/the-james-ford-lectures-race-and-belonging. Cited in Robb, 2023.
A series of lectures were given by Margot Finn at Oxford University as part of the 2020 James Ford Lectures series building on her earlier research. Finn looks at how familial relationships enabled the spread of empire and explores how the East India Company used family to expand its hold on the subcontinent. The first three lectures, “Family, State, and Empire,” “Demography and Marriage,” and “Race and Belonging,” highlight mixed-race families. Particularly relevant are Finn’s delineations of a typology of English familial units on the subcontinent during this period and her commentary on the role native wives and Anglo-Indian children played in helping the East India Company establish South Asian connections.
Finn, Margot. “Migrating Home: ‘mixed’ children and the return of the nabobs of India.” Our Migration Story. https://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/oms/Migrating-home-the-return-of--the-nabobs-of-british-india.
This website entry is part of a larger project mapping migration patterns into Britain from AD 43 to the present. Using the Russell family correspondence (discussed also in East India Company at Home, 1757-1857) to create a case study, Finn provides a broad overview of the nabobs and discusses the return of their Anglo-Indian children to England . She mentions interracial relationships, but does not go into any detail about native wives. However, this article still functions as a good overview for students of mixed-race familial relationships and outlines the many thorny social issues involved in integrating often illegitimate Anglo-Indian children into English society.
Finn, Margot. “Slaves out of Context: Domestic Slavery and the Anglo-Indian Family, c. 1780-1830.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 19, pp 181-203. Cambridge University Press 19, 2009. https://proxy.library.upenn.edu/login?&url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25593897.
In this paper, Finn uses wills to give an overview of slavery in the Indian Ocean, explaining how it commonly operated and the ways in which efforts were made by the British government to muddle its true nature through the common practice of referring to native slaves as servants. Finn references several documented instances of enslaved concubines and notes the strange position they held within the Anglo-Indian household, mentioning Alexander Crauford and an unnamed native woman, John Hollingberry and an unnamed native woman, Zeenut and Robert Grant (also mentioned in Hawes), and Thomas Wilmot and Betsy. She notes that while these concubines were often enslaved themselves, they were also often bequeathed other slaves as property.
Fisher, Michael H. “Becoming and Making “Family” in Hindustan.” Unfamiliar Relations: Family and History in South Asia. Indrani Chatterjee ed. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2004, 95-121. Cited in Robb, 2023.
In this article, Fisher examines how Begam Samru used familial ties to form advantageous connections with different political groups through an examination of Lord David Ochterlony’s diary, correspondence, and internal East India Company memos referencing her. Through his case study, he reveals a potential avenue for power that native wives could access through their connections with European men. He also makes the point that Begam Samru is far from the typical example of a native wife. On a smaller scale, native women’s ability to gain power through their relationships with European men is crucial to understanding the ways in which native women may have exerted agency within colonial power structures.
Ghosh, Durba. Sex and the Family in Colonial India. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
In this book, Ghosh thoroughly pieces together the lives of native women cohabiting with European men using legal documents such as court cases and wills, as well as relying on several recorded accounts of interracial relationships in travel writing, letters, and biographies. Ghosh also provides context for the formation of these relationships, outlines the shifting perceptions of them in the public eye, and details the difficulty the East India Company had in placing families across racial and religious lines in their legal system. Ghosh references a staggering amount of interracial relationships, many of which are not explored elsewhere. She pays particular attention to: William Palmer and Faiz Baksh; Halima (or Helen) Bennet and Benoit de Boigne (also prominently written about in Young and Robb); Begum Samru and Walter Reinhardt (1st) Le Vassoult (2nd); James Kirkpatrick and Khair un-Nissa.
Ghosh, Durba. “Making and Un-making Loyal Subjects: Pensioning Widows and Educating Orphans in Early Colonial India.” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, January 2003. https://doi-org.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/10.1080/714002216. Cited in Carton, 2012.
This was published before Sex and the Family in Colonial India, and most of the information in this paper was placed into the chapter of that book entitled: “Servicing military families: family labor, pensions, and orphans.”
Hawes, Christopher J. Poor Relations: The Making of a Eurasian Community in British India, 1773-1833. Philadelphia: Routledge, 1996. https://doi-org.ezproxy.columbia.edu/10.4324/9781315026565.
In this book, Hawes provides an overview of the development and history of the community of “British Eurasians,” people with mixed South Asian and British heritage. Within the first chapter, titled “British Men, Indian Women, and Eurasian Children,” Hawes gives an overview of the development of mixed-race relationships between European colonists and native women. Hawes also provides specific accounts of mixed marriages and the children that resulted from them using wills, correspondence, British military documents, and baptismal records. In particular, he references John Bristow and an unnamed native woman, Thomas Naylor and Muckmul Patna, Khair un-Nissa and James Kirkpatrick, Mah Munzl Ool Nissa and William Gardner, Samuel Kilpatrick and Nannah, Claude-Martin and Boulone, Robert Grant and Zeenut, Surgeon Tracy and Ventamina, and Charles Metcalfe and an unnamed native woman.
Hyam, Ronald. Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990. Cited in Sen, 2001.
In this book, Hyam uses biographies, memoirs, correspondence, internal British Raj memos, and a plethora of secondary sources such as Ballhatchet’s Race, Sex, and Class Under the Raj to explore the ways in which sexuality and sex influenced British governance of their colonial territories and interactions with colonial subjects. Chapter 5: “The Sexual Life of the Raj” provides references to specific interracial relationships, such as Job Charnock and an unnamed native woman, George Dick and an unnamed native woman, Richard Burton and unnamed native women, and the Maharaja of Patiala and Florry Bryan (one example of native princes marrying European women). Hyam explains how interracial cohabitation went from being encouraged by the state in the 18th century to being socially inappropriate by the 20th century.
Mallampalli, Chandra. Race, Religion, and Law in Colonial India: Trials of an Interracial Family. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. https://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?qurl=https%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26AuthType%3dip%26db%3de025xna%26AN%3d409087%26site%3dehost-live%26scope%3dsite.
In this book, Mallampalli provides a case study of the interracial Abraham family through the Abraham v. Abraham court case. The Abraham family not only provides an unusual example of an Anglo-Indian woman marrying a native man, but also highlights the difficulty of dealing with families and people that crossed ethnic and religious lines in the colonial legal system of separate courts. This book is primarily helpful both as a case study of an interracial relationship and for its information on the colonial courts system in the context of ambiguous ethnic and religious belonging. Mallampalli primarily references court documents used in the case, namely the testimony of witnesses.
Robb, Megan Eaton. “Becoming Elizabeth: The Transformation of a Bihari Mughal into an English Lady, 1758—1822.” American Historical Review 128, no. 1, March 2023, 144-176. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhad008.
In this article, Robb focuses on the life of Elizabeth Sharaf un-Nisa, a Mughal woman who cohabited with and eventually married Gerard Ducarel, an Englishman, and moved to England with him. She provides an overview of Sharaf un-Nisa's known history through looking at colonial archives, newspapers, and English and Persian correspondence. She then analyzes six of Sharaf un-Nisa’s surviving material possessions, presenting her integration into English culture as a process of both deliberate and unconscious assimilation. She points out the ways in which Sharaf un-Nisa’s balancing between English and Mughal culture both resisted and upheld colonial structures of power. Ultimately, Robb uses Sharaf un-Nisa as a case study to demonstrate the liminal space women in her position walk within collective histories, emphasizing the inability of colonial archives to provide a full picture of their lives.
Robb, Megan Eaton. “Gendered Archives: Imagined and Physical Digital Spaces.” Unstable Archives, August 16, 2023. unstable-archives.github.io.
In this excerpt, Robb provides a primer for how the Unstable Archives project approaches the research and archival process. She acknowledges the difficulties involved in using archives to find information on native women, as deliberate efforts have been taken to remove them from records. She further notes that the organization of family archives often privileges male over female family members, obscuring the lineage of women. Robb also discusses the issues with archival sorting mechanisms (e.g. keywords), which often fail to encapsulate the research potential of the item they denote. She then addresses how the Unstable Archives project navigates these issues and ends with 4 recommendations, offering tips for researchers engaging with family archives.
Robb, Peter. “Clash of Cultures?: An Englishman in Calcutta in the 1790s.” London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 12 March 1998.
This is a recorded version of a lecture given by Robb at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. In the lecture, Robb explores the 73 volumes of diaries written by Richard Blechynden (1760-1822), an Englishman who left for India in 1782 and presents an interesting window into the life of an Englishman in India during that time period. While the lecture gives an overview of Blechynden as a whole, Robb spends time on Blechynden’s family life, which included children and concubines. He had relationships with at least two native women, one whom he referred to emphatically as “the Bibi” and at least two others, who are referred to as “Nancy,” or “the garden bibi,” and a previous “garden bibi” named “Jeebun.”
Rothschild, Emma. The Inner Life of Empires: An Eighteenth-Century History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011. https://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?qurl=https%3a%2mbia.edu/login?qurl=https%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%dtrue%26AuthType%3dip%26db%3de025xna%26AN%3d365136%26site%3dehost-live%26scope%3dsite.
Rothschild outlines the British Empire’s colonial exploits in the 18th century through the lives of the Johnstone family, whose entanglement with the British colonies illustrates the web of connections resulting from the empire. While Rothschild does not directly mention native wives, she discusses a native woman named Bell or Belinda that traveled to Britain as a slave and was tried for the murder of her baby. While Bell is not confirmed to be a native companion, Rothschild suggests that the father of Bell’s baby might have been European. Rothschild additionally mentions James Johnstone, suggesting that he might have been John Johnstone's half-native son, and confirms Jane Castino Johnstone to be the “mulatto daughter” of Alexander Johnstone. She sources all of the above information from correspondence, church records, and court documents from Bell's trial.
Sen, Amrita. “Early Liaisons: East India Company, Native Wives, and Inscription in the Seventeenth Century.” South Asian Review 33, no. 2, October 2012. https://doi.org/10.1080/02759527.2012.11932880.
This essay provides a case study of a single 17th-century East India Company wife, an unnamed Armenian woman who was part of the Mughal court. She was married twice, first to Wiilliam Hawkins (who the Mughal emperor suggested should take up a wife from his court) and then, after he died, to Gabriel Towerson. In outlining her story, Sen demonstrates the limited agency native companions were able to exercise, and discusses the East India Company’s perception of native wives as both helpful to the company and an unnecessary drain on company resources. Sen draws from Thomas Roe's journals and correspondence, East India Company papers, and accounts from William Foster.
Sen, Indrani. “Devoted Wife/Sensuous Bibi: Colonial Constructions of the Indian Woman, 1860-1900.” Indian Journal of Gender Studies 8, March 2001: accessed June 1, 2023, https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/097152150100800101
In this work, Sen focuses on the British Raj rather than earlier decades of East India Company rule, providing a thorough look at the differing perceptions of native women by the British public during the outlined time period. Sen’s focus here is not on interracial relationships, so this work is primarily helpful for contextualizing native wives within the larger British perceptions of native women. The sections on the perception of ayahs as bad influences for English children are particularly helpful for understanding the reasoning behind the removal of Anglo-Indian children from native wives. Sen pulls her information about native companions primarily from Ronald Hyam’s Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience, Zaheer Masani’s Indian Tales of the Raj (a collection of primary accounts) and Margaret Strobel’s Gender, Sex and Empire.
Sreenivas, Mytheli. Wives, Widows, and Concubines: The Conjugal Family Ideal in Colonial India. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.
In this book, Sreenivas outlines the ways in which the structure of and ideology surrounding the family in colonial Tamil Nadu influenced and was influenced by the changing political situation of the region. She primarily uses magazines, laws passed during the time period, and material from court cases, such as testimonies. It is important to note that this book does not discuss native wives of Englishmen, or mixed-race relationships at all. Instead, this source is useful as a comparative look at approaches to conjugality. Sreenivas’s work demonstrates that issues of legality in conjugal systems were being actively debated and negotiated even in endogamous domestic situations in the colonial period.
Teltscher, Kate. India Inscribed: European and British Writing on India 1600-1800. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Cited in Ghosh, 2006.
In this book, Teltscher analyzes travel writing, novels, poetry, missionary letters, military memoirs, and histories produced by Europeans about India to understand European narratives surrounding the subcontinent. The most useful chapter “Indian Women: The Seventeenth-Century European Fantasy” focuses on depictions of native women within European travel writing. Teltscher reveals a pattern of writers sexualizing native women. She points out the persistent linkage between the idea of the licentious harem and the Muslim woman, as well as the portrayal of Hindu women as sexually available to European men. She also notes the focus among accounts of native women on sati, the practice of widowed women burning themselves to death on funeral pyres of their husbands.
Wheeler, Roxanne. The Complexion of Race: Categories of Difference in Eighteenth-Century British Culture. Philadelphia: 2000. Cited in Robb, 2023.
Wheeler’s book maps the ways in which the British in the 18th century separated themselves as a distinct group from the peoples they were colonizing. Chapter 3, “Romanticizing Racial Difference: Benevolent Subordination and the Midcentury Novel,” uses works of fiction and 18th century commentaries on marriage laws and race to illustrate the way interracial marriages were understood in the public consciousness. Wheeler’s work is particularly useful for understanding marriages between Englishmen and native women in the larger context of the ways racial and cultural differences were delineated at the time. Her notes about the way in which religious differences function as a barrier to interracial contact are particularly useful in understanding the oft-noted pattern of native wives converting to Christianity.
Young, Desmond. Fountain of the Elephants. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959. Cited in Ghosh, 2006.
Young presents a biographical account of the life of Benoit de Boigne, a soldier of French origin who fought with the East India Company in British India for a period of time. In recounting his life, Young also details the life of Helene Bennet (who Ghosh refers to as Halima Bennet), his native companion and the mother of his two children. Young traces Helene’s life, drawing primarily from the personal papers of de Boigne, correspondence, newspapers, internal East India Company papers, and memoirs to present a case study of a native wife brought back to Britain and then promptly left for a European woman. Young also mentions Claude Martin’s relationship with Lise and WIliam Palmer’s relationship with Fyze, two other examples of native women cohabiting with European men.