Recounted Remembrances of Times Past: Relics of the Raj, Stayers-on and Anglicised Indians

Authors

Sanjay Sircar

Abstract

In urban folk narrative, somewhere between the 'urban legend', which is melodramatic fiction, and the ' family story', which is of interest only to the family, lies what I call 'hardened gossip': outright inventions, embroidered 'factual' stories and stray dicta that outlive the usual fate of ephemeral tittle-tattle. Across a fairly wide social ambit, these tales become set-pieces in 'standard conversations' when familiar topics arise (for example, childhood, servants, ghosts). I listened transfixed in my childhood to such talk on 'the Old Days and their Legacy' — that is the Aftermath of the British Raj. Here is something of what I heard.

Recommended Citation

Sircar, Sanjay, Recounted Remembrances of Times Past: Relics of the Raj, Stayers-on and Anglicised Indians, Kunapipi, 28(1), 2006.
Available at:https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol28/iss1/15