Anglo-Indian leaders, principals and professionals from 30-odd cities will gather in Calcutta on Monday to discuss the way forward for the community following the revocation of the provision for nominating Anglo-Indian members to the Lok Sabha and state legislatures.
“It’s a great concern in the community why the government did this and why they think these seats are not needed. I thought to bring the community together under one roof and decide what the community should do,” said Barry O’Brien, president-in-chief, All-India Anglo-Indian Association.
O’Brien had convened the meeting, to be held at Frank Anthony Public School on Monday evening. It will be attended by 10 Anglo-Indian organisations, including the Federation of Anglo-Indian Association, All-India Anglo-Indian Education Institution and the Association of Heads of Anglo-Indian Schools.
Of the 62 branches of the All-India Anglo-Indian Association, the oldest and largest registered organisation of the community, 45 will either attend the meeting or have sent letters of support.
Anglo-Indian representatives from various political parties, including former and current lawmakers, are expected at the meeting along with 80 school principals from across the country. Academics and people from the world of sports, such as former India and Karnataka cricketer Roger Binny, have been invited.
O’Brien said the last such large-scale meeting of the community was held in 1930, convened by Sir Henry Gidney at a time when the Anglo-Indians had felt let down by the British.
“The 12th of December 2019 was the darkest day for our community since Independence: the Constitution was amended, thereby ending our representation in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies as of 25 January 2020,” O’Brien had written in a letter to the community.
“It is imperative that we come together as a community, united as one, and finally speak in one voice. At ‘Together We Can’, we will discuss, deliberate and decide on the way forward.”
Monday’s meeting will be a closed-door one, where everyone will get a chance to freely express their opinion.
In attendance will be Gillian Rosemary Hart, principal of Welland Gouldsmith School, Bowbazar, and three-time nominated MLA.
“All of us need to stand together against the decision the central government is taking regarding the cancellation of seats of the Anglo-Indian community,” she said.
“We are a small community and need representation to put up our problems to the government. The Founding Fathers of the Constitution had reason to include the community. It is grossly unfair to exclude us.”
O’Brien recently wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying: “Today, the community may be small in number, as it was 70 years ago, but it continues to contribute significantly in the building of modern India through hundreds of Anglo-Indian schools spread across the country. No single state is our home! We are proud to say that all of India is our home!”
On Saturday, the vice-chancellor of St Xavier’s University, Father Felix Raj, had told the annual conference of the heads of Anglo-Indian schools that the revocation of the provision for nominated Anglo-Indian lawmakers was a “humiliating development”.
“We need to make inroads. I think we need to (take up) constructive measures, find ways of taking this up in the community as well as in the larger Christian community,” he had said.