The first Anglo-Indian could\n well have been born not long after 20 May 1498 when Vasco da Gama, the\n Portuguese explorer, set foot on the shores of Calicut?a whole century before\n the British arrived in India. Today, after five centuries of ups and downs, twists\n of fate, and turns of destiny, the Anglo-Indian community is firmly\n established in its chosen homeland, India. The community has contributed\n beyond measure to the nation?s school education system; its soldiers and\n officers, teachers and sports stars have captured the imagination of\n millions. The Anglo-Indians? love of yellow rice and ball curry, five-tier\n wedding cakes, and single-minded faith, rock ?n roll, and railway institutes\n is well known. However, stereotypes and romanticized notions of the community\n aside, who really are the Anglo-Indians, and what is this community all\n about?\n \n Barry O?Brien, an Anglo-Indian with a ringside view and his finger firmly\n on the pulse of the community, delves deep into the heritage, culture, way of\n life, literature, social mores, and sheer dynamism of the community. There\n are four sections in this book: ?A Country Is Colonized, a Community Is Born?\n is a historical account of the arrival of the European maritime powers, the\n birth of the community, its natural ?Britishification?, and the emergence of\n two of its greatest champions, Sir Henry Gidney and Frank Anthony;\n ?Nationality: Indian; Community: Anglo-Indian? dwells on ?identity and\n integration? and the political transformation of the community through the\n lens of twentieth and twenty-first-century India and recounts the fascinating\n stories of those who left and those who stayed; ?The Anglo-Indian\n Contribution to Nation Building? is a chronicle of how Anglo-Indians\n contributed (and continue to do so) to modern India; and, finally, ?The Way\n We Were, the Way We Are? is a riveting narrative of the community?s culture,\n then and now.\n \n The social, cultural, and political history of the Anglo-Indians in India\n and the diaspora has never before been told in such a comprehensive,\n clear-eyed, engrossing, and enjoyable way. Unarguably, The Anglo-Indians is\n the best account yet of one of India?s most remarkable and enigmatic\n communities.