THE WEST INDIANS OF INDIA
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—At a time when the demands on your space must be exceedingly heavy, I feel it would be inconsiderate to burden you with a long letter on what after all must be rather a remote subject to most of your readers. Mr. Dover will excuse me, therefore, if I refrain from discussing many of the matters raised in his interesting comments of last week.
On one or two points, however, a word must be said, in order to clear away possible misapprehensions. Mr. Dover has represented me as claiming " special consideration." I have demanded no such thing. The whole burden of the West Indians' case has been directed towards maintaining their long-established -position within the now-called Anglo. Indian Community, a position that has been jeopardised by a harmful definition in the Government of India' Act. Such interest and solicitude as we look for from English people is primarily a question of helping us to preserve our existing status.
As for Mr. Dover's suggestion that people of West Indies derivation in India have forgotten their Negro origin, my best answer is to refer him to facts. The fear of being hurt by the definition just mentioned has brought a very active West Indian Welfare Society into existence in Calcutta, of which I happen to be Overseas Representative. The President of this organisation and his wife were both of them horn in the West Indies, and other members still have links with the Islands. In fact one of the chief aims of the organisation is to preserve contact between the descendants of the early West Indian pioneers in India and those people who are more recent arrivals in the country or will assuredly follow in the days to come.
My appeal to Indian Nationalism was exactly on the basis propounded by Mr. Dover, namely, a claim for equal citizenship ; and I think my record in the sphere of social endeavour ought to absolve me from the suspicion of harbouring exaggerated communal ambitions. At present, when there are signs in India of an awakening interest in Africa and things African, there is a special reason for my wishing the national leaders to know of the existence of our group. An American Negro Delegation is at this very moment touring the Universities and Colleges of India and securing a good deal of attention. I feel it to be my duty to try and obtain for our people some of the goodwill that this visit has released, so that we in our small way may help forward the larger purposes of inter-racial and inter-communal fellow-
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