European and Anglo-Indian Defence Association

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The European and Anglo-Indian Defence Association was a pressure group formed in British India. The group's founder and president was the industrialist John Johnstone Jardine Keswick.[1] The Association has been described as "primarily, the political party of India’s non-official British".[2] The Association was particularly well-known for opposing the Ilbert Bill, and was criticised as a "Defiance" Association.[3] Several tea and Indigo planters were members of the Association.[3]

The Ilbert Bill was formally introduced on 2 February 1883 in the

Anglo-Indians, iii) European British subjects, iv) Americans, v) Armenians, vi) Eurasians, and vii) "other associated with Europeans by a community of sympathies and interests."[5] The Association divided its goals into political, benevolent and economic goals,[5] thus going beyond thee ambit of the Ilbert Bill.[5] Nevertheless, the Association claimed that its formation was necessitated "by the introduction into the Supreme Legislative Council, without reference to them, of a Bill to deprive them of one of their most cherished rights".[5] At the meeting, Keswick articulated his opposition to the Bill as follows: "when natives have so far advancedthat the wives and sisters, daughters and mothers of those of the ranks from which our native civilians are drawn can come openly into Court and give evidence, and can mix with us and with our wives in society , then there will be so much of each other's innate nature known, that Government may seriously consider about giving natives the power they now ask."[6] In the end, the Association's efforts succeeded in winning British and European subjects the right to trial by a jury of their own countrymen. Sir Hugh Rahere Panckridge, barrister-at-law and later judge of the Calcutta High Court observed some decades later: "No unofficial European has ever enjoyed the unquestioning confidence of his community to the same degree as "King” Keswick."[7]

The Association continued to exist in the early 20th century, after Keswick's death. In 1908, British planters in India solicited the support of the Association to defend their interests.[8] According to Sir Henry Cotton, the Association was campaigning to defend British planters accused of physically assaulting Indian workers, leading to ill-feeling between races.[9] In 1909, the Association objected to the movement of Indian nationalists to boycott British goods.[10] In 1912, the Association renamed itself to the European Association[11][12] and went on to have prominent Englishmen among its members.[13][14] However, even after dropping the term "Anglo-Indian" from its name, the Association campaigned in favour of a fixed percentage of Anglo-Indian employees in the railways in India.[15] In 1931, the president of the Association addressed Chatham House and described the Association as "the only official body representing the political opinions of the non-official Europeans in India", and possessing "the official right of access to the Government of India and the Viceroy".[16]

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-8364-0639-9
    – via The Internet Archive.
  2. ISBN 978-0-19-561388-9
    .
  3. ^ a b Majumdar, Bimanbehari (1959). Indian Political Associations And Reform Of Legislature(1818-1917) Ed. 1st. p. 104.
  4. JSTOR 44138511
    .
  5. ^ a b c d The Calcutta Review. Vol. 77. 1883. p. 184.
  6. ISBN 978-0-415-94274-4
    .
  7. ^ Panckridge, H. R. (1927). A Short History Of The Bengal Club. p. 39.
  8. ^ The Planters Chronicle Vol-iii (1908). 1908. p. 172.
  9. ^ Cotton, Henry (1904). New India; or, India in transition. University of California Libraries. London, K. Paul, Trench, Trübner, & co., ltd. p. 48.
  10. ^ The Bombay Gazette, 16 September 1909. The Bombay Gazette (Bombay). 1909-09-16.
  11. ^ Descriptive Guide Book To Calcutta And Its Environs. 1928. p. 26.
  12. ISBN 978-0-19-561388-9
    .
  13. ISBN 978-0-8223-8645-2
    .
  14. ^ East And West (1929). Asiatic Review New Series Vol.25 1929. p. 271.
  15. ISBN 978-0-7069-2103-8
    .
  16. JSTOR 3016060
    .
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