Eurasian.—Eurasian (Eur-asian) may, after the definition in ‘Hobson-Jobson,’[7] be summed up as a modern name for persons of mixed European and Indian blood, devised as being more euphemistic than half-caste, and more precise than East-Indian. When the European and Anglo-Indian Defence Association was established 17 years ago, the term Anglo-Indian, after much consideration, was adopted as best designating the community. According to Stocqueler,[8] the name Eurasian was invented by the Marquis of Hastings. East Indian is defined by Balfour[9] as “a term which has been adopted by all classes of India to distinguish the descendants of Europeans and Native mothers. Other names, such as half-caste, chatikar, and chi-chi, are derogatory designations. Chattikar is from chitta (trousers) and kar (a person who uses them). The Muhammadans equally wear trousers, but concealed by their outer long gowns. The East Indians are also known as Farangi (Frank), a person of Europe. The humbler East Indians, if asked their race, reply that they are Wallandez or Oollanday, which is a modification of Hollandais, the name having been brought down through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from the Dutch. East Indians have, in India, all the rights and privileges of Europeans. Races with a mixture of European with Asiatic blood possess a proud and susceptible tone of mind.” For the purposes of the Lawrence Asylum, Ootacamund, the word East Indian is restricted to the children of European fathers by East Indian or Native mothers, or of East Indian fathers and mothers, both of whom are the children of European fathers.
By a ruling of the Government of India a few years ago, it was decided that Eurasians appointed in England to official posts in India are, if they are not statutory Natives, to be treated as Europeans as regards the receipt of exchange compensation allowance.
Some Eurasians have, it may be noted, had decorations or knighthood conferred on them, and risen to the highest position in, and gained the blue ribbon of, Government service. Others have held, or still hold, positions of distinction in the various learned professions, legal, medical, educational, and ecclesiastical.
The influence of the various European nations—Portuguese, Dutch, British, Danish, and French—which have at different times acquired territory in peninsular India, is clearly visible in the polyglot medley of Eurasian surnames, e.g., Gomes, Da Souza, Gonsalvez, Rozario, Cabral, Da Cruz, Da Costa, Da Silva, Da Souza, Fernandez, Fonseca, Lazaro, Henriquez, Xavier, Mendonza, Rodriguez, Saldana, Almeyda, Heldt, Van Spall, Jansen, Augustine, Brisson, Corneille, La Grange, Lavocat, Pascal, DeVine, Aubert, Ryan, McKertish, Macpherson, Harris, Johnson, Smith, etc. Little did the early adventurers, in the dawn of the seventeenth century, think that, as the result of their alliances with the native women, within three centuries banns of marriage would be declared weekly in Madras churches between, for example, Ben Jonson and Alice Almeyda, Emmanuel Henricus and Mary Smith, Augustus Rozario and Minnie Fonseca, John Harris and Clara Corneille. Yet this has come to pass, and the Eurasian holds a recognised place among the half-breed races of the world.
The pedigree of the early Eurasian community is veiled in obscurity. But the various modes of creation of a half-breed, which were adopted in those early days, when the sturdy European pioneers first came in contact with the native females, were probably as follows:—
The Eurasian half-breed, thus established, has been perpetuated by a variety of possible combinations:—
| European man |  | Eurasian woman. |
| Native woman. | ||
| Eurasian man |  | Native woman. |
| Eurasian woman. | ||
| European woman. | ||
| Native man | | Eurasian woman. |
| European woman. |
In the early days of the British occupation of Madras, the traders and soldiers, arriving with an inadequate equipment of females, contracted alliances, regular or irregular, with the women of the country. And in these early days, when our territorial possessions were keenly contested with both European and Native enemies, an attempt was made, under authority from high places, to obtain, through the medium of the British soldier, and in accordance with the creed that crossing is an essential means of improving a race, and rendering it vigorous by the infusion of fresh blood from a separate stock, a good cross, which should be available for military purposes. Later on, as the number of the British settlers increased, connexions, either with the Native women, or with the females of the recently established Eurasian type, were kept up owing to the difficulty of communication with the mother-country, and consequent difficulty in securing English brides. Of these barbaric days the detached or semi-detached bungalows in the spacious grounds of the old private houses in Madras remain as a memorial. At the present day the conditions of life in India are, as the result of steamer traffic, very different, and far more wholesome. The Eurasian man seeks a wife as a rule among his own community; and, in this manner, the race is mainly maintained.
The number of Eurasians within the limits of the Madras Presidency was returned, at the census, 1891, as 26,643. But on this point I must call Mr. H. A. Stuart, the Census Commissioner, into the witness box. “The number of Eurasians,” he writes, “is 26,643, which is 20.76 per cent. more than the number returned in 1881.” The figures for the last three enumerations are given in the following statement:—