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“Anglo-Ceylonese”: A Missing Dimension in British Ceylon – By Michael Roberts The conquest of the island of Ceilao by the British between 1796 and 1818 was an outcome of their imperial conquests in India and underpinned by their sea power. The presence of their troops and other personnel in British India was so extensive that in time a new ethnic category-cum-group emerged in the localities (usually towns) with British personnel: namely, the Anglo-Indians.[i] By the late 19th century these people of mixed descent spawned by British personnel in India stood as a distinct community of Christians speaking Indian English as their mother-tongue and oriented to both India and the United Kingdom.   Source:thuppahis.com They were sufficiently prominent to be given one reserved seat in the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi in 1919 and then went on to establish the All-India Anglo-Indian Association in 1926.[ii] Their orientation towards Westernised lifeways was so strong that Anglo-Indians in ...