The Last Islands of Empire: British Cemeteries in South Asia and Their Lasting Legacy

This paper examines the lasting legacy of European cemeteries in postcolonial South Asia. The subcontinent offered tremendous opportunities for many Britons, but there was one important caveat – one had to stay alive to reap the benefits. ‘Two monsoons’ was an adage faced by all new arrivals in India. Spoken with British phlegm, the words veiled the reality that many of these newcomers would be dead within several years. Indeed, nearly two million Europeans – mostly of English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh origins – never left India. They were buried in thousands of cemeteries of various sizes and quality spread across the subcontinent. During the colonial era, these cemeteries were sites of imperial memory and imperial mourning. Today, they are sites of negotiation and contention in British-Indian relations.

Britain moved with alacrity to end its Indian Empire after WWII, but the question of cemeteries remained unanswered until 1947. During colonial rule, Indian government revenues maintained cemeteries. These moneys disappeared with the transfer of government, leaving the newly created British High Commissions in Pakistan and India scrambling for proposals that ranged from bulldozing entire cemeteries to avoid desecration by “angry” Indian nationalists, an extremely rare occurrence, to repatriation of the dead. In the end, they brokered a deal with India and Pakistan, both of which had little interest in taking care of burial grounds filled with Europeans. Cemeteries would be treated as if they were government properties but no Indian or Pakistani government revenues would support them. The commissions handed responsibility for cemetery upkeep to local Christian communities. By the late 1960s the system proved utterly inadequate. Most cemeteries were in decline due to neglect, which stirred emotions of outrage amongst surviving Anglo-Indians. Outrage led to the creation of the attention/fund raising British Association of Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA).