conditions in Anglo-Indian schools.
The task of Chapter б is rigorously to examine the key and
contentious issues of the size and ethnicity of the Anglo-
Indian community. None of the Anglo-Indian associations
were capable of estimating the size of the community. Each
association was part of its own micro-level consultative
network. A picture was emerging of a fragmented community
which could not count its own numbers.
Anglo-Indian schools are scattered all over India. So, in
order to inform the writer's decision on cluster sampling,
as early as practicable, the survey population needed to be
defined. The lack of information about size and ethnicity
of the Anglo-Indian community in India created a problem
for the researcher in planning her itinerary.
The States of Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,
West Bengal, Meghalaya, Haryana and the Union Territory of
Delhi were all included in the researcher's itinerary. The
itinerary covered a distance of 4640 statute miles. There
were 628 respondents. The profiles of these respondents
together with verbatim comments, where appropriate, are at
Appendix 1.
In summary, the survey's data indicated that there were not
less than 300,000, and not more than 500,000 Anglo-Indians
in 1990. Greater precision was impracticable, and itself
indicates part of the problems that this particular
community faces at this time in its history.
The two other issues that the field work concentrated on
were language (c.f. discussed below in Ch.7 pp.248-272) and
the debate about religion (c.f. discussed below in Ch. 8
pp. 295-311) . Both these issues were linked to the
maintenance of educational disadvantage within the
community. It was confirmed that Anglo-Indians were
38