ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I focus on the writings of Dom Moraes to explore the issue of racism and the problematic relationship that an anglicised Indian invariably has with his brown body. Moraes, who was a poet, journalist, memoirist, and travel writer was also, like Sorabji, “brought up English” in a thoroughly anglicised family in Bombay. Again, like all the other authors mentioned in the book, he too suffered from a sense of being not quite accepted by the metropolitan audience as a full member of their community. For Moraes, as for almost all the other anglicised Indians trying to make England their home, this feeling of being treated as an outsider was reinforced by instances of racism. However, to Moraes, his brown body posed a problem not just because it did not allow him to readily become part of a white metropolitan community but also because it constantly threatened to dissolve the difference that he felt distinguished his inner English identity from the identity of other Indians. This chapter investigates how Moraes in his writings tries to sustain this precarious difference especially after returning to India, and how he seeks to engage with his land of origin and his fellow countrymen while still trying to remain English.
