ABSTRACT
The film 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981) is a portrayal of the kind of melancholia that has often been associated with the postcolonial predicament of the Anglo-Indian community. It tells the story of an elderly Anglo-Indian teacher in a local school in Calcutta, living by herself in a dilapidated apartment in a quintessentially Anglo-Indian neighbourhood of the city. Set in the 1970s, a time period when the combined effects of political and commercial decolonization had led to the emigration of large numbers of Anglo-Indians, the film depicts a friendship that developed between Violet Stoneham, the Anglo-Indian protagonist, and a young Indian couple. Although 36 Chowringhee Lane is one of the few films to sympathetically portray how daily lives of different communities are deeply enmeshed, it ends on a sad note where Violet Stoneham finds herself lonely yet again and cast out of the lives of her young Indian friends. The film raises important questions on ideas of home and belonging that cut across multiple scales of dwelling, such as the domestic space, the neighbourhood, the city and the nation. Whilst the film is representative of a narrative of loss that focuses on Anglo-Indians who have stayed back in India, the community in diaspora has actively promoted a resurgent Anglo-Indian identity through practices of belonging, such as community associations and events. This chapter traces the connections that exist between different locations of this important, yet often overlooked and invisible community within the Indian diaspora. The city of Calcutta in 36 Chowringhee Lane is not just the backdrop of the film, but also frames much of the nostalgic narratives on ideas of home that exist in diaspora. This chapter similarly highlights how ideas of home and belonging may be thought through the city, and highlights the importance of urban space as a key location of diasporic identity for the Anglo-Indian community (Blunt & Bonnerjee, 2013).
