After the Raj: The Last Stayers - On and the Legacy of British India

As August 1947 approached so the British prepared to leave India. The vast majority left. But some stayed on others who had grown up in India shortly returned. Over the next 60 years they adapted to modern India while always being conscious of their legacy, the inheritance of the Raj. There are only thirty such people left and Hugh Purcell has interviewed ten of them. Each has a remarkable story to tell and a perceptive empathy with the whole issue of being British in India.

Through the eyes of ten characters Hugh Purcell shows how the legacy of the Raj has withered over the years. How also still with their help it is evolving in the new millennium, from post-imperial hangover to heritage industry, from the singing of Victorian hymns in neo-Gothic churches to a new Christian evangelism, from Shakespeare wallahs to multi-media English language teaching and call centres.

Hugh Purcell is a writer and film-maker. His books include The Spanish Civil War, a National Book Club Book of the Year, Fascism, Revolutionary War and The Last English Revolutionary (Sutton, 2004).

He has worked at Pune at the Film and Television Institute of India. He has made three films in India, including one on the Indian Mutiny, and regularly leads tours to Indian Mutiny sites.