Scottish-Indians are Indian citizens of mixed Indian and Scots ancestry or people of Scottish descent born or living in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Like

Irish Indians An Irish Indian is an Indian citizen who is fully or partially of Irish descent, who is aware of such ancestry and remains connected, to some degree, to Irish culture and also can be an Irish-born person who is of Indian origin. As per article 36 ...

, a Scottish-Indian can be categorized as an

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The '' Oxford English ...

. Scottish Indians celebrate

Scottish culture The culture of Scotland refers to the patterns of human activity and symbolism associated with Scotland and the Scottish people. The Scottish flag is blue with a white saltire, and represents the cross of Saint Andrew. Scots law Scotland retain ...

, with traditional Scottish celebrations like

Burns Night A Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), the author of many Scots poems. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet's birthday, 25 January, known as Burns Night ( sc ...

widely observed among the community.

History

18th Century

Scottish immigration to India began with the union of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

with

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1707 to create the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Under the deal, Scotland's landed families gained access to the East India Company, and gradually become its dominant force. Scots came into India as writers, traders, engineers, missionaries, tea and indigo planters, jute traders and teachers. By 1771 almost half of the East India Company's writers were Scots. The Scottish presence was also strongly evident in India. The first three Governor-Generals of India were Scots. When Henry Dundas became President of the Board of Control in 1784 he 'Scoticised' India and through his agencies Scots came to dominate the activities of the East India Company (EIC). By 1792, Scots made up one in nine EIC civil servants, six in eleven common soldiers and one in three officers.

19th Century

By 1813, 19 of Calcutta's private merchant houses were dominated by Scots. From 1830 onwards, Scots became involved as general merchants with Indian interests. They began to export jute, tea, timber, coal, sugar and indigo as well as cotton. By 1880, with the help of Scottish entrepreneurs, India overtook China as leaders of tea distribution. The 18th and 19th centuries saw Scots found some of the first modern colleges in India, which acted as a 'cultural conduit' through which Enlightenment values came to permeate Indian society.Scots "shaped modern India"
, ''British Council'', 19 July 2011.

20th Century

The Calcutta Scottish was a regiment of volunteers of Scottish descent raised in 1914 as an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. The regiment formed part of the army reserves in Auxiliary Force, India (AFI). The regiment was disbanded following India's independence in 1947.

Education

List of Scottish schools in India: * Bombay Scottish School, Mahim (Established in 1847) *

Bombay Scottish School, Powai The Bombay Scottish School, Powai (BSS or BSS Powai), also popularly known as Scottish, is a private, Christian co-educational day school located in Powai in Mumbai, India. It is an affiliate of Bombay Scottish School, Mahim. The institution was ...

(Established in 1997) *

Scottish Church College Scottish Church College is a college affiliated by Calcutta University, India. It offers selective co-educational undergraduate and postgraduate studies and is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in A ...

(Established in 1830) *

Scottish Church Collegiate School The Scottish Church Collegiate School is a school in north Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Notable alumni * Lalbehari De, Religious Leader and Writer. * Turiyananda, Religious Leader. * Dhan Gopal Mukerji, First successful Indian man of letter ...

(Established in 1830)

Scottish Cemetery at Calcutta

The Scottish Cemetery at Calcutta was established in 1820 catering to the specific needs of the large Scottish population in the Kolkata area. The cemetery was utilised until the 1940s but was abandoned in the 1950s and neglected following India's independence. Well over 90% of those buried bear recognizably Scots names such as Reid, McGregor, Campbell and Ross. Around 10% are Bengali. The cemetery was recently restored by the Kolkata Scottish Heritage Trust (KSHT) in 2008.

Notable individuals

* Alexander Duff – Christian Protestant Presbyterian missionary *

Neil Benjamin Edmonstone Neil Benjamin Edmonstone (1765–1841) was a civil servant in and director of the East India Company. Early life Edmonstone, born on 6 December 1765, was fifth son of Sir Archibald Edmonstone of Duntreath, M.P. for Dumbartonshire 1761–80 and 1 ...

– Indian civilian *

Daniel Eliott Sir Daniel Eliott (3 March 1798 – 30 October 1872) was a Scottish civil servant in British India and governor of Madras. Biography Eliott was the fourth son of Sir William Eliott, 6th Baronet and was born at Stobs Castle, Roxburghshire . He ...

– Scottish Indian civilian * Edward Hay Mackenzie Elliot – British soldier * Walter Elliot – Scottish naturalist *

Hedy Fry Hedy Madeleine Fry, (born August 6, 1941) is a Trinidadian-Canadian politician and physician who is currently the longest-serving female Member of Parliament, winning nine consecutive elections in the constituency of Vancouver Centre includin ...

- Canadian politician and physician *

Colin Mackenzie Colonel Colin Mackenzie CB (1754–8 May 1821) was Scottish army officer in the British East India Company who later became the first Surveyor General of India. He was a collector of antiquities and an orientalist. He surveyed southern India, ...

– Indian Army officer * Norman Marjoribanks – Indian magistrate and civil servant *

James Wood-Mason James Wood-Mason (December 1846 – 6 May 1893) was an English zoologist. He was the director of the Indian Museum at Calcutta, after John Anderson. He collected marine animals and lepidoptera, but is best known for his work on two other gro ...

– Scottish zoologist *

Fearless Nadia Mary Ann Evans (8 January 1908 – 9 January 1996), also known by her stage name Fearless Nadia, was an Australian-born Indian actress and stuntwoman, who worked in Indian cinema. She is most remembered as the masked, cloaked adventurer in ''Hun ...

– Indian film actress and stuntwoman * Malcolm Struan Tonnochy – Former acting

Governor of Hong Kong The governor of Hong Kong was the representative of the British Crown in Hong Kong from 1843 to 1997. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and commander-in-chief of the British Forces Overseas Hong Kong. ...

George Yule George Yule may refer to: * George Yule (businessman) (1829–1892), Scottish merchant and politician in India * George Yule (linguist) (born 1947), British linguist * George Udny Yule George Udny Yule FRS (18 February 1871 – 26 June 1951 ...

– Former President of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

* Alexander Cunningham – Founder of

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexand ...

* Aeneas Francon Williams and his wife Clara Anne Rendall – Both were

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...

Missionaries in Kalimpong,

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

and

Dooars The Dooars or Duars ( as, দুৱাৰ, duar, rkt, দুৱাৰ, duar, bn, দুয়ার, duyar) () are the alluvial floodplains in eastern-northeastern India that lie south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas and north of the ...

, and of Scottish descent

References

{{Immigration to India Europeans in India

Scottish