The Life and Times of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio: A Legend among Anglo-Indians (Instalment Number 2)

Abstract

When a student at Delhi University in the 1960s, I was conducting research in the national archives about the history of the Anglo-Indian Community. While doing this work I came across several pieces that were published in the 1880s by Thomas Edwards in which he wrote at length about the life and writings of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio. In 1997 I produced a brief manuscript in which I quoted one poem written by Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, "The Legend of the Shushan." (see "The Anglo-Indian Community's Fight for Cultural Identity" in the International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies, 1998). That article should be called "Instalment Number 1" about the life of Derozio and Anglo-Indians during the years surrounding and including the 1830s. I would like to continue with a bit more about this man who is one of the major figures in the legacy of the Anglo-Indian Community. Although he died a very young man, at the age of 23, Derozio left a rich heritage of poetry that serves as a major footnote in the history of the community.