Firingee Christians and Anglo-Indian Christians in Bengal and Bangladesh

Firingee Christians and Anglo-Indian Christians in Bengal and Bangladesh: Colonial Encounters, Eurasian Identity, Christianity, and Cultural Transformation is a comprehensive historical and cultural study of two distinctive Eurasian Christian communities whose contributions and lived experiences have remained largely marginalized within mainstream South Asian historiography.

Spanning nearly five centuries—from the Portuguese maritime encounters of the sixteenth century to the political ruptures of Partition (1947) and the Liberation War of Bangladesh (1971)—this book examines how colonial power, Christianity, race, and cultural hybridity intersected to shape the identities of Firingee and Anglo-Indian Christians. While the Firingees emerged from early Portuguese–Bengali intermarriage and Catholic missionary activity along Bengal's coastal and riverine zones, Anglo-Indian Christians developed within British colonial institutions such as education, railways, administration, and urban service economies.

Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework that integrates history, anthropology, religious studies, postcolonial theory, and memory studies, the book foregrounds themes of cultural mediation, syncretism, social marginality, displacement, and historical erasure. It challenges monolithic narratives of Bengali identity by positioning Eurasian Christian histories as integral—rather than peripheral—to the making of Bengal and Bangladesh.

Through archival research, oral histories, church records, and cultural analysis, this study recovers forgotten neighborhoods, communities, and traditions, offering a more plural and inclusive understanding of South Asia's colonial and postcolonial past. Written for scholars, students, and general readers interested in Christianity in Asia, colonial history, and Eurasian identity, this book contributes significantly to global debates on hybridity, minority histories, and cultural transformation.