At the back of the photo above was written “Frank Arthur & servants. 3 years old!” Have you ever wondered who these Indians were? To answer this question, we have to go back to 17th century India.
Founded in 1600, the English East India Company (EIC) had its private armies and dominated over the economy and politics of the Indian subcontinent. This made the Company even more powerful than Britain. In 1611, the Company gained permission to establish its first factory in Masulipatnam located on the Eastern coast of India. In the following decades, more and more factories were built in different parts of India such as Madras and Calcutta. India’s defeat in the Battle of Plassey (1757), Battle of Buxar (1764) and other wars further consolidated the Company’s political domination, and by 1773 the EIC had direct governance of the subcontinent. Calcutta was designated as the capital and Warren Hastings was appointed the first Governor-General. The India Rebellion of 1875 resulted in the transfer of the Company’s rule to the British Crown. The India Office was established in 1858. Direct administration of the British government lasted until the Independence of India in 1947. A social consequence of these political events was regular and prolonged interactions between the Indian and British people.
At first, British merchants and officials in India were mainly unmarried. The married men had to leave their families in their places of origin. During the colonial period, large number of British had to base in India to take up posts in the government and armies. As a result, migration of whole families to the colony became common from the 19th century onwards. In colonial India, a European man was addressed as sahib ‘Sir, Master’, while a European woman was memsahib (English ma’am + sahib).As European men spent most of the time in offices, the responsibility of running the homes was left to the memsahibs. The housewives would not bother themselves with the household chores, as doing menial work would be considered a loss of status. Naturally, the solution was to seek native labourers. It was not unusual for European families to have more than a dozen domestics.1 The number of servants a European household employed reflected the wealth and status of the owners. Series of postcards depicting Indian servants such as the set below also became popular, especially among the British. An ayah was a nursemaid who cared for children. A syce looked after horses.
The British also set foot in Southeast Asia. The Straits Settlements – consisting of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore – were originally ruled by the EIC between 1826 and1867. They became a Crown colony under direct British control in 1867. Nineteenth century Singapore was as multicultural as today. The main ethnic groups were Malay, Tamil, Chinese, and European. Consequently, European households might have servants of different ethnicities. Beginning his career as a shipman in EIC, Jonas D. Vaughan later became a public officer and a lawyer. He told us his impressions of different ethnic servants in his book: “Chinese are excellent domestic servants. They are sober, industrious, methodical, and attentive to their duties…Many residents give the preference to the natives of Madras or Klings as they are called in the Straits. These are invariably drink and are filthy in the extreme. The writer found a Kling cook once beating up a custard pudding with the stump of an old broom.” (p. 20)2
Hong Kong was a Crown colony between 1842 and 1997. As in the other British colonies, domestic servants were indispensable in European households. In Ordinance No. 7 of 1866, the meaning of “servant” was given as follows.3
“The term “Servant” shall mean every Chinese regularly employed in or about the dwelling house, office or business premises of any company, corporation, or person not being Chinese, in any of the following capacities:—
House boy, cook, cook’s mate, amah, coolie, watchman, gardener, coachman, horse boy, and boatman.” (p. 907)
Alfred Weatherhead worked in the Hong Kong Treasury and Supreme Court between 1856 and 1859. In his manuscript entitled Life in Hong Kong: 1856-1859 (pp. 12-13), he gave an imagery dialogue between a European mistress and a Chinese cook. The cook asked the mistress’s permission to excuse him from work so as to get married in Canton.4
Cook: Pakefuss lady sil (Breakfast ready Sir) Missisee – my chin-chin yow, my to morrow can go Cantonside two, three, day.
Mistress: What thing A-keen? What for you wantchee go?
Cook: My go catchee one piecey wife – belong takee care my house – look-see chilo – makey jacket.
In Hong Kong, European women were addressed as missy or missisee. In pidgin English, it was common to find side occurring with locations as in Cantonside. This use of side is similar to the use of 到 dou6 meaning ‘place, side’ in Cantonese grammar. What for was used to ask for reason or purpose. Since pidgin English has a small vocabulary, some words could convey multiple meanings and functions. For example, catchee could mean ‘get, bring, catch, take’, etc. In the cook’s sentence, it was used catchee to mean ‘to marry’.
The mistress granted the cook’s request after hearing his explanation. However, the problem was – who would make the chow-chow (meals)?
Mistress: Suppose my talkee you can go, who man makee cook my chow-chow?
Cook: Maskee – belong my young blother can do – can boilum cay-chun, can roastum fowls – can makee No. 1 pudding, allo cook pigeon can fixee – no cazion feelo.
Suppose was like ‘if’ in conditional sentences. Maskee was like saying ‘never mind’. The cook assured the mistress that his brother could make different dishes like cay-chun 雞春 (i.e. chicken eggs), fowls, and pudding, therefore she should have no cazion feelo – no occasion to fear. The extra syllable –ee was commonly added to pidgin words, other endings like -um and -o as in boilum ‘boil’ and allo ‘all’ respectively could also be found.
Some Europeans would attempt to learn the local languages. Maye Wood wrote a phrasebook called Malay for Mems to allow the newly arrived European wives to learn the most basic and essential vocabulary and expressions in Malay.5 In Shanghai, Gilbert McIntosh compiled Useful Phrases in the Shanghai Dialect (1908) to help residents and visitors to learn everyday words and phrases in the local dialect. Chapters were specially devoted to teaching readers to hold conversations with Chinese cook, houseboy and coolie, amah, tailor, washerman, and mafoo (i.e. groom).6
1 Chaudhuri, Nupur. 1994. Memsahibs and their servants in nineteenth-century India. Women’s History Review 3(4): 549-562.
2 Vaughan, J.D. 1879. The Manners and Customs of the Chinese of the Straits Settlements. Singapore: Mission Press.
3 Leach, A.J. 1890. The Ordinances of the Legislative Council of the Colony of Hongkong Commencing with the Year 1844. Vol. II. Hongkong: Noronha & Co., Government Printers.
4 Weatherhead, Alfred. n.d. Life in Hong Kong: 1856-1859. Manuscript.
5 Wood, Maye. 1949. Malay for Mems. Fifth edition.Singapore: Kelly & Walsh.
6 McIntosh, Gilbert. 1908. Useful Phrases in the Shanghai Dialect (second edition). Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press.