Without my knowing exactly who they were, “Raj orphans” peopled my early reading. The odd Boy who “sees” Arrietty in The Borrowers puzzlingly explains that he can’t read properly because he’s bilingual. Sallow, peevish Mary of The Secret Garden is quite literally an orphan of the Empire; she is sent home from India after a cholera epidemic kills both her parents. I didn’t pity these lonely, parentless children — their very loneliness was the catalyst of conflict and adventure in these beloved stories.
Old Filth by Jane Gardam is the birth-to-death tale of one Raj orphan in particular, Sir Edward Feathers, called “Old Filth” by his friends and colleagues (Failed in London, Try Hong Kong). As was the custom, Edward was torn from his home in Malaya as a very young child and shipped “Home” to an England he had never known, there to be raised by malignant strangers and indifferent relations.
At the end of his life, Old Filth embarks on a journey greater than any he’s undergone before: a search for the roots of the memory and desire that have haunted him since his Malay days.
I just finished Gardam’s Old Filth and now am very curious about “raj orphans”, but a cursory search through the web, as well as my library leaves me bereft. Anyone know of sources to read of “empire” or “raj” orphans? I understand that Rudyard Kipling’s biographical “Something of Myself” discusses his life as a “raj” orphan, but that’s all I’ve found so far.
I did a Google search on them too and didn’t come up with anything. I think Gardam listed some references at the end of Old Filth but my copy came from the library so I don’t have it to hand.