Representations of Interracial relationships in Voices in the Night and On the Face of the Waters by Flora Annie Steel

Interracial relationships and marriages were a controversial matter in colonial India. During the first few decades it was fairly tolerated as a measure of convenience by the British colonial power. But as the years wore on, attitudes began to change and rigidity set in. Such relationships were no longer encouraged and they also entailed many disadvantages for an Anglo-Indian in the social life of Anglo-India. In this article, I have tried to show how Flora Annie Steel, a female Anglo-Indian novelist, has presented interracial relationships at the turn of the 19th century in two of her novels. I have shown that she has remained truthful to reality. By showing such relationships from different perspectives, Flora Annie Steel has proved that such unions were unwanted and undesirable to both the concerned communities in British India.