Foxy,
She’s from India but the family tree for 400 years is Portuguese.
She has no known Indian ancestors, but there’s bound to be some as the Portuguese often married locals.

Hi Issy and Foxy

I like the line from some Englishman in India to a local; "Your custom is to burn women, our custom is to hang men who burn women, you follow your custom, and we shall follow ours,"

Was the British Empire a positive or a negative, that was very much dependent on what side of the fence you were on at the time. Robert Clive and Cecil Rhodes were certainly on the right side of the fence. I can't say the same for some poor Chinese opium smoker, or African slave sent to the sugar plantations of the Caribbean. There were winners, but also many losers throughout the Empire.

The women not burned on funeral fires in India, a bit like saying "Hitler did build autobahns" now that was a positive.

For me the jury is still out as to wether the British or the Roman Empire was the more benign.

Is Mise,

Your wife's ancestry is Portugese?

You lucky man!

Hi Paul,

The British Empire was not even close to being perfect.
But it was not the cruel and evil and inhumane force
that some today may think it was.

As I stated earlier it does have a fascinating history
(as does the Roman Empire). It has exciting cities, rich
cultural traditions, historic sites at every turn, from
pre-historic and ancient Roman sites, to centuries old
castles and town centres dating back to the Middle Ages.
Well connected by trains, buses, and motorways.

I have family living in London - and I'm still hoping to
visit someday - once this pandemic and my health improves.
I want to travel all over Europe, including Germany,
\Lithuania and Russia. Whether I will - is of course
another matter. But hope keeps me going.

was not the cruel and evil and inhumane force
that some today may think it was.
Foxy,
Read "Nathaniel'S Nutmeg" if you want to know about cruelty !

individual,

Thanks for the book.

It sounds interesting and I shall look into it.
It could be just the thing I need being in
lockdown in Victoria.

Actually some interesting commentary here, and one could add for a great historical overview of U.K. immigration over the centuries is Robert Winder's 'Bloody Immigrants: The Story of Immigration to Britain' (from Good Reads):

'Immigration is one of the most important stories of modern British life, yet it has been happening since Caesar first landed in 53 BC. Ever since the first Roman, Saxon, Jute and Dane leaped off a boat we have been a mongrel nation. Our roots are a tangled web.

From Huguenot weavers fleeing French Catholic persecution in the 18th century to South African dentists to Indian shopkeepers; from Jews in York in the 12th century (who had to wear a yellow star to distinguish them and who were shamefully expelled by Edward I in 1272) to the Jamaican who came on board the Windrush in 1947.

The first Indian MP was elected in 1892, Walter Tull, the first black football player played (for Spurs and Northampton) before WW1 (and died heroically fighting for the allies in the last months of the war); in 1768 there were 20,000 black people in London (out of a population of 600,000 - a similar percentage to today).

The 19th century brought huge numbers of Italians, Irish, Jews (from Russia and Poland mainly), Germans and Poles. This book draws all their stories together in a compelling narrative.'