The Duchess and Duke of Sussex had a baby, their first child, on May 6, 2019. Typically, younger children of royalty traditionally lower in lineage to the throne command scarce public attention. Few have followed the lives of Princes Andrew and Edward, younger brothers of Prince Charles, next in line to the British monarchy. Yet Archie Harrison, as the baby has since been named, has been a media cynosure from the day he was born. While most else that preceded his birth has been along predictable lines, it is his mother who paved the way for this global interest.

Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s wife, is a most unconventional choice by royal standards in Britain. She is three years older than the prince and a divorcee, like his great-granduncle Edward VIII’s wife, Mrs Simpson. Again like Mrs Simpson, she is American. But unlike any other royal spouse in intense proximity to Buckingham Palace, she is black, a product of mixed lineage.

Unlike Britain, race relations have concerned the US in a more complex manner. Racial prejudice was institutionalised and over time, states and courts attempted definition for the complexities thereof. Post slavery, the Jim Crow laws set the pace for segregation. As recently as 1970, a Louisiana law defined as black anyone who had 1/32 African American blood—a legislation that was upheld by a state court in 1985. America would thus classify the Duchess, born to an African-American mother, as black. Britain would possibly be too stupefied but to accept.

Political correctness in an ever diminishing world space has buried colonial excesses. Universal suffrage and equality regardless of colour, creed or gender have governed the post-colonial era. However, till not so long ago, Britain as the largest coloniser in modern times set the rules that determined social equations within the empire. Military effort may have stretched territorial boundaries but significant imagination was deployed to retain the colonies. Amongst other measures, this included undermining the culture and racial character of the conquered.

While cultural subjugation can often be subconscious, a more obvious and cruel form of establishing superiority was racial. Physical characteristics determined social standing and capability. So God decided one’s ethnicity and the King Emperor took over thereafter. The concept of apartheid was fine-tuned and social hierarchies established. Fifty or more shades of white, black and everything in between were accorded definition and destiny.

One could well argue that the mighty have historically pulverised, the caste system in India being an example. However, ramifications of colonial mores were more widespread and influenced perception as no greater precedent historically.

During the colonisation of the Indian subcontinent, the northern state of Punjab was one of the last to be annexed by the British. Wary of its powerful ruler, Ranjit Singh, the British avoided military confrontation. Upon his death however, a series of mechanisations disarmed the ruling family that included exile of the minor son and heir Dalip Singh to England. Here he was raised away from his mother, state and culture. He was converted to Christianity and grew up alien to his filial bearing and cultural mores.

Over time, Punjab was as alien to him culturally as it was distant physically. Any challenge he might have posed as a rallying point for rebel forces was slyly eliminated.

Racial subjugation was as prevalent. Situations and sites where non-whites were not allowed were notified. In Shimla, the summer capital, natives were not allowed on the Mall, the main artery, or on the Ridge, the largest congregational space adjacent to Christ Church. They circumvented their way along Cart Road, with goods and animals. Many clubs, institutes and neighbourhoods were only for whites. It was when Sir Jamsetji Tata was evicted from Watson’s Hotel, an all-white lodge in erstwhile Bombay that he pledged to build a bigger and better hotel. The Taj Mahal Hotel was the outcome.

The entire physical narrative of imperial India was geared towards an enforcement of this dictum. New Delhi was built at a distance from Shahjehanabad, the existing native township. Government House, the Viceroy’s residence since renamed Rashtrapati Bhawan, was located atop a hillock at a distance from the nearest point of visual access. It spelt grandeur and inspired awe, in one stroke reinforcing the invincibility and inaccessibility of the rulers.  

This inaccessibility had to be retained if awe was to be sustained. Local rulers often married white women whom they met on excursions to Europe or encountered in India. This was not acceptable to the government. While the native spouses of the “maharajas” and “nawabs” were accorded recognition at functions, the European wives were not. Neither were their offspring.

Likewise, children of mixed parentage classified as Anglo-Indian were never accorded the status of British, howsoever white they may be. While children of a white father and a native mother qualified as Anglo-Indian and could thus avail permitted benefits, children where the mother was white and the father a native were not eligible.

Segregation was important to maintain respect and race—not religion or cultural affiliation—became the decisive narrative. Understandably, the post-colonial aura around the white man lingers on. A queer phenomenon of “reverse discrimination” dominated interaction long after colonialism faded wherein Caucasians benefited from the awe and respect inherently accorded to them in newly independent colonies. With time however, this is slowly changing.

Today a global economy ties the world together and often skill is sourced regardless of affiliation. Migration levels are at their highest since the Second World War with Europe absorbing a diaspora mostly from north Africa and the Middle East. An inherent affinity of language and shared history often channels migration from the colonies to the coloniser. This has resulted in the coexistence of the same peoples again, albeit on very different terms. In the years to come, a demographic tilt may redefine the terms of coexistence again.

Amidst this social churning we have the birth of a royal that defines times to come. The sanctum sanctorum of racial hierarchy in whose name lands were conquered and races defiled, stands affected. In today’s context this may seem a very natural step yet less than a century back, it was unimaginable. In hindsight, after a few decades, Archie’s birth could be read differently. But its significance may well stand undiminished.