Summary of B.M. Croker, "Her Own People"
Tags: Eurasian community, Mixed race Anglo-Indians, Moneylending, Railways, Lucknow, Oude (Awadh, Ayodhya), Romance fiction
The story begins in the European spa town of Homburg, where Captain Malcolm Haig is encouraged by his uncle, Sir Horace, to pursue the prospect of a marriage with a wealthy woman to solve his financial woes. There, Malcolm encounters Verona Chandos, a strikingly beautiful girl living as the adopted daughter of the fabulously wealthy Madame de Godez. Verona is presented as a "Princess" of high society, though she admits a deep-seated "horror of dusky complexions" and an unexplained "wild wish to see India," where her aunt (Madame de Godez) lived for many years. This European prologue sets the stage for a dramatic reversal of fortune; upon the sudden death of Madame de Godez, who dies intestate, her fortune passes to distant Scotch kin, leaving Verona penniless and forced to seek out her biological parents in India.
The narrative then shifts its geographical focus to India, specifically the region of Rajahpore and the Manora Sugar Factory. The landscape is characterized by a "flat, white road" and a "sea of cultivation" dominated by sugar-cane and millet crops that stretch to the horizon. This setting serves as a stark contrast to Verona’s former life in Homburg and the Riviera. Upon her arrival at the Rajahpore railway station—a "seething" platform of strange faces and costumes—she meets her father, Paul Chandos. He is an elderly, shabby gentleman who was once a cavalry officer but now lives as a "mere bottle-washer" and subordinate in the sugar works.
Verona's integration into her "home" at Manora reveals the complexities of Anglo-Indian and Eurasian culture. The Chandos bungalow is a large, dark, and airless building furnished with "blackwood carved furniture" and reeking of "musk and coffee". Verona is horrified to discover that her family are dark-skinned Eurasians, a class frequently looked down upon by the "pure" European station society in the cantonment. Her mother, Rosie Chandos, is a small, dark woman who speaks in a high "staccato" key and "purest Chi-Chi" accent. Her sisters—the loud-mouthed Blanche, the sweet but indolent Pussy, and the ambitious, red-haired Dominga—represent different facets of this marginalized social class.
The novel places a significant emphasis on Indian domestic life and customs. Verona observes the daily routine of chotah hazri (early breakfast), tiffin (lunch), and the essential siesta taken during the heat of the day. The presence of an ayah (nursemaid), syce (groom), and khidmutgar (waiter) highlights the reliance on native labor within the Anglo-Indian household. One of the most vivid cultural portraits is that of Verona’s grandmother, Nani Lopez, a "fat old person" who lives in the Dufta (Daftar, office) and preserves traditional habits. Nani is depicted eating curry and rice with her hands, a practice she defends as being more natural than using European utensils.
Mysticism and superstition are deeply woven into the narrative through Nani’s character. She is a firm believer in omens, crystals, and "ink pools" used for divination. She frequently employs Hindustani proverbs to explain the twists of fate, such as "it is always dark under the lamp". Nani also provides historical depth to the setting, recounting her personal memories of the Mutiny and her visit to the Bibighar in Cawnpore, which she describes as a place of "horrors and fear and death".
A major sub-plot explores the predatory nature of usury in Indian society. Mrs. Chandos is secretly revealed to be Saloo, a notorious and ruthless sowcar (money-lender) who has spent twenty years "grinding down the faces of the poor". Through her agent, Abdul Buk, she extorts interest rates as high as seventy percent from the local ryots (cultivators). This cultural and economic theme is brought to a tragic climax with the story of Razat Sing, an old man who hangs himself after being driven from his ancestral home by Saloo's debt collectors. The legal and moral investigation into this underworld is led by Brian Salwey, the District Superintendent of Police, who eventually exposes Mrs. Chandos’s secret life.
The geographical locations of Lucknow and the Terai also play pivotal roles. The story culminates in a grand charity ball at the Chutter-Munzil (the former Palace of the Kings of Oude) in Lucknow, where the social divide between the "pure" English and the Eurasians is most visible. It is here that Brian Salwey proposes to Verona, and she encounters her biological aunt, Lady Ida Eustace. Meanwhile, the "Honourable" Jimmy Fielder, an aristocrat who has been "banished" to India to avoid a scandalous match at home, retreats to the Terai for tiger-shooting, attempting to escape the clutches of the ambitious Dominga Chandos.
The climax of the story occurs back at the railway gate crossing near the factory, where Dominga attempts to elope with Jimmy. In a scene of high drama, Verona thwarts the elopement by extinguishing the signal lamp, leading to Dominga’s "passionate Oriental despair" when the train fails to stop. This event precipitates the final revelation: under pressure, Mrs. Chandos confesses that Verona is not her daughter but the child of Lady Vera Bourne, an earl's daughter who had eloped with a poor officer and died in India. Mrs. Chandos had switched her own deceased infant for the English baby to secure a legacy left by the girl's father.
The resolution sees Verona restored to her true English heritage, as she is claimed by the Sombourne family and eventually joins Lady Ida in London. Paul Chandos, the man she long believed to be her father, dies peacefully at Manora, having chosen to remain in India despite inheriting the family estate of Charne Hall, as he could not bring himself to introduce his usurer wife to English society. Dominga, showing the "tenacity" of her race, eventually coerces Jimmy Fielder into marriage, becoming the "Honourable Mrs. Fielder" and successfully adapting to life in London, albeit with a son who bears a "fatal resemblance" to his dark Indian cousins. The novel concludes with Verona and Brian Salwey finding happiness together in England, while the Chandos bungalow at Manora remains a silent monument to the past, inhabited only by sparrows, crows, and the tame squirrel, Johnny, who still waits for Verona's return.
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