A short thread on a 19th-century satirical poem on British imperial rule in India and the most fascinating origin of the unusual name of the said protagonist Qui Hi (1/n) 
‘The Grand Master; or, Adventures of Qui Hi? in Hindostan’ by an anonymous poet ‘Quiz’ published in 1816, tells a story of the misadventures of a young English author Qui Hi who always finds himself under heavy debt (2/n)
The satire goes on mocking East India company’s imperial policies, Hindu prejudices and the campaigns by the missionaries to convert Indians, accompanied by amazing illustrations with engravings by Rowlandson (3/n)
We go back to the history of colonial India to allude to the fantastic origin of the name Qui Hi. When the British colonized the Indian sub-continent, they needed a loyal community to run their business and administrative services (4/n)
So they began encouraging British men to marry Indian women to form the next generation. Thus came the Anglo-Indians who were loyal to the British and ran the bulk of civil services like railways, post-offices, police, education etc. without much hassle (5/n)
The Company even paid handsome family allowance through silver rupees for each Anglo-Indian child born to a European father and an Indian mother. The British Raj protected the Anglo-Indians and ensured their comfort (6/n)
Traditionally, the affluent Anglo-Indian families had at least three full-time servants - a cook, a bearer, and a nanny (ayah). There were also part-time gardeners, cleaners, and laundrymen (dhobhi) (7/n)
Also, Anglo-Indians learnt Hindi so they could give orders or bargain, with the servants and toss a dozen Hindi phrases around at the same time. However, with Parsee servants, they would use mostly English and they would refer to them as ‘boy’ (8/n)
But, in Hindi, the Anglo Indians of Bengal would call their servants “Koi Hain?” - which translates to “Anybody there?” as there were no bells in use in the Colonial era. A servant would likely appear in front of the Sahib to answer his call (9/n)
This frequent call of “Koi Hain?” to their servants, earned the Anglo Indians of Bengal a unique sobriquet of ‘Kooee Hye’ or simple ‘Qui hi’ (10/n)
Most Europeans of other regions would call them Qui-his which is nothing but the Hindi phrase “Koi Hain?” lost in translation (11/n)
Acknowledgement: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts / Ministry of Culture (GOI), Anglo-Indian Domestic Life: A Letter from an Artist in India to His Mother in England By Colesworthey Grant and The Statesman/R V Smith
Pictures courtesy: Wikimedia
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