Let me say something about Kenneth and the Anglo-Indian community in India. Article 366 of the Indian constitution defines Anglo-Indian as a person whose father or any male progenitors in the male line is or was of European descent but who is domiciled within the territory of India. The origin of Anglo-Indians can be traced to the 15th and 16th centuries when the Portuguese encouraged their countrymen to marry Indian women in Goa. Some historians see this as a ploy enacted by the Portuguese to gain political dominance in the subcontinent. It may be true. The trend gained popularity wherever Europeans and Englishmen worked. Let us not analyze the political history, the warring Indian kings, the dominance of the European powers, their rulings and taxations and wealth creation in India. I would prefer to comment on the Anglo-Indian parenting style that was unique and different from many Indian families.
I had a good knowledge of their parenting style as I was associated with many Anglo-Indian families in Coimbatore in the early 1990s. The parenting style that attracted me was, unlike the Indian parents, who were fixated at that time on Medical and Engineering education to their children, as a personal or family prestige and, forced their children to study those courses even if the children have no aptitude for that study. The Anglo-Indian parenting style was much, much appreciable at that time to give freedom to their children to practice the trade they like. This attracted me a lot to their culture and lifestyle. Nowadays, we can hardly see any Anglo-Indians in India as they have migrated to many countries. Even India removed the Anglo-Indian nominee to the Lok Sabha, a privilege given in the Indian Constitution article 331.
Coming back to Kenneth Anderson, he is a Bangalore Anglo-Indian of Scottish origin. Wikipedia mentions him as a writer, for me, he is primarily an adventurer and secondarily, a writer. He is not a poacher or killer of wildlife by the recent standards. Hunting was permitted at that time, with no intention of destroying the wildlife and emptying the forests. People had different thinking at that time. Most of his writings are about his jungle adventures and his courageous killing of animals that were a great disturbance to many poor village people.
I have travelled many times by bus, in the 1980s near Denkanikottai, Plalacode area. I have visited Thalli and, visited Jawalagiri. The places are developing, and the forestland has dwindled. The people have forgotten the story of the man-eating tiger that happened some 60, 70 years back and the Bangalore Anglo-Indian Kenneth Anderson.
Jawalagiri in Tamil Nadu is around 50 km from my place in Bangalore. Jawalagiri is situated in the Krishnagiri District of Tamil Nadu. Hosur is 37 km from here, Denkanikottai 18km, and Thalli just 9 km. Now one can situate where Jawalagiri lies. It is a bordering village that falls between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Though the place is in Tamil Nadu, most people are bilingual and probably more Kannada-speaking than Tamil. The border line between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the Google map weirdly turning here and there in the area.
I still wonder how state boundaries were divided/set after independence. The dam is built to provide water to a state, but it is situated in another state. I have noticed these kinds of interstate issues in many places. The people speak one language, but the village belongs to another state. Funny political divisions made by some uncouth morons.
Jowlagiri has a Reserve Forest; some places are still under the forest; on the way to Denkanikottai in the East and Anchetty, Hogenakkal, and Ponnagaram in the South we see Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. The area is also infamous for wildlife conflicts, especially elephants. One of my students has a farm there. Though I visited his place last year, now I thought of taking a solo motorcycle ride to see the beauty of the hilly terrain and have the desired enjoyment in my retired life.
The ride was pleasant and memorable in many ways. The first time my motorcycle entered Tamil Nadu. Though I had driven this motorcycle extensively, more than 5,000 km in Assam, Nagaland and Manipur, this was the first time visited Tamil Nadu.
After the lunch we had a brief walk in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary situated in the Eastern Ghats, on the backside of my student's farmland. The compound wall was broken by the Wild elephants a few times in recent times when the mango in the farm is ripened.