Company seemed directed towards the obliteration of any distinction between Eurasians and natives, except that the former were actually debarred from certain employments open to the latter.
In 1825 a movement was organised by the community itself to obtain emancipation from these unjust regulations. John William Ricketts (the son of an ensign in the Engineers who fell at Seringapatam), Da Costa, Wordsworth, Martindale, Imlach, Henry De Rozario (the Eurasian poet), and Charles Pote (the painter), together with other leading men of the race, drafted and signed a petition to Parliament praying for the amelioration of their condition. This petition was entrusted to the care of Ricketts. A sum of twelve thousand rupees was subscribed to meet the expense of taking it home and getting it presented.
Just at the time of Ricketts's arrival in England (1830) Parliament was engrossed with the burning question of reform, and there was little thought for anything else. The petition, however, was heard, and there was a debate upon it in both Houses. Ricketts was examined at length before a Select Committee. He was able to explain in detail the disabilities under which the Eurasians laboured. He pointed out that people of mixed British and Asiatic blood were not recognised as British subjects by the Supreme Courts if they happened to be resident outside the Presidency towns. They were subject to Mohammedan law, and were therefore excluded from the benefits of habeas corpus and trial by jury. They were also excluded from all superior covenanted offices; neither were they allowed to act as pleaders in the Courts, nor could they hold commissions in the King's or the Company's services, though they might serve in the irregular forces. The private schools for the education of their children received no assistance from Government. In
