The Social Evolution of the Term "Half-Caste" in Britain: The Paradox of its Use as Both Derogatory Racial Category and Self-Descriptor

The term half-caste had its origins in nineteenth century British colonial administrations, emerging in the twentieth century as the quotidian label for those whose ancestry comprised multiple ethnic/racial groups, usually encompassing White. From the 1920s-1960s the term was used in Britain as a derogatory racial category associated with the moral condemnation of miscegenation. Yet today the label continues to be used as a self-descriptor and even survives in some official contexts. This paradox - of both derogatory racial category and self descriptor - is explored in the context of the term's social evolution, drawing upon the theoretical constructs of the internal-external dialectic of identification and labelling theory.