:''Not to be confused with Mauritania.''

Coordinates	52°34′″N20°0′″N
Native name	''Republik MorisRépublique de Maurice''
Conventional long name	Republic of Mauritius
Common name	Mauritius or L'ile Maurice
Image coat	Coat of arms of Mauritius.svg
National motto	''"Stella Clavisque Maris Indici"''(Latin)"Star and Key of the Indian Ocean"
National anthem	"Motherland"
Official languages	English
Capital	Port Louis
Languages type	Vernacular
Languages	Mauritian Creole, French, English, Rodriguan Creole
Demonym	Mauritian
Largest city and capital	Port Louis
Government type	Parliamentary republic
Leader title1	President
Leader name1	Sir Anerood Jugnauth
Leader title2	Prime Minister
Leader name2	Navin Ramgoolam
Legislature	Parliament
Cabinet	Cabinet of MinistersPtr-MSM-PMSD
Lower house	National Assembly
Sovereignty type	Independence
Sovereignty note	from the United Kingdom
Established event1	Date
Established date1	12 March 1968
Established event2	Republic
Established date2	12 March 1992
Area rank	179th
Area magnitude	1 E9
Area km2	2,040
Area sq mi	787
Percent water	0.05
Population estimate	1,288,000
Population estimate rank	151st
Population estimate year	2008
Population census	1,179,137
Population census year	2000
Population density km2	631.4
Population density sq mi	1,636.5
Population density rank	18th
Gdp ppp	$18.061 billion
Gdp ppp year	2010
Gdp ppp per capita	$14,097
Gdp nominal	$9.729 billion
Gdp nominal year	2010
Gdp nominal per capita	$7,593
Hdi	0.701
Hdi rank	72nd
Hdi year	2010
Hdi category	high
Currency	Mauritian rupee
Currency code	MUR
Country code	230
Time zone	MUT
Utc offset	+4
Utc offset dst	+5 (2008 only)
Drives on	left
Cctld	.mu
Calling code	230
free label 1	Dependencies
free 1	Rodrigues, Agalega Islands}}

Mauritius (; Mauritian Creole: ''Moris''; , ), officially the Republic of Mauritius (Mauritian Creole: ''Republik Moris''; ) is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar. In addition to the island of Mauritius, the Republic includes the islands of Cargados Carajos, Rodrigues and the Agalega Islands. Mauritius Island is part of the Mascarene Islands, with the French island of Réunion to the southwest and the island of Rodrigues to the northeast. Mauritius's area is 2040 km²; its capital city is Port Louis.

The British took control of the islands during the Napoleonic Wars, and Mauritius became independent from the UK in 1968. It is a parliamentary republic and is a member of the Southern African Development Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the African Union, La Francophonie and the Commonwealth of Nations. Mauritius has an upper middle income economy.

The main languages spoken in Mauritius are Mauritian Creole, French and English. English is the only official language but the lingua franca is Mauritian Creole and the newspapers and television programmes are usually in French. Rodriguan Creole is a minority language and is spoken in certain parts of the country only. The country is composed of several ethnicities, including Asian, African, Chinese and French. The first European explorers found no indigenous people living on the island.

The island of Mauritius is renowned for having been the only known home of the dodo. This bird was an easy prey to settlers due to its weight and inability to fly, and became extinct fewer than eighty years after the initial European colonization.

History

For a long time the island of Mauritius was unknown and uninhabited. It was first visited by the Arab sailors during the Middle Ages who named it Dina Arobi. In 1507, Portuguese sailors visited the island uninhabited and established a visiting base. The Portuguese sailor Domingo Fernandez Pereira was probably the first European to land on the island at around 1511. The island appears with a Portuguese name `Cirne' on early Portuguese maps, probably because of the presence of the Dodo, a flightless bird which was found in great numbers at that time. Another Portuguese sailor, Don Pedro Mascarenhas, gave the name Mascarenes to the group of islands now known as Mauritius, Rodrigues and Reunion. The Portuguese did not stay long as they were not interested in these islands.

In 1598, a Dutch squadron, under the orders of Admiral Wybrand Van Warwyck, landed at Grand Port and named the island "Mauritius", in honour of Prince Maurice Van Nassau, "Stathouder" of Holland. However, it was not until 1638 that there was a first attempt of Dutch settlement. It was from here that the famous Dutch navigator Tasman set out to discover the western part of Australia. The first Dutch settlement lasted only twenty years. Several attempts were subsequently made, but the settlements never developed enough to produce dividends and the Dutch finally left Mauritius in 1710. They are remembered for the introduction of sugar-cane, domestic animals, and deer.

France, which already controlled neighboring Île Bourbon (now Réunion), took control of Mauritius in 1715 and later renamed it Île de France (Isle of France). The arrival of French governor, Mahé de La Bourdonnais in 1735 coincided with the development of a prosperous economy based on sugar production. Mahé de La Bourdonnais established Port Louis as a naval base and a ship-building centre. Under his governorship, numerous buildings were built, a number of which are still standing today - part of Government House, the Chateau de Mon Plaisir at Pamplemousses, and the Line Barracks. The island was under the administration of the French East India Company which maintained its presence until 1767.

From 1767 to 1810, except for a brief period during the French Revolution when the inhabitants set up a government virtually independent of France, the island came under the control of officials appointed by the French government. During the Napoleonic wars, the "Isle de France" became a base from which French corsairs organised successful raids on British commercial ships. The raids continued until 1810 when a strong British expedition was sent to capture the island. Despite winning the Battle of Grand Port, Napoleon's only naval victory over the British, the French surrendered to a British invasion at Cap Malheureux three months later. They formally surrendered on 3 December 1810, on terms allowing settlers to keep their land and property and to use the French language and law of France in criminal and civil matters. Under British rule, the island's name reverted to the original one. Mauritius then went on to become independent in 1968. It became a republic in 1992.

The British administration, which began with Robert Farquhar as governor, was followed by rapid social and economic changes. Slavery was abolished in 1835. The planters received two million pounds sterling in compensation for the loss of their slaves who had been imported from Africa and Madagascar during the French occupation. The abolition of slavery had important repercussions on the socio-economic and demographic fields. The planters turned to India, bringing in a large number of indentured labourers to work in the sugar cane fields. Between 1834 and 1921, around half a million indentured labourers were present on the island. They worked on sugar estates, factories, in transport and construction sites. Additionally, the British brought 8740 Indian soldiers to the islands.

Indians mainly originated from Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. The first group arrived in 1721 from Bengal and Pondicherry. Most were Bengali Muslims or Tamil Christians. Port-Louis was divided into three sectors, with the Indian community in the eastern suburb of ‘Camp de Malabar’. A great number of Hindus from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were brought as indentured labourers. There was also massive immigration from Madagascar, Southern and Eastern Africa, Mozambique and Comoros. Chinese immigrants who were in commerce also arrived later and the colony was transformed into a predominantly Asiatic population. The expanding marketing sector also attracted many Muslim traders from North India.

As the Indian population became numerically dominant and the voting franchise was extended, political power shifted from the Franco-Mauritian and their Creole allies to the Indo-Mauritian. Cultivation of sugar cane flourished, for export of sugar to England. Economic progress saw improvement of the means of communication and a gradual upgrading of infrastructure.

Politics

Mauritius is a democracy with a Government elected every five years. A general election took place on May 5, 2010 in all the 20 mainland constituencies, as well as the constituency covering the island of Rodrigues. Historically, elections have tended to be a contest between two major coalitions of parties. In international affairs, Mauritius is part of the Indian Ocean Commission, the Southern African Development Community and the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French speaking countries), amongst others. A more complete list can be found in the main Politics of Mauritius article.

In 2006 Mauritius asked to be an observing member of Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) in order to become closer to those countries.

According to the 2009 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which measures governance using a number of different variables, Mauritius' government earned the highest rank for "participation and human rights" and "sustainable economic opportunity", as well as earning the highest score in the index overall. Mauritius came second in "rule of law", and fourth in terms of "human development".

!Office Held!!Office Holder!!Incumbency
President of the Republic of Mauritius	President	Anerood Jugnauth
Vice President of Mauritius	Vice President	Monique Ohsan Bellepeau
List of Prime Ministers of Mauritius	Prime Minister	Navin Ramgoolam
Deputy Prime Minister	Rashid Beebeejaun
Deputy Prime Minister	Vice Prime Minister	Xavier Luc Duval
Deputy Prime Minister	Vice Prime Minister	Anil Bachoo
Senior Minister	Sheila Bappoo
Leader of Opposition	Leader of the Opposition	Paul Raymond Berenger

Geography

Together with Réunion and Rodrigues, Mauritius is part of the Mascarene Islands. This archipelago was formed in a series of undersea volcanic eruptions 8-10 million years ago, as the African plate drifted over the Réunion hotspot. They are no longer volcanically active, and the hotspot now rests under Réunion. The island of Mauritius itself is formed around a central plateau, with its highest peak in the southwest, Piton de la Petite Rivière Noire at . Around the plateau, the original crater can still be distinguished from several mountains.

The island's capital and largest city is Port Louis, in the northwest. Other important towns are Rose-Hill and Beau-Bassin, Curepipe, Vacoas, Phoenix, Quatre Bornes.

Climate

The local climate is tropical, modified by southeast trade winds; there is a warm, dry winter from May to November and a hot, wet, and humid summer from November to May. Anti-cyclones affect the country during May to September. Cyclones affect the country during November–April. Hollanda (1994) and Dina (2002) were the worst two last cyclones to have affected the island.

Environment

The environment in Mauritius is typically tropical in the coastal regions with forests in the mountainous areas. Seasonal cyclones are destructive to the flora and fauna, however they recover quickly.

Mauritius has a Ministry of Environment that is responsible for the cleanliness of the island. One of its tasks is garbage and litter collection at public places, and it does an admirable job in the areas it services. Environmental complaints can be filed online and requests for Environmental Awareness can also be made. The estuaries are becoming polluted due to garbage which is dumped into the inland ravines by the refuse companies contracted by the Ministry of Environment. This creates a huge problem with regards to toxic water flow into the various estuaries which also has a adverse effect on various marine life.

Demographics

The population estimate for the whole republic is 1,283,415. For the island of Mauritius only, as at 31 December 2010, it is 1,245,289. Mauritian society includes people from many different ethnic groups. The republic's residents are the descendants of people from India (Indo-Mauritian), continental Africa (Mauritian Creole people usually known as 'Creoles' in Mauritian Creole), France (Franco-Mauritian) and China (Sino-Mauritian), among other places.

Religion

{{bar box |title=Religion in Mauritius |titlebar=#ddd |left1=religion |right1=percentage |float=right |bars= }} Hindus make up 52%, Roman Catholic 27.5 %, other Christians 8.6%, Muslims 16.6% and non-religious 0.4% while other religions up to 2.5%, and an additional 0.3% didn't specify their religious beliefs.

Most Franco-Mauritians and Mauritian Creoles are Christian. A small minority of the Muslim and the Hindu population are of South Asia origin [needs clarification]. However, many Mauritians are of mixed descent; this is due to the fact that many of the slaves were mixed up causing many 'mixed races'. These languages are still preserved through the existence of different socio-cultural organizations and with the school systems obliging primary schools' students to study an oriental language. A minority of people are of Chinese descent, many of whom have embraced Christianity, following mainly Roman Catholicism. Some follow Buddhism and Confucian traditions.

Districts and dependencies

The island of Mauritius itself is divided into nine districts:

# Black River (Capital: Bambous) # Flacq (Capital: Centre de Flacq) # Grand Port (Capital: Mahébourg) # Moka (Capital: Quartier Militaire) # Pamplemousses (Capital: Triolet) # Plaines Wilhems (Capital: Rose-Hill) # Port Louis (Capital of Mauritius) # Rivière du Rempart (Capital: Mapou) # Savanne (Capital: Souillac)

Dependencies

Rodrigues, an island east of Mauritius, which attained limited autonomy in October 2002. It had the status of the 10th administrative district of Mauritius before autonomy was attained.

Agalega Islands, two islands 1100 km north of Mauritius

Cargados Carajos

Fishing banks

Four fishing banks fall within EEZ limits:

Soudan Banks (including East Soudan Bank)

Nazareth Bank

Saya de Malha Bank

Hawkins Bank

Claimed as dependencies

Mauritius also claims the following territories:

Tromelin Island, currently in French possession.

Chagos Archipelago, currently a British possession as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).

Economy

Since independence in 1968, Mauritius has developed from a low-income, agriculturally based economy to a middle income diversified economy with growing industrial, financial, and tourist sectors. For most of the period, annual growth has been of the order of 5% to 6%, far above the sub-Saharan African average. Despite the rapid growth, that growth has been equitable and income equality has improved as its Gini coefficient fell from 0.457 to 0.389 between 1980 and 2006. This has been reflected in increased life expectancy, lowered infant mortality and improved infrastructure.

Estimated at US$12,356 for 2009 at purchasing power parity (PPP), Mauritius has the sixth-highest GDP per capita in Africa, behind Seychelles (US$19,274 at PPP), Equatorial Guinea (US$16,853 at PPP), Gabon (US$14,421 at PPP), Libya (US$14,381 at PPP) and Botswana (US$13,417 at PPP). The economy is mainly dependent on sugarcane plantations, tourism, textiles, and services, but other sectors such as seafood processing, information technology and medical tourism are rapidly developing as well. Mauritius, Libya, and Seychelles are the only three African nations with a "high" Human Development Index rating. Réunion, as part of France, is not listed by the UN in their Human Development Index ranking.

Sugar cane is grown on about 90% of the cultivated land area and accounts for 25% of export earnings. Mauritius is a good example of a monocrop economy but since it is no more dependent only upon agriculture, using this term would not be apt. However, a record-setting drought severely damaged the sugar crop in 1999. The government's development strategy centres on foreign investment. Mauritius has attracted over 9,000 offshore entities, many aimed at commerce in India and South Africa, while investment in the banking sector alone has reached over $1 billion. Economic performance during the period from 2000 through 2004 combined strong economic growth with unemployment at 7.6% in December 2004. France is the country's biggest trading partner, has close ties with the country, and provides technical assistance in various forms.

Mauritius in 2005 abolished an 80% tax on around 1,850 different types of goods as part of a plan to transform the Indian Ocean island into a a duty free "shopping paradise for tourists". In addition, reforms aimed at attracting new business opportunities have also been implemented. However, one of the biggest impediments is the traffic movement between the towns, which is slowing the development of Mauritius. The corporate tax has recently been reduced to 15% to encourage non-resident companies to trade or invest through a permanent establishment or otherwise.

Mauritius ranks first among all countries in FDI inflows to India, with cumulative inflows amounting to US$10.98 billion. The top sectors attracting FDI inflows from Mauritius between January 2000 and December 2005 were electrical equipment, telecommunications, fuels, cement and gypsum products and services sector (financial and non-financial).

Mauritius is one country that has achieved successful economic and human development with a dual-track approach to economic liberalisation, whereby poorer sections of society have participated in its economic growth. The experience of Mauritius has been used, alongside a number of other countries that have adopted a dual-track approach, to highlight the benefits to both economic growth and human development. However, inflation and its impact on living costs remains a major issue. Between 2006 and 2008, the average rate of inflation was 9.1%; between 2007 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index, which gives an idea of the cost of products that are commonly consumed, rose from a yearly average of 103.8 points to 120.2 points.

Military and police

Mauritius does not have a standing army. All military, police, and security functions are carried out by 10,000 active-duty personnel under the command of the Commissioner of Police. This consists of an 8,000 member National Police which is responsible for domestic law enforcement, a 1,500 member Special Mobile Force (SMF), and a 500 member National Coast Guard.

Transportation

The only available means of inland public transport are via taxi cabs and buses. There are 75 km of motorways, 1000 km of main roads, 398 km of other roads with a total of 2066 km. Many roads in Mauritius have only two lanes, often with heavy traffic. At the end of December 2009 there were 366,520 vehicles registered at the National Transport Authority (NTA). The fleet consisted of 45% (165,036) cars and dual purpose vehicles and 42% (152,935) auto/motor cycles. The remaining 13% comprised vans (25,622), lorries and trucks (12,950), buses (2,803) and other vehicles (7,174).

Transport is problematic around Port-Louis, the capital city, due to severe traffic jams. These are caused by both a lack of planning, and tolerance of hawkers or street vendors who occupy the pavements and streets of the capital. Transport in Mauritius has been free since July 2005 for students, the disabled and seniors. For tourists, the taxi prices are expensive, especially at night (starting from 400 Mauritian Rupees). The bus ticket prices depend on the number of stations you are going to pass.

The main airport is Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport, the home of the national airline, Air Mauritius.

Education

Education from pre-primary through to secondary is free for each citizen born in the country, and primary level net enrollment ratio consistently above 90% (93.3% in 1991 and 94.0% in 2009).

Before 2001, most prestigious schools used to be called "Star Schools" and each year, the CPE pupils would compete against each other to gain entrance to those schools based on a ranking system. In 2001, the government - with Steven Obeegadoo as minister of Education - decided that there would be an educational reform in Mauritius. The ranking system was abolished and replaced by the grading system coupled with the regionalisation system which advocates going to a school near one's residence. In February 2006, with Dharambeer Gokhool as minister of Education, the "A+" system, which is similar to the pre-2001 system, was introduced. CPE students now need to get "A+" in all their subjects to gain admission to "National Colleges" which consequently became as much coveted as the "Star Schools" were before the reform.

Language

The Mauritian Constitution makes no mention of an official language and its one million citizens speak mostly Mauritian Creole, a French-based creole, English and French. It is only in the Parliament that the official language is English, although any member of the National Assembly can still address the chair in French. However, English is generally accepted as the official language of Mauritius and as the language of government administration, the courts and business. The lingua franca is Mauritian Creole. In Mauritius, people switch languages according to the situation. French and English, which have long enjoyed greater social status, are favored in educational and professional settings. Also, most newspapers, such as ''Le Mauricien'' and ''L'Express'', and media communications are in French. Mauritian Creole, which is spoken by the majority of the population, is considered to be the native language of the country and is used most often in informal settings. It was developed in the 18th century by slaves who used a pidgin language to communicate with each other as well as with their French masters, who did not understand the various African languages. The pidgin evolved with later generations to become a casual language.

Other languages spoken in certain parts of Mauritius by a limited number of people include Rodriguan Creole and Swahili. The school system of the country make it compulsory for all primary school students to study an oriental language which can be an Indian language (mostly being Hindi, Urdu, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, or Bhojpuri) or a Chinese language (either Hakka or Mandarin), Arabic or an African language such as Swahili. Most Mauritians are at least bilingual, if not trilingual.

Culture

The cuisine of Mauritius is a blend of Indian, African, Chinese and European influences. It is common for a combination of cuisines to form part of the same meal.

The production of rum, which is made from sugar cane, is widespread on the island. Sugarcane was first introduced to Mauritius by the Dutch in 1638. The Dutch mainly cultivated sugarcane for the production of "arrack", a precursor to rum. However, it was during the French and British administrations that sugar production was fully exploited. Pierre Charles François Harel was the first to propose the concept of local distillation of rum in Mauritius, in 1850. Beer is also produced on the Island, by the Phoenix Brewery.

The ''sega'' is a local folklore music. Sega has African roots and the main traditional instruments for producing the music are goat-skin percussion instruments called ''ravanne'', the West African Djembe and metallic clicks using metal ''triangles''. The songs usually describe the miseries of slavery, and has been adapted nowadays as social satires to voice out inequalities as felt by the blacks. Men are usually at the instruments while women perform an accompanying dance. The origin of Sega is not completely known however it is likely to have come from West African countries such as Ghana due to the similarities in the music.

In 1847, Mauritius became the fifth location in the world to issue postage stamps. The two types of stamps issued then, known as the ''Mauritius "Post Office" stamps'', consisting of a "Red Penny" and a "Blue Two Pence" denomination, are probably the most famous and valuable stamps in the world.

When it was discovered, the island of Mauritius was the home of a previously unknown species of bird, which the Portuguese named the dodo (simpleton), as they appeared to be not too bright. By 1681, all dodos had been killed by the settlers or by their domesticated animals. An alternate theory suggests that the imported wild boars that were set free destroyed the slow-breeding dodo population. the dodo was the exclusive propagator of the seeds of the calvaria hardwood tree, of which only 13 dying trees remained 300 years after the dodo's demise in 1977. Dr Stanley Temple, an ornithologists from the University of Wisconsin, saved the calvaria tree by feeding the seed pods to turkeys, whose gastrointestinal tracks can also digest the thick hulls of the calvaria pod's hulls to enable the seeds to sprout. The dodo is prominently featured as a supporter of the national coat-of-arms (see above).

The island has also given rise to a diversified literature in French, English and Creole. Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, the 2008 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, is of Franco-Mauritian origin and lives on the island for part of each year.

In Mauritius, the following festivals — Diwali, Mahashivratri, Christmas, Cavadee, Chinese New Year, Père Laval, and Eid Al-Fitr — are celebrated.

Recreational activities in Mauritius are quite varied to support the local tourism industry. Water sports are facilitated as the island is surrounded with coral reef, providing plenty of relatively shallow and calm water. Activities such as deep sea fishing, surfing, windsurfing, water-skiing, cruising in yachts and even submarines are some of the many water based recreations available. Although it seldom breaks, Tamarin Bay is one of the world's most famous surfing spots. Land-based leisure activities include golf, tennis, skiing, sky diving, deer hunting, quad (ATV) riding, mountain biking, abseiling, zip lining, horse riding and trekking.

Sports in Mauritius

Mauritius organised the Indian Ocean Island Games in 1985 and 2003. The most popular sport in Mauritius is football and the national team is the Club M, however the general population prefer to watch European championships rather than local football which saw a rapid decline in the year 2000 after the government changed its regional policies due to hooliganism, which proved effective in decreasing violence between supporters but costly to the popularity of the game. A professional league is expected to be formed in 2012. Mauritius has won only one Olympic medal in its history, it was in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing when Bruno Julie won a bronze medal in boxing in the bantamweight category. The Mauritians Richarno Colin, James Kennedy St.Pierre and Ludovic Bactora won the African Amateur boxing Championship in 2011 each in their respective categories. Mauritius has also been successful in athletics with the sprinter Stéphan Buckland reaching the final of the 200 m race in the 2004 summer Olympics. Horse-racing is also a famous sport in Mauritius. Eight races are held every Saturday from March to December afternoon at the Champ de Mars Racecourse(oldest racecourse in the southern hemisphere) in Port louis.

Electrical power

Mauritius uses a 240 Volt 50 Hz AC mains supply, and Type C and Type G plugs.

See also

Islets of Mauritius

References

External links

Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority

Mauritius Business Guide

Category:African countries Category:Countries of the Indian Ocean Category:English-speaking countries and territories Category:Extinct volcanoes Category:Former British colonies Category:Former colonies of France Category:Former Dutch colonies Category:French-speaking countries Category:Hotspot volcanoes Category:Island countries Category:Islands of Mauritius Category:Liberal democracies Category:Member states of La Francophonie Category:Member states of the African Union Category:Member states of the Commonwealth of Nations Category:Member states of the United Nations Category:Miocene volcanism Category:Republics Category:States and territories established in 1968 Category:Volcanoes of Mauritius

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Coordinates	52°34′″N20°0′″N
birth name	Jeremiah O'Connell
birth date	February 17, 1974
birth place	New York City, United States
occupation	Actor, screenwriter, producer, director
years active	1986–present
spouse	Rebecca Romijn (m. 2007–present; 2 children) }}

Jeremiah "Jerry" O'Connell (born February 17, 1974) is an Irish-American actor, best known for his roles in the TV series ''Sliders'', Andrew Clements in ''My Secret Identity'', Vern Tessio in the film ''Stand by Me'', Charlie Carbone in ''Kangaroo Jack'', and Detective Woody Hoyt on the drama ''Crossing Jordan''. He starred as Pete Kaczmarek in the CBS TV series ''The Defenders'' until its cancellation in 2011.

Early life

O'Connell was born in New York City, the son of Linda (née Witkowski), a Polish art teacher, and Michael O'Connell, an advertising agency art director. His maternal grandfather, Charles S. Witkowski, was the mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey. O'Connell is of Irish descent on his father's side and Polish ancestry on his mother's. O'Connell was raised in Manhattan with his younger brother, Charlie O'Connell, also an actor. O'Connell began his acting career at a young age. As a child, he did commercial work for Duncan Hines cookies. Shortly after at the age of eleven, he landed his first feature film role as the character Vern Tessio in Rob Reiner's ''Stand by Me.'' As a teenager, he starred in the Canadian TV series ''My Secret Identity'' from 1988–91, and attended Manhattan's Professional Children's School.

O'Connell attended New York University (NYU) from 1991 to 1994, majoring in film. While there, he studied screen writing and competed on the NYU fencing team, serving a stint as captain of the sabre squad.

Career

O'Connell starred in the Canadian science fiction sitcom ''My Secret Identity'' from 1988 to 1991 as the teen hero who develops superhuman traits. During a summer break from NYU, Jerry starred in the feature film ''Calendar Girl'' alongside Jason Priestley and Gabriel Olds. He also appeared in the short-lived ABC sitcom, ''Camp Wilder'' with Jay Mohr and Hilary Swank in 1992. In his Junior year, O'Connell auditioned for the TV pilot ''Sliders'' (also filmed in Canada). He was offered the role of Quinn Mallory in the series, which ran for three seasons on Fox and two seasons on the Sci-Fi Channel. He served as producer during his fourth and final season, and is credited with writing and directing several episodes.

O'Connell has since gone on to star in such movies as ''Jerry Maguire'', ''Body Shots'', ''Mission to Mars'', ''Tomcats'', ''Scream 2'', and ''Kangaroo Jack''. O'Connell has also tried his hand at screenwriting and sold his first screenplay, for ''First Daughter'', to New Regency in 1999. The film was released in 2004 by 20th Century Fox-based Davis Entertainment. O'Connell served as executive producer on the film, which starred Katie Holmes and Michael Keaton.

O'Connell starred as Detective Woody Hoyt on the NBC crime drama ''Crossing Jordan'' (2001) until its cancellation in May of 2007, and was engaged to actress Rebecca Romijn. He starred opposite her in the ''Ugly Betty'' episode "Derailed". O'Connell has also starred as Hoyt in several episodes of ''Las Vegas''. In 2004, he wore a diaper on ''Last Call with Carson Daly'', during a mock commercial skit for the GoodNites bedwetting product. The ''National Enquirer'' caught him filming the skit and printed a photo of him in his diaper.

In 2005, O'Connell guest-starred in one episode of the animated series ''Justice League Unlimited''. In the episode, titled "Clash", he played Captain Marvel. He reprised the role of Captain Marvel in the "DC Universe Animated Original Movies" short film, ''Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam'' along side George Newbern who reprised the role of Superman, having done the voice for the animated series.

His younger brother Charlie O'Connell, an alumnus of NYU who was most recently seen as ''The Bachelor'', is also an actor who has appeared with Jerry in several productions, usually playing the brother of Jerry's character, such as in ''Sliders'' and ''Crossing Jordan''.

In 2007–08 Jerry O'Connell starred in ABC's ''Carpoolers'', which ran from October 2, 2007 to March 4, 2008.

In early 2008, O'Connell acted in a widely circulated Internet video parody of the leaked Tom Cruise video on Scientology. He also co-wrote and appeared in a video parody called "Young Hillary Clinton," satirizing Hillary Clinton's 2008 primary campaign. On February 2, 2008, O'Connell hosted VH1's ''Pepsi Smash Super Bowl Bash'', which aired the night before Super Bowl XLII and featured musical guests Maroon 5 and Mary J. Blige. On April 28, 2008, O'Connell appeared as a guest star on ABC's ''Samantha Who?''.

In the fall of 2008 O'Connell starred in Fox's ''Do Not Disturb'', co-starring Niecy Nash, but Fox cancelled the show after only three episodes.

Most recently, he appeared in the 2009 thriller film ''Obsessed'' as "Ben", the best friend and co-worker of the film's protagonist Derek Charles (Idris Elba).

Jerry appeared in ''Eastwick'' on ABC, alongside his wife who starred in the series. Jerry played a good man hiding a horrible secret. His character was a single father, a widower, with a young son who is a part of this secret. Kat was drawn to him, and she was put in danger as a result.

O'Connell portrayed Derrick Jones in Alexandre Aja's ''Piranha 3D'', which also stars Adam Scott and Elizabeth Shue.

O'Connell co-starred with David Tennant in the pilot for legal drama ''Rex Is Not Your Lawyer'' which NBC has placed under consideration for the fall season, though earlier reports suggested a spring 2010 airing. This has led to premature rumors of the show's demise, as instigated by Michael Ausiello.

Starting in 2010, O'Connell starred with Jim Belushi in the CBS comedy-drama "The Defenders", which CBS cancelled on May 15, 2011 after one season.

Personal life

On July 14, 2007, O'Connell married actress and former model Rebecca Romijn near Los Angeles in Calabasas, California.

After weeks of officially stating that the couple were "trying" to get pregnant, a publicist for the pair confirmed that Romijn was pregnant with twin girls. When talking about having children, O'Connell said "I am excited I am having girls. I know guys are supposed to say, 'I want a boy. I want to play baseball,' but I think I'm going to be good raising girls...I can't wait. They're going to be tough chicks. They're only having sex when I'm dead. If they don't date boys at all and just want them to be infatuated with their father, that's what I'm really going for. The nunnery!" O'Connell and Romijn welcomed their twin girls, Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip, on December 28, 2008.

O'Connell enrolled in Southwestern Law School, located in Los Angeles, in August 2009.

Filmography

Film

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- | 1986 || ''Stand by Me'' || Vern Tessio || |- | 1988 || ''Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach'' || Kid at beach || Uncredited |- |1993 || ''Calendar Girl'' || Scott Foreman || |- |rowspan="2"| 1996 || ''Joe's Apartment'' || Joe || |- | ''Jerry Maguire'' || Frank Cushman || |- | 1997 || ''Scream 2'' || Derek || |- | 1998 || ''Can't Hardly Wait'' || Trip McNeely || Uncredited |-1999 the beast of today ]] fabian ]] | 1999 || ''Body Shots'' || Michael Penorisi || |- |rowspan="2"| 2000 || ''Clayton'' || || |- | ''Mission to Mars'' || Phil Ohlmyer || |- | 2001 || ''Tomcats'' || Michael Delaney || |- | rowspan="2"|2002 || ''The New Guy'' || Highland Party Twin|| |- | ''Buying the Cow'' || David Collins || |- | 2003 || ''Kangaroo Jack'' || Charlie Carbone || |- | 2004 || ''Fat Slags'' || Sean Cooley || |- | 2005 ||''Yours, Mine and Ours'' || Max/Mac || |- |rowspan="3"| 2006 || ''The Alibi'' || Businessman || |- | ''Man About Town'' || David Lilly || |- | ''Room 6'' || Lucas Dylan || |- | 2008 ||''The Parody Video Tom Cruise Wants You to See'' || Tom Cruise || Short film |- | rowspan="2"|2009 || ''Baby on Board'' || Curtis || |- | ''Obsessed'' || Ben || |- |rowspan="2"| 2010 || ''Piranha 3-D'' || Derrick Jones || |- | ''Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam'' || Captain Marvel || Short film |- | 2012 || ''Cat Tale'' || Biscuit || voice; Filming |}

Television

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Title ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- | 1987 || ''The Room Upstairs'' || Carl || 1 episode |- | rowspan="2"|1988 || ''The Equalizer'' || Bobby || Episode: "The Child Broker" |- | ''Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss'' || Ralph Parker || TV movie |- | 1988–91 || ''My Secret Identity'' || Andrew Clements || Starring Role |- | 1989 || ''Charles in Charge'' || David Landon || Episode: "The Organization Man" |- | 1990|| ''TGIF'' || Brody || Unknown episodes |- | 1992 || Camp Wilder || Brody Wilder || Episode: "See Spot Go" |- | rowspan="2"|1995 || ''The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky'' || Mac || TV movie |- | ''Blue River'' || Lawrence Sellars || |- | 1995–99|| ''Sliders'' || Quinn Mallory || Cast member |- | 1999 || ''The '60s'' || Brian Herlihy|| TV movie |- | 2001 || ''Night Visions'' || Andy || Episode: "Rest Stop" |- | rowspan="2"|2002 || ''Going to California'' || Pete Rossock || Episode: "Searching For Eddie Van Halen" |- | ''Rome Fire'' || Ryan Wheeler || TV movie |- | 2002-7 || ''Crossing Jordan'' || Detective Woody Hoyt || Cast member |- | 2003 || ''MADtv'' || Ted Levin || Episode: 8.12 |- | rowspan="2"|2004 || ''Without a Trace'' || Joe Gibson || Episode: "Hawks and Handsaws" |- | ''The Screaming Cocktail Hour'' || Singer || TV series |- | 2004-6 || ''Las Vegas'' || Detective Woody Hoyt || 5 episode |- | 2005 || ''Justice League Unlimited'' || Captain Marvel || Episode: "Clash" |- | rowspan="3"|2007 || ''On the Lot''|| Jerry 'The Move' || Episode "6 Cut to 5 & 5 Directors Compete" |- | ''Ugly Betty'' || Joel || Episode: "Derailed" |- | ''The Batman''|| Nightwing || 2 episodes: "The Metal Face of Comedy", "Artifacts" |- | 2007-8 || ''Carpoolers'' || Laird || Cast member |- | rowspan="2"|2008 || ''Samantha Who?'' || Craig || Episode: "The Gallery Show" |- | ''Do Not Disturb'' || Neal || 6 episodes |- | rowspan="2"|2009 || ''Midnight Bayou'' || Declan Fitzpatrick || TV movie |- | ''Eastwick'' || Colin Friesen || Episode: "Magic Snow and Creepy Gene" |- | 2010 || ''The Defenders'' || Pete Kaczmarek || CBS, Wednesday, 10 p.m. ET/PT |- | 2011 || ''G.I. Joe: Renegades'' || Barbecue|| Episode: "Fire Fight" |}

Producer

''Sliders'' (1995) TV series (producer: 1998–1999)

''First Daughter'' (2004)

Director

''Sliders'' (1997) TV series – "Stoker"

''Sliders'' (1999) TV series – "Slidecage", "Lipschitz Live," "Data World", "Roads Taken"

Writer

''Sliders'' (1999) – "Way out West",

''First Daughter'' (2004) – screenplay

Music videos

"David Duchovny" – Bree Sharp

"Heartbreaker" – Mariah Carey (1999)

References

External links

Category:1974 births Category:Actors from New York City Category:American child actors Category:American film actors Category:American voice actors Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Polish descent Category:American television actors Category:Living people Category:People from Manhattan Category:People from New York City

bg:Джери О'Конъл de:Jerry O’Connell es:Jerry O'Connell fa:جری اوکانل fr:Jerry O'Connell id:Jerry O'Connell it:Jerry O'Connell he:ג'רי אוקונל nl:Jerry O'Connell ja:ジェリー・オコンネル pl:Jerry O'Connell pt:Jerry O'Connell ru:О’Коннелл, Джерри fi:Jerry O'Connell sv:Jerry O'Connell

{{Infobox Ethnic group |group = Indians in the United Kingdom(British Indians/ Indian Britons) |image = |image =

80x80px|Ben Kingsley	80x80px|Nasser Hussain	80x80px|Anish Kapoor
A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2007 found British Indians have among the lowest poverty rates among different ethnic groups in Britain second only to White British. History Middle Ages - 18th century No one knows the earliest origins of settlement of Indians in Great Britain for certain; if the Romani (Gypsies) are included, then the earliest arrivals may have been in the Middle Ages — although not normally included as South Asian, the Roma and Sinti (most in the UK have been Sinti) are both believed to have originated in parts of what is now North India and Pakistan and to have begun travelling westward around 1000 C.E., though they have mixed with Southwest Asians and Europeans over the centuries. Romani began arriving in sizeable numbers in parts of Western Europe in the 16th century. 17th - 19th centuries People from India have settled in Great Britain since the East India Company (EIC) recruited lascars to replace vacancies in their crews on East Indiamen whilst on voyages in India. Many were then refused passage back, and were marooned in London. There were also some ''ayahs'', domestic servants and nannies of wealthy British families, who accompanied their employers back to "Blighty" when their stay in Asia came to an end. The Navigation Act of 1660 restricted the employment of non-English sailors to a quarter of the crew on returning East India Company ships. Baptism records in East Greenwich suggest that young Indians from the Malabar Coast were being recruited as servants at the end of the 17th century, and records of the EIC also suggest that Indo-Portuguese cooks from Goa were retained by captains from voyage to voyage. In 1797, 13 were buried in the parish of St Nicholas at Deptford. {| align="right" border="1" |- ! Year || British IndianPopulation |- | ~1850 (est)|| 40,000 |- | ~1900 (est)|| 70,000 |- | 1951 (census)|| 31,000 |- | 1961 (census)|| 81,000 |- | 1971 (census)|| 275,000 |- | 1981 (census)|| 676,000 |- | 1991 (census)|| 840,000 |- | 2001 (census)|| 1,053,411 |- |} During the 17th to 19th centuries, the East India Company brought over thousands of Indian ''lascars'', scholars and workers (who were largely Bengali and/or Muslim) to Britain, most of whom settled down and took local British wives, due to a lack of Indian women in Britain at the time. Due to the majority of early Asian immigrants being ''lascar'' seamen, the earliest Indian communities were found in port towns. Naval cooks also came, many of them from the Sylhet Division of what is now Bangladesh. One of the most famous early Bengali immigrants to Britain was Sake Dean Mahomet, a captain of the British East India Company. In 1810, he founded London's first Indian restaurant, the Hindoostane Coffee House. He is also reputed for introducing shampoo and therapeutic massage to the United Kingdom. By the mid-19th century, there were more than 40,000 Indian seamen, diplomats, scholars, soldiers, officials, tourists, businessmen and students in Britain. 19th century By the late 19th century and early 20th century, there were around 70,000 Indians in Britain, 51,616 of whom were ''lascar'' seamen (when World War I began). Following the Second World War and the breakup of the British Empire, Indian migration to the UK increased through the 1950s and 1960s. The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 and Immigration Act 1971 largely restricted any further primary immigration, although family members of already-settled migrants were still allowed. In addition, much of the subsequent growth in the British Indian community has come from the births of second- and third-generation Indian Britons. Although post-war immigration was continuous, several distinct phases can be identified: Manual workers were recruited to fulfill the labour shortage that resulted from World War II. These included Anglo-Indians who were recruited to work on the railways as they had done in India. Workers mainly from the Punjab region arrived in the late 1950s and 1960s. Many worked in the foundries of the English Midlands and a large number of Sikh people worked at Heathrow Airport in west London. This created an environment to where the next generation of families do not lose their identity as easily. During the same time, medical staff from India were recruited for the newly formed National Health Service. These people were targeted as the British had established medical schools in the Indian subcontinent which conformed to the British standards of medical training. During the 1960s and 1970s, large numbers of East African Indians, who already held British passports, entered the UK after they were expelled from Kenya, Uganda and Zanzibar. Many of these people had been store-keepers in Africa and opened shops when they arrived in the UK. 21st century By the early 21st century, the British Indian community had grown to number over one million. According to the 2001 UK Census, 1,053,411 Britons had full Indian ethnicity (representing 1.8% of the UK's population). An overwhelming majority of 99.3% resided in England (in 2008 the figure is thought to be around 97.0%). In the nine year period between 2001 and 2010, the number of Indian-born people in the UK has increased in size by 43% from 467,634 to around 669,000 (an increase of over 200,000). Demographics {| align="right" border="1" |- ! Region of Birth ! Percentages |- | United Kingdom | 45.9% |- | England | 44.8% |- | Scotland | 0.7% |- | Wales | 0.3% |- | Northern Ireland | - |- | UK not specified | 0.1% |- | Other Europe | 0.2% |- | Africa | 16.0% |- | Kenya | 7.9% |- | Uganda | 2.9% |- | Tanzania | 1.9% |- | Rest of Africa | 3.3% |- | Asia | 36.6% |- | India | 34.6% |- | Rest of Asia | 2.1% |- | North America | 0.3% |- | South America | 0.2% |- | Oceania | 0.2% |- | Other | 0.6% |- |} Indians have existed in the UK for generations and have long been the country's largest visible ethnic minority group. In 2006 there were at least 1.3 million fully blooded Indians in the UK, while one estimate for 2008 suggests a total of 1.6 million British Indians. Ethnicity In the 2001 UK Census, Indians in the UK were most likely to have responded to code 41 - Indian or Indian British. Indian was one of only five sub categories in the UK census which represents a nation (along with Irish, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Chinese). India is a diverse nation composed of many ethnic groups, this is reflected in the British Indian community although there are several ethnic groups that number considerably more than others. The largest subgroup of British Indians are those of Punjabi origin (representing approximately two thirds of direct migrants from South Asia to the UK), combined with Pakistani Punjabis they number over 2 million in the UK and are the largest Punjabi community outside of South Asia. British Gujaratis are also another large subgroup of the British Indian population and they form the largest overseas Gujarati population on earth. There are also approximately half a million Bengalis in the UK (although not all of these people originate from what is now considered India, but Bangladesh). Alongside Punjabis, Gujarats and Bengalis there are also significant numbers of Tamils and Parsis. There have been also a recent immigration of Malayalees from South India who number approximately 100,000. Population According to the 2001 UK Census 1,053,411 people (1.8% of the country's population) was of Indian descent. Between 2001 and 2009, National Statistics has released estimates for the number of Indians in England only. They were as follows: 2001 - 1,045,600, 2002 - 1,074,700, 2003 - 1,109,100, 2004 - 1,156,000, 2005 - 1,215,400, 2006 - 1,264,200, 2007 - 1,316,000 2008 - 1,366,400 and 2009 - 1,414,100. Today there are considerable numbers of Indian Britons who have ancestry via the Caribbean, South and East Africa as well as the Pacific Islands. See also: British Indo-Caribbean community, Ugandan British, Kenyan British, South African British and Tanzanian British. Population spread The table below shows the dispersity of Indian people in the United Kingdom. The figures for all of the English regions, cities and boroughs are based on 2009 estimates, whilst the figures for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are from the 2001 Census. {|border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" rules="all" width="100%" style="clear:all; margin:6px 0 0em 0em; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; border-collapse:collapse; font-size:95%; empty-cells:show" |colspan="14" align=center style="background:#FF9933; color:white"|Indian population in the United Kingdom regions |- |- bgcolor="#FFEBCD" ! align="centre" | Region ! align="centre" | Population of region ! align="centre" | Indian population ! align="centre" | Percentage of total population ! align="centre" | Significant communities |- | London | 7,753,600 | 480,000 | 6.20% | Harrow - 15.9% IndianBrent - 14.2%Ealing - 12.9%Hounslow - 12.8%Redbridge - 10.7%Newham - 9.7%Hillingdon - 9.0%Barnet - 8.4% |- | West Midlands | 5,431,100 | 199,300 | 3.70% | Wolverhampton - 10.5% IndianSandwell - 8.2%Coventry - 7.7%Birmingham - 5.8%Walsall - 5.3% |- | South East | 8,435,700 | 178,900 | 2.10% | Slough - 11.2% Indian |- | East Midlands | 4,451,200 | 143,200 | 3.20% | Leicester - 18.7% IndianOadby and Wigston - 10.7%Blaby - 5.7%Charnwood - 5.1%Nottingham - 4.5%Derby - 3.5%Northampton - 3.5% |- | East | 5,766,600 | 115,600 | 2.00% | Bedford - 4.7%Cambridge - 4.7% IndianLuton - 4.3% |- | North West | 6,897,900 | 109,700 | 1.60% | Blackburn - 9.2% IndianPreston - 6.8%Bolton - 5.6%Manchester - 3.4%Trafford - 2.1% |- | Yorkshire and the Humber | 5,258,100 | 96,900 | 1.80% | Kirklees - 4.2%Bradford - 3.1% IndianLeeds - 2.6%Sheffield - 2.3% |- | South West | 5,231,200 | 63,700 | 1.20% | Bristol - 2.4% Indian Gloucester - 2.3%Swindon - 2.0% |- | North East | 2,584,300 | 26,700 | 1.00% | Newcastle Upon Tyne - 2.8% Indian |- | Scotland | 5,094,800 | 17,000 | 0.30% | Glasgow - 2.4% Indian |- | Wales | 2,903,085 | 8,200 | 0.30% | Cardiff - 1.3% Indian |- | Northern Ireland | 1,685,267 | 1,600 | 0.10% | |} Communities London Indians number over half a million in London, which is the city's single largest non-white ethnic group. Indians have a significant impact on the culture of the British capital. Within London, Southall, Hounslow, Brent, Croydon, Redbridge, Ealing, Barnet, Tooting, Harrow and Wembley, the latter of which is one of the few places outside of India where Indians make up the largest ethnic group (almost 4 times larger than the indigenous White British population). There are more Indians in the British capital than in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy and Portugal combined. Leicester Leicester is set to soon become the UK's first ethnic minority-majority city and Indians make up by far the largest ethnic group besides the White British. At 18.7% of the local population in 2009, Leicester has one of the highest percentages of Indians per head of the population of any local authority in the UK. According to the 2001 Census, 14.74% of Leicester's population were Hindu and 4.21%. Also worth of note is that Gujarati is the primary language of 16% of the city’s residents, 3% speak Punjabi as a primary language and 2% Urdu. Other smaller but common language groups include Hindi and Bengali. Religion According to the 2001 Census, the religious breakdown of Indians in England and Wales can be seen in the table below. Although the majority of British Indians are Hindu, the UK is home to the largest Sikh community outside of India. Notable Gurdwaras in the country include: Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Guru Nanak Gurdwara Smethwick, Guru Nanak NSJ, Soho Road, Birmingham, see also: Gurdwaras in the United Kingdom. Notable Hindu temples include BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir London (the largest Hindu temple outside of India), Bhaktivedanta Manor, Shree Jalaram Prarthana Mandal, Skanda Vale, Sree Ganapathy Temple, Wimbledon and Tividale Tirupathy Balaji Temple. There are also significant numbers of Muslim and Christian British Indians as well as Ravidassias with their main temple (Bhawan) in Handsworth, Birmingham. Sikhs are also supporting separate Sikh monitoring in the 2011 census, Virendra Sharma MP met with representatives from the Sikh community to lobby parliament in November 2009 stating "It is vital that the Office of National Statistics recognise the importance of the Sikh community and provide this monitoring at the next Census". ! Religion ! Percentage of Indian population in England and Wales. 45.00% 29.06% 12.70% 4.89% Not Stated 4.63% Other Religion 1.75% Agnostic 1.73% 0.18% 0.06% Total 100% Diaspora Today the British Indian community is extremely well established and it even has its own diaspora, many Indian British people now live abroad including in Canada (some 11,200), the United States (around 17,000), Oceania (largely Anglo-Indians) amongst others. Culture Cuisine Indian cuisine is extremely popular in the United Kingdom, and even above the British roast and Fish and Chips, the hybrid dish "Chicken tikka masala" always comes out on top as the UK's favourite meal. There are around 9,000 Indian restaurants located across the UK, which equates as approximately one per 7,000 people, this an extremely large number and suggests that any village or town with a population of over 2,000 is likely to be home to an Indian eatery. The popularity of the Indian curry in the UK was mainly made by Bangladeshi restaurateurs, where 85 percent of Indian restaurants in the UK are in fact owned by Bangladeshi Sylheti Bengalis. Over 2 million Britons eat at Indian restaurants in the UK every week, with a further 3 million cooking at least one Indian based meal at home during the week. Veeraswamy, probably the world's most famous Indian restaurant is located on Regent Street in London, and is the oldest surviving Indian restaurant in the UK, having opened in 1926. Film The British Indian film industry is a successful enterprise, and over recent years many British Indian actors have rose to prominence globally, particularly in Britain, India, and the USA. Notable films include ''Bend it like Beckham'', one of the better known productions revolving around British Indian life, and ''Slumdog Millionaire'', a British drama film set in Mumbai starring British Indian actor Dev Patel in the lead role. The latter has won four Golden Globes, seven BAFTA Awards and eight Academy Awards. Besides British-produced Indian-based films, there are many Bollywood productions which have been filmed in the United Kingdom. These include ''Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge'', ''Yaadein'' and ''Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham''. {| |valign="top"| 1970s ''Autobiography of a Princess'' (1975) ''Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures'' (1978) |valign="top" style="border-left:1px #ddd solid"| 1980s ''Gandhi'' (1982) ''A Passage to India'' (1984) ''The Jewel in the Crown'' (1984) ''Sammy and Rosie Get Laid'' (1987) |valign="top" style="border-left:1px #ddd solid"| 1990s ''Mississippi Masala'' (1991) ''Bhaji on the Beach'' (1993) ''The Buddha of Suburbia'' (1993) ''My Son the Fanatic'' (1997) ''Such a Long Journey'' (1998) |valign="top" style="border-left:1px #ddd solid"| first decade of the 21st century ''Bend It Like Beckham'' (2002) ''The Guru'' (2002) ''Bride and Prejudice'' (2004) '' Namastey London '' (2007) ''Before the Rains'' (2008) ''Slumdog Millionaire'' (2008) |} Music Indian music has a strong influence on global music as a whole. Today, British Indian musicians exist in almost every field and genre, however there is an extremely large number of Bhangra artists that cement the UK as the stronghold of traditional Indian music outside of India although this is a Punjabi music mainly performed by the Sikh community. Notable British Indian Bhangra acts include Panjabi MC, Rishi Rich, Juggy D, DCS, Mentor Kolektiv, Ms Scandalous and Sukshinder Shinda. World famous award winning singer-songwriter Freddie Mercury (a former member of the rock band Queen) was born on the island of Zanzibar to Parsi parents, originally from the Gujarat area of India. Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara) and his family fled when he was 17 years old due to the Zanzibar Revolution; he remains not only one of the most famous British Indian musicians of all time, but one of the most famous British musicians. Other world-famous British Indian musicians include Biddu, who produced a number of worldwide hits such as "Kung Fu Fighting", one of the best-selling singles of all time having sold eleven million records worldwide, and Apache Indian, who also had worldwide hits such as "Boom Shack-A-Lak". Jay Sean, whose parents immigrated to the United Kingdom from the Punjab region, is the first solo British Asian artist to reach the #1 spot on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 with his single "Down" selling more than three million copies in the United States, making him "the most successful male UK urban artist in US chart history." Other contemporary British Indian singers include S-Endz and BRIT Award-nominated Nerina Pallot. Television Out of all of the countries in the Indian diaspora, the UK is most likely to be the best at portraying Indian culture and life in the UK through television. Long-running British soap operas such as ''Coronation Street'', ''EastEnders'', ''Emmerdale'' and ''Hollyoaks'' have all had significant numbers of Indian characters, while shorter British series such as ''The Jewel in the Crown'' and ''Skins'' also feature British Indian characters. By far the most notable British Indian television shows are ''Goodness Gracious Me'' and ''The Kumars at No. 42'', a talk show that stars many famous British Indian actors including Sanjeev Bhaskar, Meera Syal, Indira Joshi and Vincent Ebrahim. British Indian actors not only have a strong presence in the UK, but also in the United States, where Parminder Nagra, Naveen Andrews, Kunal Nayyar and Nicollette Sheridan (who are all Britons of Indian origin) have found fame in ''ER'', ''Lost'', ''The Big Bang Theory'' and ''Desperate Housewives'' respectively, though Nagra is the only one to portray an actual British citizen of Indian descent. There are dozens of channels aimed at the British Indian community available on Satellite and Cable, which include: ! Indian owned British Sky Broadcasting>Sky channel Virgin Media Television>Virgin Media channel ! Other 782 806 N/A STAR One 783 N/A N/A STAR Plus 784 803 N/A Zee TV 788 809 Zee Music 789 N/A N/A Zee Cinema 617 810 N/A Alpha ETC Punjabi 798 812 N/A SET Max 800 806 N/A Aastha TV 807 N/A N/A STAR News 808 802 N/A STAR Gold 809 N/A N/A 811 N/A N/A SAB TV 816 N/A N/A Sahara One 817 N/A N/A Aaj Tak 818 N/A N/A Peace TV 820 N/A N/A 838 N/A N/A ! Joint owned British Sky Broadcasting>Sky channel Virgin Media Television>Virgin Media channel ! Other B4U Movies 780 815 N/A B4U Music 781 816 Channel 504 (Freesat) 9X 828 N/A Channel 662 (Freesat) 829 N/A N/A NDTV Imagine 831 N/A N/A ! British owned British Sky Broadcasting>Sky channel Virgin Media Television>Virgin Media channel ! Other 793 823 N/A Radio The BBC Asian Network is a radio station available across the entire United Kingdom which is aimed predominantly at Britons of South Asian origin under 35 years of age, besides this popular station there are only a few other national radio stations for or run by the British Indian community - including Sunrise and Yarr Radios. Regional British Indian stations include Asian Sound of Manchester, Hindu Sanskar and Sabras Radios of Leicester, Kismat Radio of London, Radio XL of Birmingham and Sunrise Radio Yorkshire based in Bradford (which itself has a much larger Pakistani than Indian community). Social issues Discrimination Discrimination against persons of Indian origin in the United Kingdom is not completely widespread, but has been known to happen in certain instances. There are several areas across the country where hostility between the local Indian and Pakistani communities occur, although the names and racial slurs given to British Indians by some members the white community are evidence of lack of knowledge and ignorance, the term "Paki" is likely to be the most commonly used anti-Asian phrase in the UK and despite it being a shorted and derogatory term for a person of Pakistani origin it is all to often used to refer to anyone from the Indian subcontinent. However, some young British Pakistanis have attempted to reclaim the word and use it in a non-offensive way to refer to themselves.thumb|Tamils protesting against the Sri Lankan Civil War outside of [[India House (Indian High Commission in London)|India House]]Verbal discrimination such as explained above has become somewhat more common after the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks, even though Islam extremists who committed these atrocities have little to do with the British Indian community. One of the best examples of anti-Indian sentiment in the UK is the 2007 Celebrity Big Brother racism controversy which received significant media coverage, white contestants Jade Goody (who is mixed race), Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara were all seen to have been mocking Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty because of her accent. They also persisted on making fun on general parts of Indian culture, Channel 4 went ahead and screened the arguments which received over 50,000 complaints. The controversy generated over 300 newspaper articles in Britain, 1,200 in English language newspapers around the globe, 3,900 foreign language news articles, and 22,000 blog postings on the internet. Another example of discrimination is the Expulsion of Asians in Uganda in 1972 (a decision made by the President of Uganda to ethnically cleanse the country) which lead to tens of thousands of East African Indians coming to the UK to start a new life, the majority of these already had British passports, due to Uganda at that time being part of the British Empire. In 2007, the controversial documentary Undercover Mosque was aired on British television, it showed secret filming in mosques throughout the UK, in this many extremist comments were made including one by now deported Abdullah el-Faisal who said “You have to bomb the Indian businesses, and as for the Jews you kill them physically.” Again this is evidence that discrimination towards British Indians can come from any other race or ethnicity. Other examples of discrimination towards British Indians in the mainstream population include the case of 27 year old Chetankumar Meshram, a call centre trainer from Northampton who was compensated £5,000 after his boss told him he was to be replaced by a better English speaker. Also Meena Sagoo, 42 is demanding over £100,000 after herself and a fellow employee of the ING Bank of Sri Lankan heritage were called The Kumars at No. 42 (after the popular TV comedy show of the same name). The same bank has been noted to have paid out £20,000 to a worker of Chinese origin who also claimed racial harassment in office. Another form of discrimination towards British Indians is stereotyping, one example is British Asians being stereotyped as being the majority of newsagent and convenience store shopkeepers, the stereotype "Paki shop"; and also making a majority of doctors, these are all again often associated as being hardworking. This stereotype was made fun in the television and radio sketches of Goodness Gracious Me by four British Indian comedy actors themselves. In the comedy sketch Little Britain, a British Indian character called Meera continuously receives racist comments from weight loss advisor Marjorie Dawes who always makes it know that she does not understand a word of what Meera says, although it is completely obvious to the surrounding people and the viewer. Economic status The richest person in Britain Lakshmi Mittal is an Indian citizen with an estimated fortune of £10.8 billion in 2009. A study by Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2007 found British Indians have among the lowest poverty rates among different ethnic groups in Britain second only to white British. Of different ethnic groups Bangladeshis (65%), Pakistanis (55%), black Africans (45%) had the highest rates; black Caribbeans (30%), Indians (25%), white Other (25%) and white British (20%) had the lowest rates. According to BBC findings, the economic makeup in 2001 of Indian-born British Indians only is as follows. 65.98% of new immigrants were employed with 16.43% being 'low earners' (people earning less than £149.20 a week) and 18.13% being 'high earners' (people earning more than £750 a week). By comparison settled Indian immigrants to the UK are actually slightly less likely to be in employment, 62.85%; in fact, the percentage of low and high earners for settled immigrants stood at 15.9% and 7.88% respectively. Therefore on average, 64.42% of Indian-born immigrants to the UK are employed. This figure is approximately 10% lower than the rate of employment for British-born people (regardless of ethnicity) which stood at 73.49% in 2001. Sikhs are on average the wealthiest Indians, and the second wealthiest religious group after Jewish people, in the UK, with a median total household wealth of £229,000. Caste issues Many British Hindus still adhere to the caste system and still seek marriage with individuals who are of similar caste categories. There have been several incidents involving abuse of low caste British Hindus, known as Dalits, by higher caste individuals in schools and workplaces. However, other Hindus say that caste discrimination is a thing of the past in Britain, and that the Asian community has moved on. This is, however, one rank lower than the previous year, though it is the highest rate of crime for any Asian ethnic group. Between October 2006 and May 2008, UniVisa - a company run by three Indian illegal immigrants - submitted 980 fraudulent visa applications to the Home Office for would-be Indian immigrants. It has also been reported recently, that there are large numbers of illegal immigrants coming in from India. An MP in England described it as ''a big problem''. Notable individuals See also Religion Hinduism in the United Kingdom Islam in the United Kingdom Sikhism in the United Kingdom Subgroups British Indo-Caribbean community Indian community of London Punjabi Gujarati Parsi Tamil (British Tamils) Related groups Anglo-Indian British Asian * British Bangladeshi * British Pakistani Non-resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin Other List of Indian Britons Lists of U.K. locations with large Indian populations Immigration to the United Kingdom since 1922 British India References Further reading Category:Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom Category:People of Indian descent Indian ms:Orang India British ru:Индийцы в Великобритании This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community. Coordinates 52°34′″N20°0′″N name Elizabeth Barrett Browning birth date March 06, 1806 birth place Kelloe, Durham, England death date June 29, 1861 death place Florence, Italy occupation Poet nationality English spouse(s) Robert Browning influenced Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Dante and Christina Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne }} Elizabeth Barrett Browning (6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death. Life and career Early life Members of the Barrett family had lived for centuries in Jamaica. The main wealth of Elizabeth's household derived from Edward Barrett (1734–1798), landowner of 10,000 acres in Cinnamon Hill, Cornwall, Cambridge, and Oxford estates in northern Jamaica. Barrett Browning's maternal grandfather owned sugar plantations, mills, glassworks and ships that traded between Jamaica and Newcastle. Biographer Julia Markus stated that the poet ‘believed that she had African blood through her grandfather Charles Moulton’. There is no evidence to suggest her line of the Barrett family had any African ancestry, although other branches did, through the children of plantation owners and slaves. What the family believed to be their genealogy over several hundred years in the West Indies, is unclear. The family wished to hand down their name as well as their wealth, stipulating that Barrett should be held as a surname. In some cases inheritance was given on the prerequisite that the name Barrett had to be used by the beneficiary. Given the strong tradition, Elizabeth used 'Elizabeth Barrett Moulton Barrett' on legal documents and before she was married often signed herself as 'Elizabeth Barrett Barrett', or ‘EBB’ (initials she could keep after her wedding).Elizabeth's father chose to raise his family in England while his fortune grew in Jamaica. The Graham Clarke family wealth, also derived in part from slave labour, was also considerable. Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett was born on 6 March 1806, in Coxhoe Hall, between the villages of Coxhoe and Kelloe in County Durham, England. Her parents were Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke; Elizabeth was the eldest of their 12 children (eight boys and four girls). All the children lived to adulthood except for one girl, who died at the age of three when Elizabeth was eight. The children in her family all had nicknames: Elizabeth's was "Ba". Elizabeth was baptized in 1809 at Kelloe Parish Church, though she had already been baptized by a family friend in the first week after she was born. Later that year, after the fifth child, Henrietta, was born, their father bought Hope End, a estate near the Malvern Hills in Ledbury, Herefordshire, where Elizabeth spent her childhood. Her time at Hope End would inspire her in later life to write ''Aurora Leigh''. She was educated at home and attended lessons with her brothers' tutor. During the Hope End period, she was an intensely studious, precocious child. She writes that at six she was reading novels, at eight she was entranced by Pope's translations of Homer, studying Greek at ten and writing her own Homeric epic ''The Battle of Marathon''. Her mother compiled early efforts of the child's poetry into collections of "Poems by Elizabeth B. Barrett". Her father called her the 'Poet Laureate of Hope End’ and encouraged her work. The result is one of the largest collections of juvenilia of any English writer. On her 14th birthday her father gave the gift of 50 printed copies of the epic. She went on to delight in reading Virgil in the original Latin, Shakespeare and Milton. By 1821 she had read Mary Wollstonecraft's ''Vindication of the Rights of Woman'' (1792), and she became a passionate supporter of Wollstonecraft's ideas. She watched her brothers go off to school knowing that there was no chance of that education for herself. The child's intellectual fascination with the classics and metaphysics was reflected in a religious intensity which she later described as "not the deep persuasion of the mild Christian but the wild visions of an enthusiast". The Barretts attended services at the nearest Dissenting chapel, and Edward was active in Bible and Missionary societies. Elizabeth was very close to her siblings and had great respect for her father: she claimed that life was no fun without him, and her mother agreed. Publication Barrett Browning's first known poem was written at the age of six or eight, "On the Cruelty of Forcement to Man". The manuscript is currently in the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library; the exact date is controversial because the "2" in the date 1812 is written over something else that is scratched out. Her first independent publication was "Stanzas Excited by Reflections on the Present State of Greece" in ''The New Monthly Magazine'' of May 1821;this was followed in the same publication two months later by "Thoughts Awakened by Contemplating a Piece of the Palm which Grows on the Summit of the Acropolis at Athens". Her first collection of poems, ''An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems,'' was published in 1826 and reflected her passion for Bryon and Greek politics. Its publication drew the attention of a blind scholar of the Greek language, Hugh Stuart Boyd, and that of another Greek scholar, Uvedale Price, with whom she maintained a sustained scholarly correspondence. Among other neighbours was Mrs. James Martin from Colwall, with whom she also corresponded throughout her life. Later, at Boyd's suggestion, she translated Aeschylus' ''Prometheus Bound'' (published in 1833; retranslated in 1850). During their friendship Barrett studied Greek literature, including Homer, Pindar and Aristophanes. At about age 15 Barrett Browning began to battle with a lifelong illness, which the medical science of the time was unable to diagnose. All three sisters came down with the syndrome although it lasted only with Elizabeth. She had intense head and spinal pain with loss of mobility. Apocryphally it was told that she fell while trying to saddle a horse or was creating the illness but there is strong evidence that she was seriously sick. The illnesses of this time were, however, unrelated to the lung disease she suffered in 1837. This illness caused her to be frail and weak. Mary Russell Mitford described the young Barrett Browning at this time, as having "a slight, delicate figure, with a shower of dark curls falling on each side of a most expressive face; large, tender eyes, richly fringed by dark eyelashes, and a smile like a sunbeam". She began to take opiates for the pain, Laudanum (and opium concoction) then morphine, commonly prescribed at the time. She would become dependent on them for much of her adulthood; the use from an early age would have contributed to her frail health. Biographers such as Alethea Hayter have suggested that this may have contributed to the wild vividness of her imagination and the poetry it produced. In 1828, Barrett Browning’s mother died. She wrote "scarcely I was a woman when I lost my mother". She is buried at the Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels in Ledbury, next to her daughter Mary. Sarah Graham-Clarke, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's aunt, helped to care of the children and was known to clash with the strong will of Elizabeth. In 1831 Barrett Browning's grandmother, Elizabeth Moulton, died. The family moved three times between 1832 and 1837, first to a white Georgian building in Sidmouth, Devonshire, where they remained for three years. Later they moved on to Gloucester Place in London. Elizabeth Barrett Browning opposed slavery and published two poems highlighting the barbarity of slavers and her support for the abolitionist cause. The poems opposing slavery include "The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point" and "A Curse for a Nation"; in the first she describes the experience of a slave woman who is whipped, raped, and made pregnant as she curses the slavers. She declared herself glad that the slaves were "virtually free" when the Emancipation Act abolishing slavery in British colonies was passed in 1833, despite the fact that her father believed that Abolitionism would ruin his business. The date of publication of these poems is in dispute but her position on slavery in the poems is clear and may have led to a rift between Elizabeth and her father. She wrote to John Ruskin in 1855 "I belong to a family of West Indian slaveholders, and if I believed in curses, I should be afraid". After the Jamaican slave uprising of 1831–2 her father and uncle continued to treat the slaves humanely but the family became mired in thirty-eight years of chancery litigation over the division of land and other property. Following lawsuits and the abolition of slavery Mr. Barrett incurred great financial and investment losses that forced him to sell Hope End. Although the family were never poor, the place was seized and put up for sale to satisfy creditors. Always secret in his financial dealings, he would not discuss his situation and the family was haunted by the idea that they may have to move to Jamaica. In 1838, some years after the sale of Hope End the family settled at 50 Wimpole Street. In London John Kenyon, a distant cousin, introduced her to literary figures including William Wordsworth, Mary Russell Mitford, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Thomas Carlyle. Barrett Browning continued to write, contributing "The Romaunt of Margaret", "The Romaunt of the Page", "The Poet's Vow", and other pieces to various periodicals. She corresponded with other writers, including Mary Russell Mitford, who would become a close friend and support Barrett Browning in furthering her literary ambitions. In 1838 ''The Seraphim and Other Poems'' appeared, the first volume of Elizabeth's mature poetry to appear under her own name. During 1837/8 the poet was struck with illness again, with symptoms today suggesting tuberculous ulceration of the lungs. In 1838, at her physician's insistence, Barrett Browning moved from London to Torquay, on the Devonshire coast. Two tragedies then struck: in February 1840 her brother Samuel died of a fever in Jamaica and her brother Edward ('Bro'), with whom she was very close, went with her to Torquay and was drowned in a sailing accident in July. This had a serious effect on her already fragile health; when they found his body after a couple of days, she had no strength for tears or words. She felt guilty as her father had disapproved of Edward's trip to Torquay but did not hinder the visit. She wrote to Mitford "That was a very near escape from madness, absolute hopeless madness". The family returned to Wimpole Street in 1841. Success At Wimpole Street Barrett Browning spent most of her time in her upstairs room, and her health began to recover, though she saw few people other than her immediate family. One of those she did see was Kenyon, a wealthy friend of the family and patron of the arts. She received comfort from her spaniel named “Flush”, which had been a gift from Mary Mitford. (Virginia Woolf later fictionalised the life of the dog, making him the protagonist of her 1933 novel ''Flush: A Biography''). Between 1841-4 Barrett Browning was prolific in poetry, translation and prose. The poem "The Cry of the Children", published in 1842 in ''Blackwoods'', condemned child labour and helped bring about child labour reforms by rousing support for Lord Shaftesbury's Ten Hours Bill (1844). At about the same time, she contributed some critical prose pieces to Richard Henry Horne's ''A New Spirit of the Age''. In 1844 she published two volumes of ''Poems'', which included "A Drama of Exile", "A Vision of Poets", and "Lady Geraldine's Courtship" and two substantial critical essays for 1842 issues of ''The Athenaeum''. “Since she was not burdened with any domestic duties expected of her sisters, Elizabeth could now devote herself entirely to the life of the mind, cultivating an enormous correspondence, reading widely”. Her prolific output made her a rival to Tennyson's as a candidate for poet laureate in 1850 on the death of Wordsworth. Robert Browning and Italy Her 1844 volume ''Poems'' made her one of the most popular writers in the country at the time and inspired Robert Browning to write to her, telling her how much he loved her work. He had been an admirer of her poetry for a long time and wrote "I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett" praising their "fresh strange music, the affluent language, the exquisite pathos and true new brave thought". Kenyon arranged for Robert Browning to meet Elizabeth on 20 May 1845, in her rooms, and so began one of the most famous courtships in literature. Elizabeth had produced a large amount of work and had been writing long before Robert Browning had. However, he had a great influence on her writing, as did she on his: two of Barrett’s most famous pieces were produced after she met Browning, ''Sonnets from the Portuguese'' and ''Aurora Leigh''. Robert's ''Men and Women'' is a product of that time. Some critics, however, point to him as an undermining influence: "Until her relationship with Robert Browning began in 1845, Barrett’s willingness to engage in public discourse about social issues and about aesthetic issues in poetry, which had been so strong in her youth, gradually diminished, as did her physical health. As an intellectual presence and a physical being, she was becoming a shadow of herself". The courtship and marriage between Robert Browning and Elizabeth were carried out secretly as she and her siblings were convinced their father would disapprove. Six years his elder and an invalid, she could not believe that the vigorous and worldly Robert Browning really loved her as much as he professed to. After a private marriage at St. Marylebone Parish Church, they honeymooned in Paris. Browning then imitated his hero Shelley by spiriting his wife off to Italy, in September 1846, which became her home almost continuously until her death. Elizabeth's loyal nurse, Wilson, who witnessed the marriage, accompanied the couple to Italy. Mr. Barrett disinherited Elizabeth, as he did each of his children who married. Elizabeth has foreseen her father's anger but not expected the disgust of her brothers who saw Browning as a lower class gold-digger and refused to see him. As Elizabeth had some money of her own, the couple were reasonably comfortable in Italy, and their relationship together was harmonious. The Brownings were well respected in Italy, and even famous. Elizabeth grew stronger and in 1849, at the age of 43, between four miscarriages, she gave birth to a son, Robert Wiedemann Barrett Browning, whom they called Pen. Their son later married but had no legitimate children. At her husband's insistence, the second edition of Elizabeth’s ''Poems'' included her love sonnets; as a result, her popularity increased (as well as critical regard), and her position was confirmed. The couple came to know a wide circle of artists and writers including, in Italy, William Makepeace Thackeray, sculptor Harriet Hosmer (who, she wrote, seemed to be the "perfectly emancipated female" and Harriet Beecher Stowe. In 1849 she met Margaret Fuller and the female French novelist George Sand in 1852, whom she had long admired. They met with Tennyson in Paris, and John Forster, Samuel Rogers, and the Carlyles in London, later befriending Charles Kingsley and John Ruskin. Decline At the death of an old friend, G.B. Hunter, and then of her father, her health faded again, centering around deteriorating lung function. She was moved from Florence to Siena, residing at the ''Villa Alberti''. Deeply engrossed in Italian politics, she issued a small volume of political poems titled ''Poems before Congress'' (1860) “most of which were written to express her sympathy with the Italian cause after the outbreak of fighting in 1859”. They caused a furore in England and she was labelled as a fanatic by conservative magazines ''Blackwood's'' and the ''Saturday Review''. She dedicated this book to her husband. Her last work was ''A Musical Instrument'', published posthumously. In 1860 they returned to Rome, only to find that Elizabeth’s sister Henrietta had died, news which made Elizabeth weak and depressed. She became gradually weaker, using morphine to ease her pain. She died on 29 June 1861 in her husband's arms. Browning said that she died "smilingly, happily, and with a face like a girl's. … Her last word was—… 'Beautiful'". She was buried in the Protestant English Cemetery of Florence. “On Monday July 1 the shops in the section of the city around Casa Guidi were closed, while Elizabeth was mourned with unusual demonstrations.” The nature of her illness is still unclear, although medical and literary scholars have speculated that longstanding pulmonary problems, combined with palliative opiates, contributed to her decline. Spiritual influence Much of Barrett Browning’s work carries a religious theme. She had read and studied such famous literary works as Milton's ''Paradise Lost'' and Dante's ''Inferno''. She says in her writing, "We want the sense of the saturation of Christ's blood upon the souls of our poets, that it may cry through them in answer to the ceaseless wail of the Sphinx of our humanity, expounding agony into renovation. Something of this has been perceived in art when its glory was at the fullest. Something of a yearning after this may be seen among the Greek Christian poets, something which would have been much with a stronger faculty". She believed that "Christ's religion is essentially poetry—poetry glorified". She explored the religious aspect in many of her poems, especially in her early work, such as the sonnets. She was interested in theological debate, had learned Hebrew and read the Hebrew Bible. The poem Aurora Leigh, for example, features religious imagery and allusion to the apocalypse. Critical reception American poet Edgar Allan Poe was inspired by Barrett Browning's poem ''Lady Geraldine's Courtship'' and specifically borrowed the poem's meter for his poem ''The Raven''. Poe had reviewed Barrett's work in the January 1845 issue of the ''Broadway Journal'' and said that "her poetic inspiration is the highest—we can conceive of nothing more august. Her sense of Art is pure in itself." In return, she praised ''The Raven'' and Poe dedicated his 1845 collection ''The Raven and Other Poems'' to her, referring to her as "the noblest of her sex". Her poetry greatly influenced Emily Dickinson, who admired her as a woman of achievement. Her popularity in the United States and Britain was further advanced by her stands against social injustice, including slavery in the United States, injustice toward Italian citizens by foreign rulers, and child labour. In Lilian Whiting's 1899 biography of Elizabeth she describes her as "the most philosophical poet" and depicts her life as "a Gospel of applied Christianity". To Whiting, the term "art for art's sake" did not apply to Barrett Browning's work for the reason that each poem, distinctively purposeful, was borne of a more "honest vision". In this critical analysis, Whiting portrays Barrett Browning as a poet who uses knowledge of Classical literature with an "intuitive gift of spiritual divination". In ''Elizabeth Barrett Browning'', Angela Leighton suggests that the portrayal of Barrett Browning as the "pious iconography of womanhood" has distracted us from her poetic achievements. Leighton cites the 1931 play by Rudolf Besier, ''The Barretts of Wimpole Street'', as evidence that 20th century literary criticism of Barrett Browning's work has suffered more as a result of her popularity than poetic ineptitude. The play was popularized by actress Katharine Cornell, for whom it became a signature role. It was an enormous success, both artistically and commercially, and was revived several times and adapted twice into movies. Throughout the 20th century, literary criticism of Barrett Browning's poetry remained sparse until her poems were discovered by the women's movement. She once described herself as being inclined to reject several women's rights principles, suggesting in letters to Mary Russell Mitford and her husband that she believed that there was an inferiority of intellect in women. In Aurora Leigh, however, she created a strong and independent woman who embraces both work and love. Leighton writes that because she participates in the literary world, where voice and diction are dominated by perceived masculine superiority, she "is defined only in mysterious opposition to everything that distinguishes the male subject who writes..." A five-volume scholarly edition of her works has recently been published, the first in over a century. Works (collections) 1820: ''The Battle of Marathon: A Poem''. Privately printed 1826: ''A Essay On Mind, with Other Poems''. London: James Duncan 1833: ''Prometheus Bound, Translated from the Greek of Aeschylus,and Miscellaneous Poems''. London: A.J. Valpy 1838: ''The Seraphim, and Other Poems''. London: Saunders and Otley 1844: ''Poems'' (UK) / ''A Drama of Exile, and other Poems'' (US). London: Edward Moxon. New York: Henry G. Langley 1850: ''Poems'' ("New Edition", 2 vols.) Revision of 1844 edition adding ''Sonnets from the Portuguese'' and others. London: Chapman & Hall 1851: ''Casa Guidi Windows''. London: Chapman & Hall 1853: ''Poems'' (3d ed.). London: Chapman & Hall 1854: ''Two Poems'': "A Plea for the Ragged Schools of London" and "The Twins". London: Bradbury & Evans 1856: ''Poems'' (4th ed.). London: Chapman & Hall 1857: ''Aurora Leigh''. London: Chapman and Hall 1860: ''Poems Before Congress''. London: Chapman & Hall 1862: ''Last Poems''. London: Chapman & Hall Posthumous publications of Barrett Browning's works 1863: ''The Greek Christian Poets and the English Poets''. London: Chapman & Hall 1877: ''The Earlier Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning,'' 1826-1833, ed. Richard Herne Shepherd. London: Bartholomew Robson 1877: ''Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Addressed to Richard Hengist Horne, with comments on contemporaries,'' 2 vols., ed. S.R.T. Mayer. London: Richard Bentley & Son 1897: ''Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning,'' 2 vols., ed. Frederic G. Kenyon. London:Smith, Elder,& Co. 1899: ''Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett 1845-1846,'' 2 vol., ed Robert W. Barrett Browning. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1914: ''New Poems by Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning,'' ed. Frederic G Kenyon. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1929: ''Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Letters to Her Sister, 1846-1859,'' ed. Leonard Huxley. London: John Murray 1935: ''Twenty-Two Unpublished Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning to Henrietta and Arabella Moulton Barrett''. New York: United Feature Syndicate 1939: ''Letters from Elizabeth Barrett to B.R. Haydon,'' ed. Martha Hale Shackford. New York: Oxford University Press 1954: ''Elizabeth Barrett to Miss Mitford,'' ed. Betty Miller. London: John Murry 1955: ''Unpublished Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Hugh Stuart Boyd,'' ed. Barbara P. McCarthy. New Heaven, Conn.: Yale University Press 1958: ''Letters of the Brownings to George Barrett,'' ed. Paul Landis with Ronald E. Freeman. Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1974: ''Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Letters to Mrs. David Ogilvy,'' 1849-1861, ed. P. Heydon and P. Kelley. New York: Quadrangle, New York Times Book Co., and Browning Institute 1984: ''The Brownings' Correspondence,'' ed. Phillip Kelley, Ronald Hudson, and Scott Lewis. Winfield, Kans.: Wedgestone Press References Bibliography Barrett, R.A. ''The Barretts of Jamaica''. Wedgestone Press, 2000. Donaldson, Sandra, et al., eds. ''The Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.'' 5 vols. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2010. Everett, Glenn. ''Life of Elizabeth Browning''. 2002 Markus, Julia. ''Dared and Done: Marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning''. Ohio University Press, 1995. Kaplan, Cora. ''Aurora Leigh And Other Poems''. London: The Women’s Press Limited, 1978. Lewis, Linda. ''Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Spiritual Progress''. Missouri: Missouri University Press. 1997 Mander, Rosalie. ''Mrs Browning: The Story of Elizabeth Barrett''. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980 Markus, Julia. ''Dared and Done: Marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning''. Ohio University Press, 1995 Meyers, Jeffrey. ''Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy''. New York City: Cooper Square Press, 1992: 160. Peterson, William S. ''Sonnets From The Portuguese''. Massachusetts: Barre Publishing, 1977 Pollock, Mary Sanders. ''Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning: A Creative Partnership''. England: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2003 Sova, Dawn B. ''Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z.'' New York City: Checkmark Books, 2001 Taplin, Gardner B. ''The Life of Elizabeth Browning''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957 Thomas, Dwight and David K. Jackson. ''The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849''. New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987: 591. External links Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning at Archive.org Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning at PoetryFoundation.org The Brownings: A Research Guide (Baylor University) Project Gutenberg e-text of ''Sonnets from the Portuguese'' Browning Family Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin Category:1806 births Category:1861 deaths Category:English poets Category:People from County Durham Category:Women of the Victorian era Category:Sonneteers Category:English women writers Category:Victorian poets Category:Women poets Category:Greek–English translators Category:Victorian women writers ar:إليزابيث باريت براونينغ be-x-old:Элізабэт Барэт Браўнінг bs:Elizabeth Barrett Browning ca:Elizabeth Barrett Browning cs:Elizabeth Barrettová-Browningová cy:Elizabeth Barrett Browning de:Elizabeth Barrett Browning el:Ελίζαμπεθ Μπάρετ Μπράουνινγκ es:Elizabeth Barrett Browning eo:Elizabeth Barrett Browning fa:الیزابت برت براونینگ fr:Elizabeth Barrett Browning hr:Elizabeth Barrett Browning id:Elizabeth Barrett Browning it:Elizabeth Barrett Browning he:אליזבת בארט בראונינג ku:Elizabeth Barrett Browning hu:Elizabeth Barrett Browning mk:Елизабет Барет Браунинг nl:Elizabeth Barrett Browning ja:エリザベス・ブラウニング no:Elizabeth Barrett Browning pnb:الزبتھ بیرٹ براؤننگ pl:Elizabeth Barrett Browning pt:Elizabeth Barrett Browning ro:Elizabeth Barrett Browning ru:Браунинг, Элизабет Барретт sk:Elizabeth Barrettová-Browningová sl:Elizabeth Barrett Browning fi:Elizabeth Barrett Browning sv:Elizabeth Barrett Browning uk:Елізабет Баррет Браунінг zh:伊丽莎白·巴雷特·勃朗宁 This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community. Mary Prince (1788) was a Bermudian woman, born into slavery in Brackish Pond, which is now known as Devonshire Marsh, in Devonshire Parish, Bermuda. The published story of her slavery was the first account of the life of a black woman to be published in the United Kingdom and the book had a galvanizing effect on the anti-slavery movement. Her parents were both slaves: her father was a sawyer owned by David Trimmingham, and her mother a house-servant of Charles Myners. When Myners died in 1788, Prince and her mother were sold as household servants to Captain Darrell, who gave Prince to his granddaughter, Betsey Williams. When she was 12, Prince was sold for £38 sterling (''2009: £}}'') to Captain John Ingham, of Spanish Point, but never took easily to the indignities of her enslavement and she was often flogged. As a punishment, Prince was sold to another Bermudian, probably Robert Darrell, who sent her in 1806 to Grand Turk, which Bermudians had used seasonally for a century for the extraction of salt from the ocean. Salt was a pillar of the Bermudian economy, but could not easily be produced in Bermuda, where the only natural resource were the Bermuda cedars used for building ships. The industry was a cruel one, however, with the salt-rakers forced to endure exposure not only to the sun and heat, but also to the salt in the pans, which ate away at their uncovered legs. Mary returned to Bermuda in 1810, but was sold to John Wood in 1818, and sent to Antigua to be a domestic slave. She joined the Moravian Church and, in December 1826, she married Daniel James, a former slave who had bought his freedom and worked as a carpenter and cooper. For this impudence, she was severely beaten by her master. In 1828, Wood took her as a servant to London. Although slavery was illegal in Britain, she had no means to support herself, and could not have returned to her husband without being re-enslaved. She remained with Wood until they threw her out. She took shelter with the Moravian church in Hatton Garden. Within a few weeks, she had taken employment with Thomas Pringle, an abolitionist writer, and Secretary to the Anti-Slavery Society. Prince arranged for her narrative to be copied down by Susanna Strickland and it was published in 1831 as ''The History of Mary Prince'', the first account of the life of a black woman to be published in the United Kingdom. The book had a galvanizing effect on the anti-slavery movement. Scandalised by its account, John Wood sued the publishers for libel, but his case failed. Subsequent attempts were made to tarnish Mary Prince's reputation, particularly by James MacQueen and James Curtin, both supporters of slavery. In turn, she and her publisher sued for libel, which suit they won. Prince remained in England until about 1833. See also Ottobah Cugoano Olaudah Equiano Somersett's Case Bibliography ''The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave'', F. Westley and A.H. Daviseckley (editor). 1831. Online HTML edition from the New York Public Library. ''The History of Mary Prince'', there are many printed editions available both in print and out of print. External links The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave. Related by Herself. With a Supplement by the Editor. London: Published by F. Westley and A. H. Davis, 1831. Spartacus Net: Mary Prince. 100 Great Black Britons: Mary Prince. University of California, Santa Barbara: The History of Mary Prince. Coker College, Hartsville, SC, USA: Mary Prince Course. Turks & Caicos Museum: A Slave Account by Mary Prince. Category:British abolitionists Category:Turks and Caicos Islands slaves Category:1788 births Category:1833 deaths Category:Bermudian slaves Category:Antigua and Barbuda slaves Category:People of the Moravian Church Category:Black British former slaves fr:Mary Prince la:Mary Prince This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community. Affiliated Video Suggestions Youtube Vimeo Dailymotion Yahoo Blip The World News (WN) Network, has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to user privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for wn.com, as well as e-mail newsletters. 1. Personal Information Collection and Use We do not collect personally identifiable information about you, except when you provide it to us. 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