The largest community has been Anglo-Indian, whose
mainly Protestant school networks have served as a homogenizing
factor in India from north to south, contributing to a
more or less national style of speech (and to English-language
media), and often being identified as the medium of
an envied elite. A similar community, referred to in the subcontinent
as ‘Goan’ and ‘East Indian’, consists of descendants
of converts to Roman Catholicism in Portuguese colonies
such as Goa and (in origin) Bombay/Mumbai. This community
has been the base for what have come to be known as
‘convent schools’, notably for well-to-do girls of all backgrounds,
who are often described in marriage ads (with an
upmarket effect) as ‘convent-educated’.