annas in the rupee en · NOUN
Etymology
A rupee was worth 16 annas, so eight annas represented a half-and-half mixture, and so on.
Meanings
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(British, India, archaic, colloquial, derogatory, offensive, plural, plural-only) Used with a number to indicate the degree of an individual's mixed racial descent.
By the end of the second day he was so dark that he looked to be at least eight annas in the rupee […]
1930, The Royal Engineers Journal, volume 44, page 285:And in the end, all knew that it was true, Rosalie was only four annas in the rupee.
2007, Indu Sundaresan, The Splendor of Silence, page 98: