The British in India: A Social Historical past of the Raj

An immersive portrait of the lives of the British in India, from the seventeenth century to Independence

Who of the British went to India, and why? We find out about Kipling and Forster, Orwell and Scott, however what of the youthful forestry official, the enterprising boxwallah, the fervid missionary? What motivated them to journey midway across the globe, what lives did they lead once they bought there, and what did they give it some thought all?

Filled with spirited, illuminating anecdotes drawn from long-forgotten memoirs, correspondence, and authorities paperwork, The British in India weaves a wealthy tapestry of the on a regular basis experiences of the Britons who discovered themselves in “the jewel within the crown” of the British Empire. David Gilmour captures the substance and texture of their work, dwelling, and social lives, and illustrates how these remodeled throughout the a number of centuries of British presence and rule within the subcontinent, from the East India Firm’s first buying and selling station in 1615 to the twilight of the Raj and Partition and Independence in 1947. He takes us by distant hill stations, bustling coastal ports, opulent palaces, regimented cantonments, and dense jungles, revealing the nation as seen by British eyes, and wittily reveling in all the actual considerations and contradictions that have been a consequence of that restricted perspective. The British in India is a wide ranging accomplishment, a vivid and balanced historical past written with brio, magnificence, and erudition.