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 know about Kipling and Forster, Orwell and Scott, but what of the youthful forestry official, the enterprising boxwallah, the fervid missionary? What motivated them to travel halfway around the globe, what lives did they lead when they got there, and what did they think about it all? Full of spirited, illuminating anecdotes drawn from long-forgotten memoirs, correspondence, and government documents, The British in India weaves a rich tapestry of the everyday experiences of the Britons who found themselves in “the jewel in the crown” of the British Empire. David Gilmour captures the substance and texture of their work, home, and social lives, and illustrates how these transformed across the several centuries of British presence and rule in the subcontinent, from the East India Company’s first trading station in 1615 to the twilight of the Raj and Partition and Independence in 1947. He takes us through remote hill stations, bustling coastal ports, opulent palaces, regimented cantonments, and dense jungles, revealing the country as seen through British eyes, and wittily reveling in all the particular concerns and contradictions that were a consequence of that limited perspective. The British in India is a breathtaking accomplishment, a vivid and balanced history written with brio, elegance, and erudition.

First published in 1938, British Social Life in India, 1608-1937 is an account of the lifestyles of the British in colonial India-from the East India Company days to just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Considered one of the closest portrayals of the day-to-day functioning of the British community in India-their sports and amusements, their domestic arrangements, their relations with the native population-it is also a circumstantial account of the way India evolved under the Raj. And, as colonial India retreats further and further into the depths of time, despite leaving its indelible marks on Indian life through the Indian railways, hill stations, postal system, architecture and the English language itself, this book takes you back to the era when it all started.

How can we explain the establishment and longevity of British rule in India without recourse to the clichés of "imperial" versus "nationalist" interpretations? In this new history, Roderick Matthews offers a more nuanced view: one of "oblige and rule", the foundation of common purpose between colonizers and powerful Indians. Peace, Poverty and Betrayal argues that this was not a uniformly systematic approach, but rather a state of being: the British were never clear or consistent in their policies, and among British and Indians alike there were both progressive and conservative attitudes to the struggle over colonization. Matthews' narrative also takes in the East India Company, which was manifestly incompetent as a ruler by 1770, yet after 1820 arguably became the world's first liberal government. Skillfully tying these ambiguities and complexities of British rule in India to the ultimate struggle for independence, Matthews illustrates that the very diversity of British- Indian relations was at the heart of the social changes that would lead to the Freedom Struggle of the twentieth century. Skewering the simplistic binaries that often dominate the debate, Peace, Poverty and Betrayal is a fresh and gracefully written narrative history of British India.

A large-scale reference work covering the journalism industry in 19th-Century Britain.